What is this?
A Microsoft-maintained build of uutils/coreutils, findutils, and grep - the familiar Unix commands (ls, cp, cat, grep, find) packaged as a single native multi-call binary for Windows.
A Microsoft-maintained build of uutils/coreutils, findutils, and grep - the familiar Unix commands (ls, cp, cat, grep, find) packaged as a single native multi-call binary for Windows.Does this run inside WSL, or is it native Windows?Fully native Windows tools - no WSL, VM, or Linux layer needed. The goal is that the same commands, flags, and pipelines work identically on Linux, macOS, WSL, containers, and Windows.
Fully native Windows tools - no WSL, VM, or Linux layer needed. The goal is that the same commands, flags, and pipelines work identically on Linux, macOS, WSL, containers, and Windows.Do I need a specific PowerShell version for everything to work?PowerShell 7.4 or later is required, and 7.6+ is recommended for ~ (tilde) support. The suite itself is one self-contained Rust binary, so nothing else needs to be installed.
PowerShell 7.4 or later is required, and 7.6+ is recommended for ~ (tilde) support. The suite itself is one self-contained Rust binary, so nothing else needs to be installed.Do all the Unix commands I know actually ship here?Most do, but some are missing on purpose: kill and timeout are unavailable because Windows has no POSIX signals, and POSIX-only tools like chmod, chown, chroot, dd and uname were dropped as useless or script-breaking on Windows.
Most do, but some are missing on purpose: kill and timeout are unavailable because Windows has no POSIX signals, and POSIX-only tools like chmod, chown, chroot, dd and uname were dropped as useless or script-breaking on Windows.Do command names clash with built-in CMD or PowerShell commands?Yes. Several share names with built-ins (echo, mkdir, sort, ls...), and which version wins depends on the shell, the PATH order, and PowerShell's alias table. Hard conflicts like dir, more and whoami are not shipped at all.
Yes. Several share names with built-ins (echo, mkdir, sort, ls...), and which version wins depends on the shell, the PATH order, and PowerShell's alias table. Hard conflicts like dir, more and whoami are not shipped at all.What Windows quirks should I watch out for?Text files use CRLF, which byte-oriented tools like uniq can trip over; there is no /dev/null (use NUL instead), no POSIX signals although Ctrl+C works, and creating new symlinks requires Developer Mode or an elevated terminal.
Text files use CRLF, which byte-oriented tools like uniq can trip over; there is no /dev/null (use NUL instead), no POSIX signals although Ctrl+C works, and creating new symlinks requires Developer Mode or an elevated terminal.Can I set up an ll alias for ls -la?Yes: in PowerShell use Set-Alias ll 'ls', or a function in your $PROFILE when it needs arguments; in CMD use doskey. Note that PowerShell aliases break binary streams, so piped utilities like xargs and find may not work.
Yes: in PowerShell use Set-Alias ll 'ls', or a function in your $PROFILE when it needs arguments; in CMD use doskey. Note that PowerShell aliases break binary streams, so piped utilities like xargs and find may not work.Is it ready for daily use, or still experimental?The project is explicitly in preview, so expect rough edges - but it is Microsoft-maintained on top of the upstream uutils projects, and every command supports the standard --help flag.
The project is explicitly in preview, so expect rough edges - but it is Microsoft-maintained on top of the upstream uutils projects, and every command supports the standard --help flag.What are similar projects?coreutils, winget-cli, Scoop, fauxnix, zoxide, WindowsDeveloperConfig, bash-guide, awesome-shell
coreutils, winget-cli, Scoop, fauxnix, zoxide, WindowsDeveloperConfig, bash-guide, awesome-shellWhich topics is it in?shell-script, wsl, powershell, unix, microsoft, installer, sysadmin, shell, utility, rust, command-line-tool, terminal
shell-script, wsl, powershell, unix, microsoft, installer, sysadmin, shell, utility, rust, command-line-tool, terminal