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The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a package of GNU software containing implementations for many of the basic tools, such as cat, ls, and rm, which are used on Unix-like operating systems.
| Developer(s) | GNU Project |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 9.5[1] 
/ 28 March 2024 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C, shell script[2] |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Type | Miscellaneous utilities |
| License | 2007[a]: GPL-3.0-or-later 2002[b]: GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Website | www |
In September 2002, the GNU coreutils were created by merging the earlier packages textutils, shellutils, and fileutils, along with some other miscellaneous utilities.[3] In July 2007, the license of the GNU coreutils was updated from GPL-2.0-or-later to GPL-3.0-or-later.[4]
The GNU core utilities support long options as parameters to the commands, as well as the relaxed convention allowing options even after the regular arguments (unless the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable is set). This environment variable enables a different functionality in BSD.
See the List of GNU Core Utilities commands for a brief description of included commands.
Alternative implementation packages are available in the FOSS ecosystem, with a slightly different scope and focus (less functionality), or license. For example, BusyBox which is licensed under GPL-2.0-only, and Toybox which is licensed under 0BSD.
History
editIn 1990, David MacKenzie announced GNU fileutils.[5]
In 1991, MacKenzie announced GNU shellutils and GNU textutils.[6][7] Moreover, Jim Meyering became the maintainer of the packages (known now as coreutils) and has remained so since.[8]
In 2002, Meyering announced GNU coreutils as a merger of the earlier packages textutils, shellutils, and fileutils, along with some other miscellaneous utilities.[3]
See also
edit
- GNU Binutils
- List of GNU Core Utilities commands
- List of Unix commands
- Toybox, a 0BSD licensed, all-in-one Linux command-line utility used in Android.
- util-linux, a set of approximately 100 basic Linux system utilities not included in GNU Core Utilities, such as mount, fdisk, more, and kill.
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ Pádraig Brady (28 March 2024). "coreutils-9.5 released [stable]". Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ "The GNU Core Utilities Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". Archived from the original on 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
- ^ a b Meyering, Jim (2003-01-13). "README-package-renamed-to-coreutils". Archived from the original on 2019-12-25. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
- ^ Meyering, Jim (2007-07-23). "COPYING: Update to Version 3". Archived from the original on 2019-12-25. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
- ^ "GNU file utilities release 1.0". groups.google.com.
- ^ "GNU shell programming utilities released". groups.google.com.
- ^ "new GNU file and text utilities released". groups.google.com.
- ^ "GNU's Who".
External links
edit- Official website
- The Heirloom Toolchest - An alternative set of utilities
- opensource.com article: gnu-core-utilities on 4 Apr 2018 by David Both (Correspondent)