Rust Coreutils 0.8.0: 94.75% compatibility

# Rust Coreutils 0.8.0: Compatibility Reaches 94.75% with Performance Optimizations

On April 7, 2026, Rust Coreutils (uutils) version 0.8.0 was released. The project implements over 100 GNU Coreutils utilities in Rust: wc, ls, tail, sed, sort, cat, chmod, chown, chroot, cp, date, dd, du, install, echo, hostname, id, ln, and others. Compatibility with GNU Coreutils tests has reached 94.75% — 630 tests passed successfully (up from 629), 21 tests failed (down from 23), 14 skipped (up from 13).

The project emphasizes cross-platform support: Windows, Redox, Fuchsia, WebAssembly with WASI. MIT license (unlike GNU's GPL). It's used in Ubuntu 25.10, AerynOS (Serpent OS), Apertis. Analogs of util-linux, diffutils, findutils, procps, acl, sed, login are in development.

Key Performance Improvements

This version focuses on optimizations and security. Unsafe code removed from hostname, logname, who, nice utilities. rustix now used instead of nix in cat, df, wc, tty, tsort, tail, touch, date, mkdir, uucore — reducing unsafe code.

dd performance up 45%, numfmt up 3%. Utility startup improved, sort now sorts paths faster. Binary sizes for true, false, echo reduced. ls, wc, cat, tee, pr optimized.

WebAssembly and WASI support added to 70+ utilities: ls, head, cat, cp, mv, sort, tail, and others. New online demo platform with interactive terminal for testing uutils in the browser.

Functional Extensions and Fixes

Options updated and bugs fixed in utilities:

• cat, chown, cksum, cp
• cut, date, dd, df
• env, expand, expr, factor
• head, install, ln, ls
• mkdir, nice, numfmt, od
• pr, sort, split, stdbuf
• stty, sync, tee, timeout
• touch, tr, true, tsort
• tty, wc, yes

Panic protection strengthened in edge cases. The project continues reducing unsafe code, improving reliability for production use.

Key Takeaways

• Compatibility with GNU Coreutils — 94.75%, 630/665 tests passed.
• dd +45% speed, numfmt +3%, optimizations in ls, sort, cat, tee.
• WebAssembly/WASI in 70+ utilities, online demo in browser.
• Switch to rustix over nix, unsafe code removal.
• Cross-platform: Windows, Redox, Fuchsia, Ubuntu 25.10.

The release confirms uutils' maturity as an alternative to GNU Coreutils for the Rust ecosystem. Developers get a faster, safer replacement with a permissive license.

— Editorial Team