Re: Re: news item: Introduction of app-alternatives/coreutils

Anna Vyalkova <[email protected]> writes:

> On 2026-03-21, moltonel 3x Combo 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.
>> 
>> The update should be transparent to most users, read on for further
>> details.
>
> As it has been pointed out, there's barely any need for a news item. It 
> looks like an advertisement that most users won't find useful.
>
> To me, "rewriting coreutils in Rust" looks like a move against copyleft.  
> If authors of uutils did not intend it, companies like Canonical switch 
> to uutils not because it's better but because they hate GPL. But 
> whatever, Gentoo is about choice.

Yes, I'm not really a fan of the movement either, but that's not a
reason to block it.

>
>> ## 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.
>> 
>> If you want to postpone or revert the transition, mask the
>> corresponding ebuild versions:
>> 
>> ```
>>>=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.
>> 
>> 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.
>> 
>> 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
>
> Markdown syntax is not supported for gentoo news items. Please keep it 
> formatted in plain text.
>
>> # 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

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