Last activity 55m agoPosted Nov 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM EST
Difference Between GNU and BSD Coreutils
Original: Is there a difference between GNU and BSD Coreutils?
Mood
informative
Sentiment
neutral
Category
tech_discussion
Key topics
Gnu Coreutils
Bsd Coreutils
Unix Utilities
Debate intensity20/100
Discussion Activity
Light discussionFirst comment
N/A
Peak period
1
Hour 1
Avg / period
1
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Nov 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM EST
7h ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Nov 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM EST
0s after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
1 comments in Hour 1
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Nov 26, 2025 at 8:01 PM EST
55m ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
Discussion (1 comments)
Showing 3 comments
I was wondering if there really is a huge difference between GNU coreutils and BSD coreutils. I was wondering because lots of linux applications have been ported to freebsd, and I was wondering if ports have to take a huge amount of time out of there day rewriting to use BSD coreutils. And if i was to switch, how much would my workflows be impacted. (Technical Answers Welcome)
6h ago
The one example I'm familiar with is sed and it's in-place edit option (-i). It's available in the GNU coreutils option, but not in the BSD coreutils. You can work around the lack of -i by directing sed's output back to the file.
55m ago
There are some.
For example BSD ls(1) is not able to list dirs first.
Other thing is that BSD utils are more strict ... like:
# command -o -p -t -i -O -n -s ARGUMENTS
# command -o -p -t ARGUMENTS -i -O -n -s
ID: 46060599Type: storyLast synced: 11/26/2025, 6:16:10 PM
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.