GNU Core Utilities

The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a collection of GNU software that implements many standard, Unix-based shell commands. See list. The utilities generally provide POSIX compliant interface when the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable is set, but otherwise offers a superset to the standard interface. For example, the utilities support long options and options after parameters. This environment variable enables a different functionality in BSD.

GNU Core Utilities

Developer(s)	GNU Project
Stable release	9.7[1]  / 9 April 2025
Repository	git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git
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.gnu.org/software/coreutils/

Similar collections 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

In 1990, David MacKenzie announced GNU fileutils.^[3]

In 1991, MacKenzie announced GNU shellutils and GNU textutils.^[4][5] Moreover, Jim Meyering became the maintainer of the packages (known now as coreutils) and has remained so since.^[6]

In September 2002, the GNU coreutils were created by merging the earlier packages textutils, shellutils, and fileutils, along with some other miscellaneous utilities.^[7]

In July 2007, the license of the GNU coreutils was updated from GPL-2.0-or-later to GPL-3.0-or-later.^[8]

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• GNU Binutils
• List of GNU Core Utilities commands
• List of POSIX 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

1. GPL-3.0-or-later since version 6.10.
2. GPL-2.0-or-later until version 6.9.