rustcoreutils/posixutils-rs

Core POSIX command line utilities in safe Rust

posixutils-rs

This is a suite of Rust-native core command line utilties (cp, mv, rm, ls, ...) using SuSv3 as the base POSIX specification.

Goals

The goal is to create clean, race-free userland utilities that are POSIX compliant, maximizing compatibility with existing shell scripts while minimizing bloat.

Implementation goals include clean, safe Rust code and maximal use of Rust community crates. This project's utilities should "look like normal Rust programs."

Contributions are welcome. Developers and helpers, please read CONTRIBUTING for details.

Core specification: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/

Non-goals

It is not a goal to be compatible with GNU utilities, which are sometimes viewed as bloated and overloaded with rarely-used options.

Popular GNU options will be supported by virtue of the "don't break scripts" rule. Unpopular options will not be implemented, to prevent bloat.

Similar projects

A similar project with the aim of GNU compatibility is https://github.com/uutils/coreutils

A similar project from the author, written in C++, is https://github.com/jgarzik/posixutils

Checklist of utilities

• admin (SCCS)
• ar (Development)
• asa
• at (cron cat.)
• awk
• basename
• batch (cron cat.)
• bc
• c99 (Development)
• cal
• cat
• cflow (Development)
• chgrp
• chmod
• chown
• cksum
• cmp
• comm
• compress (compress cat.)
• cp
• crontab (cron cat.)
• csplit
• ctags (Development)
• cut
• cxref (Development)
• date
• dd
• delta (SCCS)
• df
• diff
• dirname
• du
• echo
• ed
• env
• ex
• expand
• expr
• false
• file
• find
• fold
• fort77 (Development)
• fuser
• gencat (i18n)
• get (SCCS)
• getconf
• grep
• head
• iconv (i18n)
• id
• ipcrm (IPC)
• ipcs (IPC)
• join
• kill
• lex (Development)
• link
• ln
• locale
• localedef
• logger
• logname
• lp
• ls
• m4
• mailx
• make
• man
• mesg
• mkdir
• mkfifo
• more
• mv
• newgrp
• nice
• nl
• nm (Development)
• nohup
• od
• paste
• patch
• pathchk
• pax
• pr
• printf
• prs (SCCS)
• ps
• pwd
• qalter (Batch cat.)
• qdel (Batch cat.)
• qhold (Batch cat.)
• qmove (Batch cat.)
• qmsg (Batch cat.)
• qrerun (Batch cat.)
• qrls (Batch cat.)
• qselect (Batch cat.)
• qsig (Batch cat.)
• qstat (Batch cat.)
• qsub (Batch cat.)
• renice
• rm
• rmdel (SCCS)
• rmdir
• sact (SCCS)
• sccs (SCCS)
• sed
• sh
• sleep
• sort
• split
• strings
• strip (Development)
• stty
• tabs
• tail
• talk
• tee
• test
• time
• touch
• tput
• tr
• true
• tsort
• tty
• uname
• uncompress (compress cat.)
• unexpand
• unget (SCCS)
• uniq
• unlink
• uucp (UUCP)
• uudecode (uue)
• uuencode (uue)
• uustat (UUCP)
• uux (UUCP)
• val (SCCS)
• vi
• wc
• what (SCCS)
• who
• write
• xargs
• yacc (Development)
• zcat (compress cat.)

posixutils-rs's Issues

Implement UUCP utilities

Implement UUCP related utilities:

• uucp. Spec: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/uucp.html
• uustat. Spec: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/uustat.html
• uux. Spec: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/uux.html

Resources:

• Taylor UUCP package: https://github.com/quinot/taylor-uucp

Internationalization and charset utils

Implement i18n, charset, locale utils:

• gencat
• iconv
• locale
• localedef

Create integration tests for "rmdir" utility

The rmdir utility found in tree/src/rmdir.rs lacks integration tests.

Create a new set of integration tests in tree/tests/rmdir-tests.rs. Test both with and without -p. Ensure negative tests exist, testing failure conditions, as well as positive tests. Test with zero, one and multiple pathnames on the command line. Verify that the utility CLI exit code is POSIX compliant and correct in all cases.

Development utilities

Implement development utilities:

• ar
• c99
• cflow
• ctags
• cxref
• fort77
• lex
• make
• nm
• strings
• strip
• yacc

Implement file and text utilities

Implement file and text utilities:

• csplit
• cut
• grep
• od
• patch
• sort
• tail
• tr
• unexpect
• uniq

Implement pax utility

Implement pax: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/pax.html

Localization (i18n): notes and planning

Introduction

Soliciting discussion over the localization (i18n) strategy for this project.

Goals

Goal 1: Localize everything

The goal is complete localization of all messages visible to the user, within the bounds of POSIX compliance:

• All util messages, collation sequences, charsets and other util i18n details
• All --help messages and related output (clap crate)
• All OS error messages (io::Result)
• It is believed that some minimum set of strings are required to be English/POSIX permanently. Minimize this POSIX-only set as much as possible.

Goal 2: Encourage UTF-8

To be forward-looking, this project looks for opportunities to

• Drop support for non-UTF 8 strings
• Default to UTF-8 charsets and strings

This project should aggressively interpret the POSIX standards in terms of UTF-8 support, and look for opportunities to create default-UTF-8 operating modes, with a fallback mode that is "POSIX-ly correct."

Implementation strategies

Current strategy

The current strategies are,

• use the gettext crate, and mark strings with gettext(). This provides a starting point for per-util coding, and at least gets us started on the road to i18n.
• each util sets the charset thusly,

    bind_textdomain_codeset(PROJECT_NAME, "UTF-8")?;

Improvements to our i18n

At present, OS error messages and --help are not translated at all, and need a project-wide strategy.

Also, one idea that is aligned with the gencat util is to generate catgets message catalogs and abandon gettext. This works because catgets exists on all modern platforms.

See issue #65 for util-related tasks.

Feedback and thoughts are requested. We want to give users the best i18n support possible.

SCCS utilities

Implement SCCS utilities:

• admin
• delta
• get
• prs
• rmdel
• sact
• sccs
• unget
• val
• what

Editors category

Implement editors:

• ed
• ex
• vi

User-facing apps category

User-facing apps category:

• bc
• mailx
• man
• talk

Implement awk utility

Implement awk. Specification: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/awk.html

Cron and Batch utilities

Implement cron and batch-related utilities:

• cron daemon. While not specified, its need is implied and worth building.
• at
• batch
• crontab
• qalter
• qdel
• qhold
• qmove
• qmsg
• qrerun
• qrls
• qselect
• qsig
• qstat
• qsub

System and process category

Implement system and process utils:

• fuser
• getconf
• ipcs
• ps
• who