Dumb question; how to install on Windows from the binary release?

[alshdavid]

I have the coreutils.exe, downloaded from the latest release.

I realize this is a multi-call binary so running .\coreutils.exe ls will run ls. Renaming or linking coreutils.exe as ls.exe will also work.

Right now I am running .\coreutils.exe to print out all the available commands:

pwsh>  .\coreutils.exe
coreutils 0.0.18 (multi-call binary)

Usage: coreutils [function [arguments...]]

Currently defined functions:

    [, arch, b2sum, b3sum, base32, base64, basename, basenc, cat, cksum, comm, cp, csplit, cut,
    date, dd, df, dir, dircolors, dirname, du, echo, env, expand, expr, factor, false, fmt,
    fold, hashsum, head, hostname, join, link, ln, ls, md5sum, mkdir, mktemp, more, mv, nl,
    nproc, numfmt, od, paste, pr, printenv, printf, ptx, pwd, readlink, realpath, relpath, rm,
    rmdir, seq, sha1sum, sha224sum, sha256sum, sha3-224sum, sha3-256sum, sha3-384sum, sha3-
    512sum, sha384sum, sha3sum, sha512sum, shake128sum, shake256sum, shred, shuf, sleep, sort,
    split, sum, sync, tac, tail, tee, test, touch, tr, true, truncate, tsort, uname, unexpand,
    uniq, unlink, vdir, wc, whoami, yes

I haven't found an elegant way to parse the currently defined functions so I copy the output of the .\coreutils.exe command and mannually add them to a powershell command that creates links

$utils = "arch", "b2sum", "b3sum", "base32", "base64", "basename", "basenc", "cat", "cksum", "comm", "cp", 
"csplit", "cut", "date", "dd", "df", "dir", "dircolors", "dirname", "du", "echo", "env", "expand", "expr", 
"factor", "false", "fmt", "fold", "hashsum", "head", "hostname", "join", "link", "ln", "ls", "md5sum", "mkdir", 
"mktemp", "more", "mv", "nl", "nproc", "numfmt", "od", "paste", "pr", "printenv", "printf", "ptx", "pwd", 
"readlink", "realpath", "relpath", "rm", "rmdir", "seq", "sha1sum", "sha224sum", "sha256sum", "sha3-224sum", 
"sha3-256sum", "sha3-384sum", "sha3-", "512sum", "sha384sum", "sha3sum", "sha512sum", "shake128sum", "shake256sum", 
"shred", "shuf", "sleep", "sort", "split", "sum", "sync", "tac", "tail", "tee", "test", "touch", "tr", "true", 
"truncate", "tsort", "uname", "unexpand", "uniq", "unlink", "vdir", "wc", "whoami", "yes"

Foreach ($util in $utils) { 
    $util_path = (-join(".\", $util, ".exe"))
    New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path $util_path -Target ".\coreutils.exe" 
}

Which gives me the utils as symlinks in a directory that I add to my $PATH variable

But I can't help but feel this isn't how we should be installing the utils. How do you do it? How are you supposed to do it?

[tertsdiepraam]

The symlinks and adding the directory sounds about right actually if you do it manually. Generally, we recommend using a package manager though. On Windows, you can use scoop for example, which should do all of that for you. At some point we had contributors working on packaging uutils for the Windows store as well, but I think that work has stalled for now.

[alshdavid]

I know it's blasphemy but I generally avoid package managers on Windows unless absolutely necessary.

I inevitably run into issues with permissions, install locations, config locations, WSL, how is it added to the PATH, is it installed to Program Files? Program Data? LocalRoaming? Documents? Or whatever the MS store does?

I've reverted to simply putting binaries into C:\Users\my-user\.local and adding them manually to my PATH.

It's embarrassing boring but there's no ambiguity about where something is, what configuration it has or how to uninstall it.

It's saved so many headaches

EDIT: same goes for MacOS to a lesser extent. I only use brew when I have to, otherwise I just put binaries in $HOME/.local

[tertsdiepraam]

Of course, it's your machine, so do whatever you want! Just make sure to keep things updated for security :)

[alshdavid]

Good point!

[pedroangelini]

Hi! Thanks for this question / anwer @alshdavid and @tertsdiepraam -- that was exactly what I was trying to do. For anyone as lazy as me thinking "I don't want to go over the list of utils, just get all of them", the below script will create links to all of them without explicitly listing which ones you want. In my machine it requires opening Powershell as admin (not completely sure why).

