microsoft/uutils-coreutils

microsoft/uutils-coreutils

Description: (Temporary) Fork of https://github.com/uutils/coreutils

Language: Rust

License: MIT

Stars: 13

Forks: 1

Open issues: 0

Created: 2026-05-11T16:15:48Z

Pushed: 2026-06-01T14:44:32Z

Default branch: main

Fork: yes

Parent repository: uutils/coreutils

Archived: no

README:

---

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.

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](docs/src/extensions.md) 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:

• User Manual
• Developer Documentation

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:

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:

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:

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:

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

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

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:

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):

make

In release mode:

make PROFILE=release

To build all but a few of the available utilities:

make SKIP_UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2'

To build only a few of the available utilities:

make UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2'

Installation

Install with Cargo

Likewise, installing can simply be done using:

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):

make install

To install using sudo switch -E must be used:

sudo -E make install

To install all but a few of the available utilities:

make SKIP_UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2' install

To install only a few of the available utilities:

make UTILS='UTILITY_1 UTILITY_2' install

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

make PROG_PREFIX=uu- install

To install the multicall binary:

make MULTICALL=y install

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

# 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:

make COMPLETIONS=n MANPAGES=n install

Manually install shell completions

The…