Rust Coreutils 0.1 Released With Big Performance Gains – Can Match Or Exceed GNU Speed

If you’ve been keeping an eye on modern replacements for aging system tools, you’ve probably heard of uutils, the Rust-based reimagining of GNU Coreutils.

This project has been quietly gaining momentum—and now, with Ubuntu 25.10 planning to ship it by default, things are about to get a lot more interesting.

Today marks a major milestone in its development: the release of Rust Coreutils v0.1.

Why Coreutils Needed a Refresh

Most Unix-like systems rely on a set of essential command-line tools known as Coreutils—think ls, cp, cat, mkdir, wc, and so on.

These tools are foundational. We use them in scripts, automation, and day-to-day command-line work, often without even thinking about them.

Traditionally, these utilities come from the GNU Coreutils collection, written in C. They’ve stood the test of time, but they’re also tightly bound to older coding practices and lack modern safety features.

That’s where Rust Coreutils, sometimes referred to as uutils, steps in. The idea isn’t just to rewrite for fun—it’s about rethinking these tools using Rust, a language known for its strong guarantees around memory safety.

What’s Special About the v0.1 Release?

The jump from version 0.0.30 to 0.1 is more than just a new number. It represents a serious leap in maturity and capability.

Let’s break it down:

🚀 Performance That Rivals (or Beats) GNU

One of the headline achievements of this release is speed. According to the uutils team, tools like ls, cat, tail, seq, and wc are now matching or even outperforming GNU Coreutils.

That’s a major milestone. Rewriting in Rust is great for safety, but hitting or exceeding the performance of decades-optimized C code? That’s a huge win—and it opens the door for Rust Coreutils to be more than just a curiosity.

🔐 SELinux Support

Security is another area where Rust Coreutils is catching up. With version 0.1, there’s SELinux integration for commands like cp, mkdir, ls, and install. This brings the project closer to being usable on real-world production systems that rely on strict access controls.

For teams deploying secure Linux environments, this means they can start seriously considering uutils as a drop-in replacement without losing critical policy enforcement features.

You might be wondering—what is SELinux, and why does it matter here?

SELinux stands for Security-Enhanced Linux. It’s a powerful security layer built into many Linux systems (like Red Hat, Fedora, and CentOS) that enforces strict rules about what users and processes can do. It’s often used in sensitive or high-security environments—think data centers, cloud platforms, and enterprise servers.

In these systems, even simple commands like cp (copying a file) or mkdir (creating a directory) need to respect SELinux policies. If a tool doesn’t support SELinux, it might bypass these security checks—or worse, break expected behavior.

That’s why Rust Coreutils adding SELinux support for commands like cp, mkdir, ls, and install in version 0.1 is a big deal. It means the tools are now better aligned with real-world security requirements, and can safely replace their GNU counterparts even in environments where security is tightly controlled.

✅ Growing Test Coverage

Let’s be honest—most people don’t think twice about the tools behind their shell scripts. They just expect them to work. But when you’re replacing something as fundamental as ls, cat, or cp, even tiny differences in behavior can cause serious headaches.

That’s why compatibility is everything in a project like Rust Coreutils.

Think of it this way: over the years, thousands of scripts, automation tools, and system services have been built assuming GNU Coreutils as the standard. If Rust Coreutils behaves even slightly differently—different flags, different outputs, edge case bugs—it could cause those scripts to break.

To avoid that, the project runs a massive set of automated tests: the GNU Coreutils Test Suite. It’s designed to catch those subtle differences, from common use cases to obscure edge conditions.

In version 0.1, Rust Coreutils now passes 522 of those tests, up from 507 in the previous release. That might not seem dramatic at first glance, but in the world of system-level tools, every test passed means fewer surprises and more trust.

Ubuntu 25.10: The Big Moment

Perhaps the most exciting sign of confidence in the project comes from Ubuntu. The upcoming Ubuntu 25.10 release is planning to ship uutils Coreutils by default, putting this Rust-powered alternative into the hands of thousands of developers.

While it may coexist with GNU Coreutils at first, this signals a shift in trust and a readiness to modernize core parts of the Linux stack.