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uutils coreutils

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uutils coreutils is a cross-platform reimplementation of the GNU coreutils in
Rust. While all programs have been implemented, some
options might be missing or different behavior might be experienced.

We provide prebuilt binaries, manpages, and shell completions from main branch at https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/latest-commit .
The latest stable tag https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/latest also exists for reproducible products and packagers.
Bug reporters should use binary from latest commit.

Minimal compatible glibc version is same with ubuntu-latest runner. Use coreutils-*-musl if coreutils-*-musl is not compatible with your system.

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Goals

uutils coreutils aims to be a drop-in replacement for the GNU utils. Differences with GNU
are treated as bugs.

Our key objectives include:

Matching GNU's output (stdout and error code) exactly
Better error messages
Providing comprehensive internationalization support (UTF-8)
Improved performances
Extensions when relevant (example: --progress)

uutils aims to work on as many platforms as possible, to be able to use the same
utils on Linux, macOS, *BSD, Windows, WASI and other platforms. This ensures, for example,
that scripts can be easily transferred between platforms.

uutils coreutils ships by default on Ubuntu since version 25.10.

Documentation

uutils has both user and developer documentation available:

Both can also be generated locally, the instructions for that can be found in
the coreutils docs repository.

Use weblate/rust-coreutils to translate the Rust coreutils into your language.

You can try the utilities in your browser through the
WebAssembly playground, without
installing anything.

Requirements

Rust (cargo, rustc)
GNU Make (optional)

Rust Version

uutils follows Rust's release channels and is tested against stable, beta and
nightly.

Building

There are currently two methods to build the uutils binaries: either Cargo or
GNU Make.

Building the full package, including all documentation, requires both Cargo
and GNU Make on a Unix platform.

For either method, we first need to fetch the repository:

shell
git clone https://github.com/uutils/coreutils
cd coreutils

Cargo

Building uutils using Cargo is easy because the process is the same as for every
other Rust program:

shell
cargo build --release

Replace --release with --profile=release-small to optimize binary size.

This command builds the most portable common core set of uutils into a multicall
(BusyBox-type) binary, named 'coreutils', on most Rust-supported platforms.

Additional platform-specific uutils are often available. Building these expanded
sets of uutils for a platform (on that platform) is as simple as specifying it
as a feature:

shell
cargo build --release --features windows
# or ...
cargo build --release --features unix
# or ...
cargo build --release --target wasm32-wasip1 --no-default-features --features feat_wasm

To build SELinux-specific features, including chcon and runcon, ensure that libselinux
and libclang are installed on your system. Then, run the following command:

cargo build --release --features unix,feat_selinux

If you don't want to build every utility available on your platform into the
final binary, you can also specify which ones you want to build manually. For
example:

shell
cargo build --features "base32 cat echo rm" --no-default-features

If you want to build the utilities as individual binaries, that is also possible:

shell
cargo build --release --bins --workspace --exclude coreutils --exclude uu_runcon --exclude uu_chcon

Each utility is contained in its own package within the main repository, named "uu_UTILNAME". To
build selected individual utilities, use the --package [aka -p] option. For example:

shell
cargo build -p uu_base32 -p uu_cat -p uu_echo -p uu_rm

GNU Make

Building using make is a simple process as well.

To simply build all available utilities (with debug profile):

shell
make

In release mode:

shell
make PROFILE=release

To build all but a few of the available utilities:

shell
make SKIP_UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2'

To build only a few of the available utilities:

shell
make UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2'

Installation

Install with Cargo

Likewise, installing can simply be done using:

shell
cargo install --path . --locked

This command will install uutils into Cargo's bin folder (e.g.
$HOME/.cargo/bin).

This does not install files necessary for shell completion or manpages. For
manpages or shell completion to work, use GNU Make or see
Manually install shell completions/Manually install manpages.

Install with GNU Make

To install all available utilities (PROFILE=release by default):

shell
make install

To install using sudo switch -E must be used:

shell
sudo -E make install

To install all but a few of the available utilities:

shell
make SKIP_UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2' install

To install only a few of the available utilities:

shell
make UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2' install

To install every program with a prefix (e.g. uu-echo uu-cat):

shell
make PROG_PREFIX=uu- install

To install the multicall binary:

shell
make MULTICALL=y install

Set install parent directory (default value is /usr/local):

shell
# DESTDIR is also supported
make PREFIX=/my/path install

Installing with make installs shell completions for all installed utilities
for bash, fish and zsh. Completions for elvish and powershell can also
be generated; See Manually install shell completions.

To skip installation of completions and manpages:

shell
make COMPLETIONS=n MANPAGES=n install

Manually install shell completions

The uudoc binary generates completions for the bash, elvish,
fish, powershell and zsh shells to stdout.

Install uudoc by

shell
cargo install --bin uudoc --features uudoc --path .

Then use the installed binary:

shell
uudoc completion <utility> <shell>

So, to install completions for ls on bash to
/usr/local/share/bash-completion/completions/ls, run:

shell
uudoc completion ls bash > /usr/local/share/bash-completion/completions/ls.bash

Completion for prefixed cp with uu- on zsh is generated by

shell
env PROG_PREFIX=uu- uudoc completion cp zsh

Manually install manpages

To generate manpages, the syntax is:

bash
uudoc manpage <utility>

So, to install the manpage for ls to /usr/local/share/man/man1/ls.1 run:

bash
uudoc manpage ls > /usr/local/share/man/man1/ls.1

Un-installation

Un-installation differs depending on how you have installed uutils. If you used
Cargo to install, use Cargo to uninstall. If you used GNU Make to install, use
Make to uninstall.

Uninstall with Cargo

To uninstall uutils:

shell
cargo uninstall coreutils

Uninstall with GNU Make

To uninstall all utilities:

shell
make uninstall

To uninstall every program with a set prefix:

shell
make PROG_PREFIX=uu- uninstall

To uninstall the multicall binary:

shell
make MULTICALL=y uninstall

To uninstall from a custom parent directory:

shell
# DESTDIR is also supported
make PREFIX=/my/path uninstall

GNU test suite compatibility

Below is the evolution of how many GNU tests uutils passes. A more detailed
breakdown of the GNU test results of the main branch can be found
in the user manual.

See https://github.com/orgs/uutils/projects/1 for the main meta bugs
(many are missing).

Evolution over time