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pycoreutils is a Python implementation of GNU coreutils. The commands available in GNU coreutils have been implemented as closely as possible in Python. Certain utilities are system specific and do not port well between systems, so those have been excluded.

The idea behind pycoreutils is to offer a set of common Unix utilities that can easily move between systems, so long as there is a Python interpreter available. It saves having to build GNU coreutils to the new platform. Several barriers may prevent you from installing GNU coreutils:

• Lack of root access.
• No C compiler available.
• Platform you’re not used to (e.g., Windows or MacOS X).

The pycoreutils collection gives you Python-only (mostly) implementations of as many of the GNU coreutils programs as possible. Some programs have a C module, so a compiler would be necessary. But we expect most users to pick and choose which pycoreutils they want. Many people may only want a handful.

As long as Python is available, you can have the same basic command line utilities across all platforms and avoid installing GNU coreutils over and over. Perfect for environments where your home directory is shared across platforms.