GNU Core Utilities

GNU Core Utilities

Developer(s)	GNU Project
Stable release	8.26 (November 30, 2016) [±][1]
Repository	git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git
Written in	C
Operating system	Unix-like
Type	Miscellaneous utilities
License	GNU GPL v3
Website	www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/

The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a package of GNU software containing reimplementations for many of the basic tools, such as cat, ls, and rm, used on Unix-like operating systems.

History

In September 2002 the GNU coreutils were created by merging the earlier packages textutils, shellutils, and fileutils, along with some other miscellaneous utilities.^[2] In July 2007 the license of the GNU coreutils was updated from GPLv2 to GPLv3.^[3]

Capabilities

The GNU core utilities support long options as parameters to the commands, as well as (unless the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable is set) the relaxed convention allowing options even after the regular arguments. Note that this environment variable enables a different functionality in BSD.

Programs in coreutils 8.26

File utilities
chcon	Changes file security context (SELinux)
chgrp	Changes file group ownership
chown	Changes file ownership
chmod	Changes the permissions of a file or directory
cp	Copies a file or directory
dd	Copies and converts a file
df	Shows disk free space on file systems
dir	Is exactly like "ls -C -b". (Files are by default listed in columns and sorted vertically.)
dircolors	Set up color for ls
install	Copies files and set attributes
ln	Creates a link to a file
ls	Lists the files in a directory
mkdir	Creates a directory
mkfifo	Makes named pipes (FIFOs)
mknod	Makes block or character special files
mktemp	Creates a temporary file or directory
mv	Moves files or rename files
realpath	Returns the resolved absolute or relative path for a file
rm	Removes (deletes) files
rmdir	Removes empty directories
shred	Overwrites a file to hide its contents, and optionally deletes it
sync	Flushes file system buffers
touch	Changes file timestamps
truncate	Shrink or extend the size of a file to the specified size
vdir	Is exactly like "ls -l -b". (Files are by default listed in long format.)
Text utilities
b2sum	Computes and checks Blake2 message digest
base32	base32 encodes or decodes data and prints to standard output
base64	base64 encodes or decodes data and prints to standard output
cat	Concatenates and prints files on the standard output
cksum	Checksums and count the bytes in a file
comm	Compares two sorted files line by line
csplit	Splits a file into sections determined by context lines
cut	Removes sections from each line of files
expand	Converts tabs to spaces
fmt	Simple optimal text formatter
fold	Wraps each input line to fit in specified width
head	Outputs the first part of files
join	Joins lines of two files on a common field
md5sum	Computes and checks MD5 message digest
nl	Numbers lines of files
numfmt	Reformat numbers
od	Dumps files in octal and other formats
paste	Merges lines of files
ptx	Produces a permuted index of file contents
pr	Converts text files for printing
sha1sum, sha224sum, sha256sum, sha384sum, sha512sum	Computes and checks SHA-1, SHA-224/256/384/512 message digest
shuf	generate random permutations
sort	sort lines of text files
split	Splits a file into pieces
sum	Checksums and counts the blocks in a file
tac	Concatenates and prints files in reverse order line by line
tail	Outputs the last part of files
tr	Translates or deletes characters
tsort	Performs a topological sort
unexpand	Converts spaces to tabs
uniq	Removes duplicate lines from a sorted file
wc	Prints the number of bytes, words, and lines in files
Shell utilities
arch	Prints machine hardware name (same as uname -m)
basename	Removes the path prefix from a given pathname
chroot	Changes the root directory
date	Prints or sets the system date and time
dirname	Strips non-directory suffix from file name
du	Shows disk usage on file systems
echo	Displays a specified line of text
env	Displays and modifies environment variables
expr	Evaluates expressions
factor	Factors numbers
false	Does nothing, but exits unsuccessfully
groups	Prints the groups of which the user is a member
hostid	Prints the numeric identifier for the current host
id	Prints real or effective UID and GID
link	Creates a link to a file
logname	Print the user's login name
nice	Modifies scheduling priority
nohup	Allows a command to continue running after logging out
nproc	Queries the number of (active) processors
pathchk	Checks whether file names are valid or portable
pinky	A lightweight version of finger
printenv	Prints environment variables
printf	Formats and prints data
pwd	Prints the current working directory
readlink	Displays value of a symbolic link
runcon	Run command with specified security context
seq	Prints a sequence of numbers
sleep	Delays for a specified amount of time
stat	Returns data about an inode
stdbuf	Controls buffering for commands that use stdio
stty	Changes and prints terminal line settings
tee	Sends output to multiple files
test	Evaluates an expression
timeout	Run a command with a time limit
true	Does nothing, but exits successfully
tty	Prints terminal name
uname	Prints system information
unlink	Removes the specified file using the unlink function
uptime	Tells how long the system has been running
users	Prints the user names of users currently logged into the current host
who	Prints a list of all users currently logged in
whoami	Prints the effective userid
yes	Prints a string repeatedly
Other Utilities
[	A synonym for test; this program permits expressions like [ expression ].
System utilities

Alternatives

In the FOSS ecosystem there are alternative implementation packages available with slightly different scope and focus or license, for instance for embedded devices exists the GPLv2 licensed BusyBox and the BSD licensed Toybox.

See also

• GNU Binutils
• List of Unix commands
• util-linux, a set of approximately 100 basic Linux system utilities not included in GNU Core Utilities, such as mount, fdisk, more, and kill.

References

1. Brady, Pádraig (2016-11-30). "[coreutils-announce] coreutils-8.26 released [stable]". coreutils-announce (Mailing list). Retrieved 2016-11-30.
2. package-renamed-to-coreutils on savannah.gnu.org
3. Copying on savannah.gnu.org

External links

• GNU coreutils homepage
• The coreutils FAQ
• The coreutils manual
• Alternative set of utilities with unicode support