Re:Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils
by duped on Wednesday January 03, 2024 @10:39AM
(#38855305)
The canonical GNU packages are pretty arcane and difficult to build/understand (*), so alternatives with modern tooling/languages should be welcome.
But also, things like BusyBox and ToyBox are very popular alternatives which contain non-standard ports of only a subset of coreutils. A complete and mostly compatible set of coreutils would be more popular than either, but they also have some different constraints that Rust builds make difficult (eg: binary size).
* nb4 "it's just configure/make/install what do you mean" consider if you want coreutils without glibc, cross compiled, or want to bootstrap your environment without any of them. The GNU ecosystem is "easy" to build/use within the GNU ecosystem, which is not unopinionated about what that looks like and how it works.
But also, things like BusyBox and ToyBox are very popular alternatives which contain non-standard ports of only a subset of coreutils. A complete and mostly compatible set of coreutils would be more popular than either, but they also have some different constraints that Rust builds make difficult (eg: binary size).
* nb4 "it's just configure/make/install what do you mean" consider if you want coreutils without glibc, cross compiled, or want to bootstrap your environment without any of them. The GNU ecosystem is "easy" to build/use within the GNU ecosystem, which is not unopinionated about what that looks like and how it works.