Coreutils - GNU core utilities

The GNU Core Utilities are the basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities of the GNU operating system. These are the core utilities which are expected to exist on every operating system.

Table of Contents

Getting Help

Downloads

Stable source releases are available on the main GNU download server (via HTTPS,  HTTP or FTP), and its mirrors. Please use a mirror if possible.

Source Code

The latest source with revision history can be browsed using cgit, gitweb or GitHub.
Assuming you have git installed, you can retrieve the latest version with this command:

git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/coreutils

A Coreutils code structure overview is available, which is useful for educational purposes, or for those interested in contributing changes.
To build from the latest sources please follow the instructions in README-hacking.
Please note that we do not suggest using test versions of Coreutils for production use.

Third Party Testing Resources

Mailing Lists

You do not need to be subscribed in order to post messages to any GNU mailing list. However non-subscribers are moderated by humans so please be patient when waiting for your email to arrive.

You can subscribe to any GNU mailing list via the web as described below. Or you can send an empty mail with a Subject: header line of just “subscribe” to the relevant -request list. For example, to subscribe yourself to the main coreutils list, you would send mail to <coreutils-request@gnu.org> with no body and a Subject: header line of just “subscribe”.

It has been necessary to moderate the Coreutils mailing lists to prevent the flood of spam. Postings to the lists are held for release by the list moderator. Sometimes the moderators are unavailable for brief periods of time. Please be patient when posting. If you don't eventually see the message in the list archive then it did not get posted.

Announcements

The low-volume mailing list coreutils-announce@gnu.org contains all announcements about Coreutils.

Important announcements about Coreutils and most other GNU software are also made on info-gnu@gnu.org.

There are also periodic summaries of committed, rejected and pending changes, to which one can subscribe.

Discussion List

The main discussion list for all things related to coreutils is coreutils@gnu.org. This is a recent change as previously general discussion took place on the bug list. If you have questions, comments, or other general discussion about Coreutils then this is the mailing list for that discussion. If you don't know where to start then this is the place to start. You can browse and search past postings to the coreutils archive. Discussion prior to its creation in March 2010 is available in the bug mailing list archive.

Bug Reports

If you think you have found a bug in Coreutils, then please send as complete a bug report as possible to bug-coreutils@gnu.org, and it will automatically be entered into the Coreutils bug tracker. Before reporting bugs please read the FAQ. A very useful and often referenced guide on how to write bug reports and ask good questions is the document How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. You can browse previous postings and search the bug-coreutils archive.

Platform Testing

Trying the latest test release (when available) is always appreciated. Test releases of Coreutils are typically announced on the platform-testers mailing list.

Enhancement Requests

If you would like any new feature to be included in future versions of Coreutils, please send a request to coreutils@gnu.org. This is the general discussion list and a good place to start discussion of a new feature. After consideration you may be asked to log a request into the bug tracker so that the issue is not lost. If you would like to implement yourself, then note that non trivial changes require copyright assignment to the FSF as detailed in the “Copyright Assignment” section of the Coreutils HACKING notes.

Note also the list of rejected feature requests.

Mailing List Etiquette

Please do not send messages encoded as HTML nor encoded as base64 MIME nor included as multiple formats. Please send messages as plain text. Please include a descriptive subject line. If all of the subjects are bug then it is impossible to differentiate them. Please avoid sending large messages, such as log files, system call trace output, and other content resulting in messages over about 40 kB, to the mailing lists without prior contact. Those are best sent directly to those requesting that information after initial contact.

Please remember that development of Coreutils is a volunteer effort, and you can also contribute to its development. For information about contributing to the GNU Project, please read How to help GNU.

Previous Mailing Lists

Previously these utilities were offered as three individual sets of GNU utilities, Fileutils, Shellutils, and Textutils. Those three were combined into the single set of utilities called Coreutils.

Since Coreutils had existed as the three individual packages for a long time you may want to read the archives of those previous mailing lists. Fileutils archive, Shellutils archive, Textutils archive.

Maintainers

Coreutils is currently being maintained by Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>, Pádraig Brady <P@draigBrady.com>, Bernhard Voelker <mail@bernhard-voelker.de>, Eric Blake <ebb9@byu.net>, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> and Assaf Gordon <assafgordon@gmail.com>.