Groups > alt.comp.os.windows-10 > #195309

Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH

From	Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com>
Newsgroups	alt.comp.os.windows-10, comp.mobile.android, alt.msdos.batch, alt.os.linux
Subject	Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH
Date	2026-08-28 10:46 -0600
Organization	BWH Usenet Archive (https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com)
Message-ID	<116se0t$1t34$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> (permalink)
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Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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Lawrence D¢Oliveiro wrote:
>> As Frank noted, grep is there!
>>
>>   C:\> where grep
>>         C:\Program Files\coreutils\bin\grep.exe
>>         C:\Users\username\adb\grep.cmd
> 
> Not in Linux, it¢s not:
> 
>     ldo@hypatia:~> dpkg-query -S $(type -p grep)
>     grep: /usr/bin/grep
> 
>     ldo@hypatia:~> dpkg-query -S $(type -p cp)
>     coreutils: /usr/bin/cp

Hi Lawrence,

Ah, I think I see your point. Thanks for brining it up so clearly.

In your Debian system:
 /usr/bin/cp is supplied by the Debian coreutils package
 /usr/bin/grep is supplied by a separate Debian grep package
That's a useful distinction which Windows owners should take note of.

I think your astute point may have been to let us know that I was 
accidentally conflating Microsoft's package name, Coreutils, with the 
traditional GNU/Linux coreutils package. 

You showed that in GNU/Linux, grep isn't part of GNU Coreutils.
It's a separate GNU project/package:
 coreutils -> cp, mv, rm, cat, ...
 grep      -> grep

So I think what you're intimating is that this newly released set of 
Windows Coreutils shouldn't be thought of as simply the Linux coreutils 
package for Windows as it is a collection of utilities which are different.

Specifically, the Microsoft CoreUtils grep comes from the Rust uutils/grep 
project rather than from the GNU grep project, is that right?

It seems the Microsoft repository says that its grep is based on a fork of 
uutils/grep, while most of the other utilities come from uutils/coreutils:
 <https://github.com/microsoft/coreutils/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md>

That's all new to me as I only learned about Microsoft's Coreutils package 
from Paul this week. The first release appears to have been June 2, 2026:
 <https://github.com/microsoft/coreutils/discussions/4>

Had I known about this package, that Paul was hiding from us (jk), I would 
have written a PSA about using it, instead of bridging WSL to the CLI.

Speaking of the public service announcement, since I didn't know about the 
Microsoft CoreUtils until Paul mentioned them, the only reason to even 
consider this PSA going forward are for the commands NOT in CoreUtils.

That's because Microsoft's utilities are native Windows executables, 
whereas my original grep.cmd was merely a wrapper that bridged from Windows 
into WSL to run the Linux binary (but the sed.cmd" is still useful).
 <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/core-utils/overview>

So I'm going to revise the recommendation in the PSA. 

 1. For grep at least, the much cleaner solution now seems to be 
    simply installing Microsoft's Coreutils rather than maintaining
    a grep.cmd wrapper around WSL.
    <https://github.com/microsoft/coreutils/releases/download/v2026.6.16/coreutils-2026.6.16-x64.exe>
 2. For sed, it seems (so far) the sed.cmd @WSL method is working
 3. But, we still need a better solution for awk.

Luckily, the main need, at least for the stated problem set of
running adb examples found on the net, is mostly for just grep.

Thanks for pointing out the distinctions!
-- 
On Usenet, we teach what we know & then others teach us what we didn't know.

Thread

PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-26 20:08 -0600
  Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 00:05 -0600
    Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-27 07:13 +0000
      Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> - 2026-08-27 10:02 +0200
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 12:14 -0600
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> - 2026-08-27 22:06 +0200
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 20:39 -0600
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> - 2026-08-28 14:35 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 14:47 -0600
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-27 20:19 +0000
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-27 22:31 +0200
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 20:33 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 04:59 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-30 21:03 -0600
      Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-27 10:22 +0000
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 11:36 -0600
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 12:39 -0600
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-27 22:20 +0200
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-28 18:07 +0000
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 14:49 -0600
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-27 19:11 +0000
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 13:21 -0600
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2026-08-27 19:59 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 21:11 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 05:00 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 15:27 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 22:26 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Hank Rogers <Hank@nospam.invalid> - 2026-08-28 17:47 -0500
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-29 14:35 +0000
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-27 20:09 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-30 20:32 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-30 20:53 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-31 05:34 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-31 12:45 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-31 09:34 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-31 22:28 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-31 21:33 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-01 07:31 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-09-02 17:44 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-09-02 17:41 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-09-02 14:50 -0400
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-09-02 22:00 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-02 21:16 +0100
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-09-02 23:42 +0300
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-09-02 21:36 -0400
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-03 02:28 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-09-02 23:18 -0400
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-03 05:03 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-09-03 08:23 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-09-04 04:28 +0930
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-09-04 18:37 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2026-09-02 19:51 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-09-02 22:05 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2026-09-02 20:25 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH CDB <bellemarecd@gmail.com> - 2026-09-02 22:39 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-31 14:24 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-31 11:50 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2026-08-31 18:25 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-09-03 01:18 +0430
      Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 11:53 -0600
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-27 20:18 +0000
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 22:56 -0600
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-27 22:30 +0200
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 23:12 -0600
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 06:34 +0000
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 02:56 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-29 16:40 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-30 02:03 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-29 23:05 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-30 06:56 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-08-30 05:26 -0400
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-30 08:23 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-30 23:31 +0000
    Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> - 2026-09-03 08:39 +0200
  Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-08-27 04:36 -0400
    Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 10:45 -0600
      Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-08-27 14:44 -0400
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 12:59 -0600
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 13:16 -0600
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-27 19:41 +0000
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2026-08-27 20:03 +0000
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 19:18 -0600
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2026-08-28 12:13 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 09:51 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2026-08-28 18:24 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 11:13 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2026-08-28 19:36 +0200
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2026-08-28 18:25 +0000
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 13:06 -0600
                Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 12:18 -0600
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 19:37 -0600
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 04:28 +0000
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 10:46 -0600
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 01:21 +0000
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-08-27 22:21 -0400
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-08-28 04:25 +0000
              Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windows command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-27 23:35 -0600
      Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-28 10:25 -0600
        Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-08-28 15:37 -0400
          Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-08-29 13:16 +0200
            Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-29 16:27 -0600
  Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-08-30 12:58 +0200
    Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-30 12:48 +0100
      Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-30 08:23 -0600
  Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Brian Gregory <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> - 2026-08-31 01:15 +0100
    Re: PSA: How to add WSL grep to the Windwos command-line PATH Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-08-30 20:19 -0600

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