microsoft/coreutils

Coreutils for Windows brings the familiar command-line tools from Linux and macOS, things like ls, cat, cp, rm, grep, and find, directly to Windows. If you've ever switched from a Mac or Linux machine to Windows and missed being able to run the same commands and scripts, this project aims to close that gap. It's an official Microsoft-maintained package, currently in preview, that you can install with a single command via WinGet. Under the hood, the project bundles together several open-source Rust-based reimplementations of classic UNIX utilities (from the uutils project) into one multi-call binary. That means a single installed program can act as dozens of different commands depending on how you call it. The goal is that the commands, flags, and pipelines you already know from Linux or macOS behave the same way on Windows, so existing scripts carry over without needing to be rewritten for PowerShell or CMD syntax. The target user is anyone who works across operating systems, a developer who uses Windows day-to-day but deploys to Linux servers, a DevOps person managing containers, or someone who just prefers UNIX-style commands. For example, if you have a shell script that uses find to locate log files and grep to search them, you can run it on Windows without translating everything into PowerShell equivalents. You can also set up aliases in PowerShell or CMD for shortcuts like ll for ls -la. There are some honest trade-offs. Several command names collide with built-in PowerShell or CMD commands, so which version actually runs depends on your shell and PATH configuration. Some utilities that rely on POSIX-only concepts, like file permission bits (chmod, chown), signals (kill), or special devices like /dev/null, either don't work the same way or aren't shipped at all. The README also notes quirks around Windows line endings, path separators, and symbolic link creation that users should be aware of. It's a practical bridge between ecosystems, not a perfect replica of Linux on Windows.