# based on this question: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/discussions/4804

[CmdletBinding()]
param()

$utilsList = @(coreutils.exe --list)
Foreach ($util in $utilsList) { 
    $util_path = ( -join (".\", $util, ".exe"))
    Write-Verbose -Message "Creating link to $util as $util_path"
    New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path $util_path -Target ".\coreutils.exe" 
}

[alshdavid]

@pedroangelini I have updated the script with an auto-download and install script. The script can be used to download and update coreutils.

download-uutils.ps1 --Force --Path "$env:USERPROFILE\local\uutils"

$env:Path = "$env:USERPROFILE\local\uutils\bin;$env:Path"

Remove-Item Alias:"cat"
Remove-Item Alias:"cp"
Remove-Item Alias:"dir"
Remove-Item Alias:"echo"
Remove-Item Alias:"ls"
Remove-Item Alias:"mv"
Remove-Item Alias:"pwd"
Remove-Item Alias:"rm"
Remove-Item Alias:"rmdir"

[CmdletBinding()]
param (
    $path,
    [switch] $force
)

$dir_target = $path
if ("$dir_target" -eq "") {
    $dir_target = "$env:USERPROFILE\local\uutils"
}
Write-Host "TARTGET DIR: $dir_target"


Write-Host "OS:          $([System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeInformation]::OSDescription)"
$platform = switch -Wildcard ([System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeInformation]::OSDescription) {
  "*Windows*" { "pc-windows-msvc.zip" }
  "*Linux*"   { "unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz" }
  "*Darwin*"  { "apple-darwin.tar.gz" }
  Default     { exit 1 }
}

Write-Host "CPU:         $([System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeInformation]::OSArchitecture)"
$arch = switch ([System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeInformation]::OSArchitecture) {
    "X64"  { "x86_64" }
    "X86"  { "i686" }
    "Arm"  { "arm" }
    "Arm64" { "aarch64" }
    Default { 
        Write-Host "Unknown CPU architecture"
        exit 1 
    }
}

$url_api = "https://api.github.com/repos/uutils/coreutils/releases/latest"
Write-Host "URL GitHub:  $url_api"

$response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "$url_api" -UseBasicParsing
$releases = $response | ConvertFrom-Json

$url_target = ""
$name_target = ""

foreach ($asset in $releases.assets) {
    if ($asset.browser_download_url.Contains("$arch-$platform")) {
        $url_target = $asset.browser_download_url
        $name_target = $asset.name
    }
}

Write-Host "URL Archive: $url_target"

if ($force) {
    Write-Host "ACTION:      Deleting & recreating `"$dir_target`""
} else {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor red -NoNewLine "PROMPT:      Delete & recreate `"$dir_target`" [y/n]"
    $confirmation = Read-Host
    if ($confirmation -ne 'y') {
        exit 0
    }
}

if ( Test-Path "$dir_target" ) {
    Remove-Item -Force -Recurse $dir_target | Out-Null
}
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $dir_target | Out-Null

$path_temp = "$dir_target\.temp"
$path_archive = "$path_temp\$name_target"
$name_stripped = "$([io.path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension("$name_target"))"

if ( Test-Path "$path_temp" ) {
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$path_temp"  | Out-Null
}
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $path_temp | Out-Null

Write-Host "ACTION:      Downloading archive"
Invoke-WebRequest $url_target -OutFile "$path_archive"

Write-Host "ACTION:      Expanding archive"
switch -wildcard ($url_target){
    "*.zip" {
        Expand-Archive "$path_archive" -DestinationPath "$path_temp" | Out-Null
        Get-ChildItem -Path "$path_temp\$name_stripped" -Recurse | Move-Item -Destination "$dir_target"
    }
    "*.tar.gz" {
        echo "tar.gz"
    }
    "*.tar.xz" {
        echo "tar.xz"
    }
    Default { 
        Write-Host "Unknown archive kind: $url_target"
        exit 1 
    }
}

$bin_dir = "$dir_target\bin"
if ( Test-Path "$bin_dir" ) {
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$bin_dir"  | Out-Null
}
New-Item -ItemType "directory" "$bin_dir"  | Out-Null

New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "$bin_dir\coreutils.exe" -Target "$dir_target\coreutils.exe" | Out-Null

$existing_aliases = ""

function Check-Command($cmdname)
{
    return [bool](Get-Command -Name $cmdname -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
}

Foreach ($util in @(. "$bin_dir\coreutils.exe" --list)) { 
    $target_path = "$bin_dir\$util.exe"
    $coreutils = "$dir_target\coreutils.exe"

    Write-Host -Message "LINK:        $coreutils -> $target_path"
    New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "$target_path" -Target "$coreutils" | Out-Null

    if ("$util" -eq "[") {
        continue
    }

    if (Check-Command $util)
    {
        if ("$((Get-Command "$util").CommandType)" -eq "Alias") {
            $existing_aliases += "Remove-Item Alias:`"$util`" `r`n"
        }
    }
}

if ( Test-Path "$path_temp" ) {
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$path_temp"  | Out-Null
}

Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Add this to `$profile:"
Write-Host ""

Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"cat`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"cp`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"dir`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"echo`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"ls`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"mv`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"pwd`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"rm`""
Write-Host "Remove-Item Alias:`"rmdir`""

Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Add this directory to your `$PATH:"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "$dir_target\bin"