boreutils

An implementation of some of the utilities specified in POSIX.1-2017.

Excluded utilities

Boreutils focuses on non-optional utilities. Many POSIX utility categories and XSI (X/Open Systems Interfaces) utilities are excluded.

Things explicitly excluded include:

Things that make more sense as shell builtins, including:
- Things that are only really usable in a shell: cd, hash, read, etc.
- Things related to job control: bg, fg, jobs, etc.
Things used exclusively for printing: lp, etc.
The following Margin Codes:
- CD: C-Language Development Utilities
- FD: FORTRAN Development Utilities
- FR: FORTRAN Runtime Utilities
- OB: Obsolescent
- SD: Software Development Utilities
- UU: UUCP Utilities
Things that are very heavily influenced by software not in Boreutils, including:
- Things that have terminal-specific behavior, like tput.

Things not excluded, but prone to be put off forever include:

Things where the standard doesn't provide enough information:
- mesg: "The mechanism by which the message status of the terminal is changed is unspecified"
Things where there's no standard for the underlying functionality:
- ps: On Linux, you read /proc. On BSD, you use kvm_getproc*(). Elsewhere? Who the heck knows.
Obscenely complex things, such as those involving creating archives:
- pax

Below is the list of POSIX.1-2017 utilities that are planned to be implemented.

Utilities that are checked off have been implemented. Partial implementations have notes explaining what is missing and a link to GitHub issues.

Here are non-POSIX.1-2017 utilities which are provided: