Coreutils for Windows

UNIX-style core utilities for Windows. The same commands and pipelines you use on Linux, macOS, and WSL - natively.

Install · Shell conflicts · Windows caveats · Contributing

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A Microsoft-maintained build of uutils/coreutils, findutils, and a GNU-compatible grep packaged as a single multi-call binary for Windows. The 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.

Each command supports the standard --help flag for full syntax and options.

This project is in preview.

Install

Install Coreutils for Windows with WinGet:

winget install Microsoft.Coreutils

Or grab the latest build from our Release Page.

Shell conflicts

Several commands share names with built-ins in CMD and PowerShell. Whether the Coreutils version runs depends on the shell, the PATH order, and (for PowerShell) the alias table.

⚠️ PowerShell 7.4 or newer is required. Older PowerShell versions aren't supported.

Legend: ✅ ships and works · ⚠️ ships but conflicts with a built-in · 🛑 not shipped

Command	CMD	PowerShell 7.4+	Notes
cat	✅	⚠️
cp	✅	⚠️
date	⚠️	⚠️
dir	🛑	🛑	Conflicts with the built-in DOS command
echo	⚠️	⚠️
expand	🛑	🛑	Conflicts with the built-in DOS command
find	✅	✅	Integrated port of the original DOS command
hostname	✅	✅	Superset of the Windows built-in
kill	🛑	🛑	Unavailable due to lack of signals on Windows; Implementing a form of SIGTERM/SIGKILL may be possible in the future however
ls	✅	⚠️
mkdir	⚠️	⚠️
more	🛑	🛑	Conflicts with the built-in DOS command (consider edit as an alternative)
mv	✅	⚠️
paste	🛑	🛑	Conflicts with the built-in DOS command
pwd	✅	⚠️
rm	✅	⚠️
rmdir	⚠️	⚠️
sleep	✅	⚠️
sort	✅	✅	Integrated port of the original DOS command
tee	✅	⚠️
timeout	🛑	🛑	Relies on kill's functionality
uptime	✅	⚠️
whoami	🛑	🛑	Conflicts with the built-in Windows command

Windows caveats

Difference	Detail
CRLF line endings	Windows text files often use CRLF (\r\n). Most utilities handle this transparently, but pattern matching with $ and exact byte counts can be affected.
No /dev/null	Use NUL instead, for example find . -name "*.log" > NUL
No POSIX signals	Signals such as SIGHUP, SIGPIPE, and SIGUSR aren't available. Ctrl+C (SIGINT) works as expected.
Path separators	Both / and \ are accepted. Some utilities produce \-separated output, which can affect downstream piping.
File permissions	Windows uses ACLs, not POSIX permission bits. Permission-based predicates (for example find -perm) may behave differently or be unavailable.
Symbolic links	Reading existing symbolic links works without elevation. Creating new symbolic links requires Developer Mode (Settings > System > Advanced) or an elevated terminal.

Intentionally dropped

Commands that exist upstream but aren't shipped here because they rely on POSIX-only concepts, would break existing Windows scripts, or simply aren't useful on Windows.

• dd: Perhaps useful in the future.
• dircolors, shred, sync, uname: Not particularly useful on Windows.
• chcon, chgrp, chmod, chown, chroot, groups, hostid, id, install, logname, mkfifo, mknod, nice, nohup, pathchk, pinky, runcon, stdbuf, stty, tty, users, who: POSIX-only concepts unavailable on Windows.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details on the repo layout and how changes flow between this repo and the upstream uutils projects.