+++ title = "Who uses uutils" template = "page.html" +++ uutils is no longer just a development experiment - it is running in production at some of the largest software organisations in the world. This page documents known adopters and how they use our tools. --- ## Canonical / Ubuntu Canonical is progressively replacing GNU coreutils with uutils across Ubuntu. Canonical laid out the roadmap in March 2025 in [*Carefully But Purposefully Oxidising Ubuntu*](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/carefully-but-purposefully-oxidising-ubuntu/56995). The rollout: | Release | Status | |---|---| | Ubuntu 25.10 | uutils coreutils ships as default - real-world testing before the LTS | | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | rust-coreutils 0.8.0 included; `cp`, `mv`, `rm` remain GNU pending 8 TOCTOU fixes found in audit | | Ubuntu 26.10 | Target for 100% rust-coreutils | To support this transition, Canonical commissioned a two-phase security audit with [Zellic](https://zellic.io) (December 2025 – March 2026). The audit found and resolved 113 issues in total, all reported back to the uutils upstream. The full report is available at [github.com/Zellic/publications](https://github.com/Zellic/publications/blob/master/uutils%20coreutils%20-%20Zellic%20Audit%20Report.pdf). A Canonical engineer also created [**oxidizr**](https://github.com/jnsgruk/oxidizr), a tool that lets users on Ubuntu 24.04+ switch to uutils today - replacing GNU binaries with uutils symlinks, reversibly, in one command. **Links:** - [Discourse: Carefully But Purposefully Oxidising Ubuntu](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/carefully-but-purposefully-oxidising-ubuntu/56995) - [Discourse: Migration to rust-coreutils in 25.10](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/migration-to-rust-coreutils-in-25-10/59708) - [Discourse: An update on rust-coreutils (April 2026)](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/an-update-on-rust-coreutils/80773) - [github.com/jnsgruk/oxidizr](https://github.com/jnsgruk/oxidizr) - [LWN.net coverage](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014002/) --- ## Microsoft Microsoft ships uutils coreutils as **Coreutils for Windows**, a native Windows distribution of uutils/coreutils, uutils/findutils, and a Microsoft fork of uutils/grep. It was announced at **Microsoft Build 2026** (June 2, 2026) as part of Windows becoming a first-class development platform. The distribution is available today via: ``` winget install Microsoft.Coreutils ``` The stated goal is to make moving between Linux, macOS, WSL, containers, and Windows frictionless: the same commands, flags, and pipelines work the same way, so existing scripts carry over without translation. Microsoft maintains the downstream packaging at [github.com/microsoft/coreutils](https://github.com/microsoft/coreutils). The uutils/coreutils project is the upstream - Microsoft builds from it directly and does not rewrite the tools. **Links:** - [Windows Developer Blog - Build 2026 announcement](https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2026/06/02/build-2026-furthering-windows-as-the-trusted-platform-for-development/) - [Microsoft Learn - Coreutils for Windows overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/core-utils/overview) - [github.com/microsoft/coreutils](https://github.com/microsoft/coreutils) --- ## Snap Inc. (SPECS AR glasses) [Snap Inc.](https://snap.com/) ships **Snap OS** - the proprietary Linux-based operating system powering the [SPECS augmented reality glasses](https://newsroom.snap.com/introducing-specs-augmented-reality-glasses) announced at Augmented World Expo 2026 - built on **Yocto/OpenEmbedded**. A Snap engineer, Etienne Cordonnier, has been the primary contributor and maintainer of the `uutils-coreutils` recipe in the **meta-openembedded** (`meta-oe`) layer since Yocto 4.1 (langdale). The recipe uses `PROVIDES = "coreutils"` so uutils acts as a transparent drop-in replacement for GNU coreutils in embedded images. **Links:** - [SPECS AR glasses announcement](https://newsroom.snap.com/introducing-specs-augmented-reality-glasses) - [uutils-coreutils recipe on OpenEmbedded Layer Index](https://layers.openembedded.org/rrs/recipedetail/meta-openembedded/3417/) - [Patches on the Yocto mailing list](https://lists.yoctoproject.org/g/poky/topic/bitbake_recipe_for/92508454) --- ## Debian Debian has packaged uutils coreutils since **Debian 12 (Bookworm)** and is actively tracking upstream releases. A **Google Summer of Code 2024** project - *"Improve support of the Rust coreutils in Debian"* - was mentored to accelerate the potential integration. The package is also inherited by downstream Debian-based distributions including Raspbian, Kali Linux, Parrot OS, PureOS, and deepin 23. There has been further progress in **Debian experimental**: a virtual `coreutils` package now dispatches between providers (GNU, uutils, busybox, toybox), and installing `coreutils` there pulls in [`coreutils-from-uutils`](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coreutils-from-uutils) and [`rust-coreutils`](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/rust-coreutils), making uutils the default in experimental. **Links:** - [Debian package tracker: rust-coreutils](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/rust-coreutils) - [Debian package tracker: coreutils-from-uutils](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coreutils-from-uutils) - [GSoC 2024 project](https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2024/Projects) --- ## Alpine Linux Alpine Linux packages uutils coreutils in its **community repository** (Alpine 3.19+, now at 0.9.0 in Alpine Edge / 3.24). What makes Alpine particularly notable is the depth of adoption: **29 downstream Alpine packages already declare a dependency on uutils-coreutils**, including lvm2, netdata, dracut, Pi-hole, and openvas-scanner. When both `uutils-coreutils` and `coreutils` are installed, Alpine's package manager automatically