brew / approval gates / rank 45

Install coreutils with Homebrew

GNU File, Shell, and Text utilities. Version 9.11 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

Install command Security notes

agent safety

Agent safety answer

coreutils supplies file utilities that can read, delete, and transform local data at scale.

Credential access

Can read files and environment exposed to the agent session.

Remote mutation

Primarily local, but can prepare data for other remote tools.

Publish/artifact risk

Can delete or rewrite build outputs and generated artifacts.

Recommended control

Gate destructive file operations over broad or sensitive paths.

Agent-use guidance

Allow narrow reads; require approval for recursive deletes, overwrites, and secret-path reads.

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install coreutils

provider-native install command

overview

Package summary

GNU File, Shell, and Text utilities

Project links

Homepage

Commands and aliases

b2sum
base32
basenc
dir
dircolors
factor
g[
gb2sum
gbase32
gbase64
gbasename
gbasenc
gcat
gchgrp
gchmod
gchown
gchroot
gcksum
gcomm
gcp
gcsplit
gcut
gdate
gdd
gdf
gdir
gdircolors
gdirname
gdu
gecho
genv
gexpand

history

Project history and usage

GNU Coreutils is the GNU Project's distribution of the standard command-line file, shell, and text utilities used throughout Unix-like systems. In package-manager practice it is treated less as a single application than as a portable baseline for commands such as cat, chmod, cp, date, ls, sort, tail, tr, and many checksum and text-processing tools.

Project history

The package sits in the GNU system layer: its official description presents it as the GNU file, shell, and text utilities, and the GNU FTP archive shows coreutils release tarballs from the 5.x series onward, including coreutils 5.0 in April 2003. That release trail made the name 'coreutils' the umbrella package users and distributors expect when they want GNU behavior for the traditional small utilities.

Adoption history

Coreutils became a normal dependency surface for GNU/Linux distributions and a compatibility package on non-GNU systems. The Homebrew formula exposes many commands with a g-prefix on macOS so users can opt into GNU semantics without replacing the platform-provided BSD userland.

How it is used

Users normally install coreutils for scripts and interactive shell workflows that rely on GNU options or GNU extensions. On macOS the package is especially common in development environments where cross-platform shell scripts assume commands such as gdate, gsort, greadlink, or gtimeout.

Why package nerds care

Coreutils is one of the canonical examples of packaging a userland as a coherent compatibility layer. Its release cadence, prefixing strategy on macOS, GPL licensing, and overlap with POSIX and BSD utilities make it a frequent packaging-policy test case.

Timeline

2003: GNU FTP archive lists coreutils 5.0 release tarballs.
2009: GNU FTP archive lists coreutils 8.x release tarballs, reflecting continued maintenance under the coreutils package name.
Present: Homebrew packages GNU Coreutils as a system utility collection with GNU-prefixed commands on macOS.

Related projects

Related userland packages include BusyBox, Toybox, uutils coreutils, BSD userland utilities, and GNU findutils, grep, sed, and tar.

Sources

approval gates

Human review metadata for risky commands

The local approval-gate seed includes 8 rules for coreutils. Covered entrypoints: gchmod, gchown, gcp, gdd, gmv, grm, gshred, gtruncate. Severity labels: critical, high, medium. Coverage: partial, reviewed 2026-05-21.

Example gated actions

Delete files or directories.
Recursively delete files or directories.
Copy or move files, possibly overwriting destinations.
Move or rename files, possibly overwriting destinations.
Change permissions or ownership.
Change file ownership.
Copy raw bytes to files or devices.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`b2sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`base32`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`basenc`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`dir`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`dircolors`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`factor`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`g[`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gb2sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gbase32`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gbase64`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gbasename`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gbasenc`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gcat`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gchgrp`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gchmod`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gchown`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gchroot`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gcksum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gcomm`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gcp`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gcsplit`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gcut`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdate`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdd`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdf`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdir`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdircolors`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdirname`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gdu`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gecho`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`genv`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gexpand`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gexpr`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gfactor`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gfalse`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gfmt`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gfold`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`ggroups`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`ghead`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`ghostid`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gid`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`ginstall`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gjoin`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`glink`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gln`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`glogname`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gls`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gmd5sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gmkdir`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gmkfifo`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gmknod`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gmktemp`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gmv`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gnice`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gnl`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gnohup`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gnproc`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gnumfmt`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`god`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gpaste`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gpathchk`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gpinky`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gpr`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gprintenv`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gprintf`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gptx`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gpwd`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`greadlink`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`grealpath`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`grm`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`grmdir`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gseq`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsha1sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsha224sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsha256sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsha384sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsha512sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gshred`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gshuf`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsleep`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsort`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsplit`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gstat`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gstdbuf`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gstty`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gsync`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtac`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtail`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtee`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtest`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtimeout`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtouch`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtr`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtrue`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtruncate`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtsort`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gtty`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`guname`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gunexpand`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`guniq`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gunlink`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gusers`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gvdir`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gwc`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gwho`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gwhoami`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`gyes`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`hostid`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`md5sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`nproc`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`numfmt`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`pinky`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`ptx`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`realpath`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`sha1sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`sha224sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`sha256sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`sha384sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`sha512sum`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`shred`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`shuf`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`stdbuf`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`tac`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`timeout`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`truncate`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`vdir`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-08-03

manager version9.11

manager updated

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:coreutils
Version	9.11
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/coreutils.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
approval-gate seed metadata
curated agent safety answer
curated package history
pkgdb category and tag curation