Re: [gentoo-dev] news item: Introdu ction of app-alternatives/coreutils

On March 20, 2026 7:35:55 PM UTC, moltonel 3x Combo <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> This news item can also be reviewed at
> https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo-news/pull/5
> The corresponding code PR is at https://codeberg.org/gentoo/gentoo/pulls/89
> This is my first time posting here and I'm not a Gentoo dev, apologies
> if I made mistakes.
> 
> 
> Title: Introduction of app-alternatives/coreutils
> Author: Vincent de Phily <[email protected]>
> Posted: 2026-03-04
> Revision: 1
> News-Item-Format: 2.0
> 
> A new app-alternatives/coreutils ebuild is available, giving the
> choice between sys-apps/coreutils and sys-apps/uutils-coreutils as the
> main coreutils (mkdir, ls, etc) implementation. The default will
> remain the gnu implementation for the foreseeable future.

I think GNU should be capitalised here.

> The update should be transparent to most users, read on for further
> details.
> 
> ## Choices
> 
> If uutils-coreutils is available for your arch and profile, you
> can select it by setting `app-alternatives/coreutils -gnu uutils` in
> your packages.use.

Nit: arch -> architecture.

> If you want to postpone or revert the transition, mask the
> corresponding ebuild versions:

I suggest saying "add the corresponding ebuild versions to package.mask" but if you believe the current formulation sounds better, feel free to use that.

> ```
> >=sys-apps/coreutils-9.10-r1
> >=sys-apps/uutils-coreutils-0.6.0-r1
> app-alternatives/coreutils
> ```
> 
> ## Preparation and troubleshooting
> 
> The new version of sys-apps/coreutils and sys-app/uutils-coreutils
> install their files with a prefix (`g` for gnu, and `uu-` for uutils).
> Afterwards, app-alternatives installs symlinks with standard names.

I think we should restate the versions here to avoid confusion.

> Portage preserves some critical binaries, which will trigger a
> harmless file collision warning (assuming the default `protect-owned`
> portage feature is enabled) when app-alternatives/coreutils is
> installed for the first time.
> 
> To reduce the window during which some utils will not be available at
> the standard location, make sure that app-alternatives/coreutils is
> merged straight after the new sys-apps/coreutils, by running
> `USE="gnu -uutils" emerge -v1 app-alternatives/coreutils` before
> updating the rest of the system.

As far as I understood, the default USE is "gnu -uutils", do we need to set USE on the cmdline again?

> In the unlikely event of an incomplete update, keep in mind you can
> still use the prefixed names. If you somehow need to manually fix some
> symlinks, use the command below and consider reporting the issue:
> 
> ```bash
> # Critical utils that portage should have preserved
> export U1="[ arch basename cat chgrp chmod chown cp date dirname echo env expr
>           false head hostname id install ln ls mkdir mkfifo mktemp mv printf
>           pwd readlink rm rmdir sleep sort stat tail test touch tr true uname
>           uniq whoami"
> # Utils that might be missing until app-alternative installs
> export U2="b2sum base32 base64 basenc chcon chroot cksum comm csplit cut dd
>           df dir dircolors du expand factor fmt fold hostid join kill link
>           logname mknod nice nl nohup nproc numfmt od paste pathchk pinky pr
>           printenv ptx realpath runcon seq shred sha1sum sha224sum sha256sum
>           sha384sum sha512sum shuf split stdbuf stty sum sync tac tee timeout
>           truncate tsort tty unexpand unlink users vdir wc who yes"
> for t in $U2; do
>  gtest -e /usr/bin/g$t -a ! -e /usr/bin/$t && gln -sf g$t /usr/bin/$t
>  gtest -e /bin/g$t -a ! -e /bin/$t && gln -sf g$t /bin/$t
> done
> ```
> 
> The current implementation of app-alternatives/coreutils does not
> switch shell completions, so `cp` uses gnu completions, `uu-cp` uses
> uutils completions, and `gcp` does not complete. This will be
> addressed progressively, in collaboration with upstreams.
> 
> ## Further reading
> 
> [0] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Base/Alternatives
> [1] https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2022-12-27-alternatives-introduction.html
> [2] https://bugs.gentoo.org/961068
> 

Thank you very much! I have a couple of remarks, please have a look below (or above, writing on mobile, not sure how this will be formatted).