purges the GNU binaries and replaces them with uutils symlinks. **Links:** - [Alpine package: uutils-cutils](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/community/x86_64/uutils-coreutils) --- ## Redox OS [Redox OS](https://www.redox-os.org/), the microkernel operating system written entirely in Rust, uses uutils as its coreutils layer. The [Redox Book](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/system-tools.html) states it plainly: "Redox uses the Rust implementation of the GNU Coreutils, uutils." Redox is also listed as an officially supported platform in the uutils codebase. In July 2026, Redox went further and replaced GNU grep and sed with the uutils implementations in its os-test test suite. **Links:** - [Redox Book: System Tools](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/system-tools.html) - [This Month in Redox — July 2026](https://www.redox-os.org/news/this-month-260731/) --- ## AerynOS [AerynOS](https://aerynos.com/) (formerly Serpent OS), an independent performance-oriented distribution built around the Rust-written **moss** package manager, ships uutils coreutils in its base system - it is the coreutils implementation you get on a default install. **Links:** - [aerynos.com](https://aerynos.com/) - [uutils-coreutils recipe](https://github.com/AerynOS/recipes/blob/main/u/uutils-coreutils/stone.yaml) - [@AerynOS@hachyderm.io](https://hachyderm.io/@AerynOS) --- ## VS Code for the Web **Microsoft VS Code for the Web** (vscode.dev) uses uutils coreutils compiled to **WebAssembly/WASI** to power the shell commands (`ls`, `cat`, `date`, etc.) available in the browser-based terminal. This was documented in the official VS Code blog in June 2023 and represents one of the first large-scale production deployments of uutils in a WASM context. **Links:** - [VS Code blog: WebAssembly shell](https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2023/06/05/vscode-wasm-wasi) --- ## Nushell [Nushell](https://www.nushell.sh/), the structured-data shell written in Rust, does not just call uutils binaries - it depends on the uutils crates directly as **libraries**. A number of Nu's file and system commands are implemented on top of `uu_*` crates from uutils/coreutils, currently `cp`, `mv`, `mkdir`, `mktemp`, `touch`, `whoami`, etc. The motivation is cross-platform consistency: rather than writing and maintaining separate platform-specific logic for Windows, macOS and Linux, Nushell reuses uutils' implementations so these commands behave the same way everywhere. This is a notable adoption model for uutils - the project is consumed as a set of reusable Rust crates, not only as a drop-in coreutils replacement. **Links:** - [nushell.sh](https://www.nushell.sh/) - [Nushell developer FAQ: why uutils?](https://github.com/nushell/nushell/blob/main/devdocs/FAQ.md#which-upstream-projects-power-some-of-nus-built-in-commands) --- ## Buildroot [Buildroot](https://buildroot.org/), the widely-used embedded Linux build system, ships an official `uutils-coreutils` package since April 2025. This brings uutils into the reach of a vast ecosystem of IoT, industrial, and embedded devices built with Buildroot. --- ## Apertus [Apertus](https://www.apertus.org/) builds the **AXIOM Beta**, an open-source professional cinema camera. Their firmware build system runs on Ubuntu hosts and was updated in December 2025 to support uutils coreutils as the host toolchain. This makes Apertus one of the first hardware projects to explicitly track and maintain uutils compatibility in their build system. **Links:** - [apertus.org](https://www.apertus.org/) - [axiom-firmware on GitHub](https://github.com/apertus-open-source-cinema/axiom-firmware) --- ## Fedora / RHEL / EPEL uutils coreutils is packaged in **Fedora** since F39/F40 (as `rust-coreutils`, renamed to `uutils-coreutils` in Fedora 42). It is available in Fedora 42, 43, 44 and Rawhide at version 0.7.0, and in **EPEL 9 and EPEL 10** - making it available to Red Hat Enterprise Linux users. Fedora is not planning to make it the default in the near term but maintains the package actively. uutils is also packaged in **OpenMandriva** (all branches) and **Apertis** (the Debian-based embedded automotive Linux distro, v2023–v2027). **Links:** - [Fedora package: uutils-coreutils](https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/uutils-coreutils/) - [EPEL package](https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/uutils-coreutils/) --- ## NixOS uutils coreutils is available in **nixpkgs** as `uutils-coreutils` and `uutils-coreutils-noprefix` (the latter installs commands without the `uu-` prefix, as drop-in replacements). **Links:** - [NixOS Wiki: Uutils](https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Uutils) --- ## macOS uutils is available on macOS via two package managers: - **Homebrew**: `brew install uutils-coreutils` - **MacPorts**: `port install coreutils-uutils` This makes uutils a practical cross-platform development tool: scripts written with uutils on Linux run identically on macOS developer machines without depending on GNU coreutils via Homebrew. --- ## Windows (community) Beyond Microsoft's official distribution, uutils is available on Windows via: - **MSYS2** (all variants): 0.9.0 - **Scoop**: `scoop install uutils-coreutils` - **Chocolatey**: `choco install uutils-coreutils` --- ## Termux (Android) and ChromeOS - **[Termux User Repository (TUR)](https://github.com/termux-user-repository/tur/blob/master/tur/uutils-coreutils/build.sh#L2)**: uutils-coreutils 0.9.0 is available for Android terminals via Termux. - **[Chromebrew](https://github.com/chromebrew/chromebrew/blob/master/packages/uutils_coreutils.rb#L6)**: ChromeOS users can install uutils-coreutils via the Chromebrew package manager. --- ## Are you using uutils? If your project or organisation uses uutils tools, we would love to hear from you. Open an issue or pull request on [github.com/uutils/uutils.github.io](https://github.com/uutils/uutils.github.io) to add your entry to this page.