CI: make sure GNU is the system coreutils in the jobs that compare against it by abendrothj · Pull Request #15024 · uutils/coreutils

abendrothj · 2026-10-02T02:28:36Z

Newer Ubuntu images ship uutils as the system coreutils, so the GNU test job and the two fuzz jobs that compare against the system coreutils could end up comparing uutils with itself.

Each of those jobs now has the same step: if coreutils-from-uutils is installed, it installs coreutils-from-gnu in its place, and the job fails if that install does. Runner images are unchanged.

Should land after #15005: once the system coreutils are GNU, the check added there is what stops the root tests from passing on GNU's binaries.

Closes #15023

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

github-actions · 2026-10-02T03:16:43Z

GNU testsuite comparison:

Congrats! The gnu test tests/touch/now-owned-by-other is no longer failing!

oech3 · 2026-10-02T04:16:07Z

Would you change runner of fuzzing.yml to ubuntu-26.04? Then we can use newer GNU coreutils at fuzzing.

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

abendrothj · 2026-10-04T00:38:21Z

Done in 23333fd. uufuzz-examples and fuzz-run now run on ubuntu-26.04, since those are the jobs that compare against the system coreutils. Because coreutils-from-gnu is always available there, the GNU install no longer needs the apt-cache show check. detect, fuzz-build and fuzz-summary don't run the system coreutils, so I left them on ubuntu-latest.

xtqqczze

Please don't change runner image in same PR, instead detect whether coreutils-from-gnu is available.

xtqqczze · 2026-10-05T19:16:44Z

    needs: detect
    if: needs.detect.outputs.all == 'true'
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ubuntu-26.04


Suggested change

runs-on: ubuntu-26.04

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

Done in 47face8: back on ubuntu-latest, and the PR doesn't change any runner now.

xtqqczze · 2026-10-05T19:17:06Z

+        ## The examples compare against the system coreutils, which must be GNU.
+        ## ubuntu-26.04 ships uutils there.
+        sudo apt-get update
+        sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-


Suggested change

sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-

- name: Use GNU as the system coreutils

shell: bash

run: |

## The examples compare against the system coreutils, which must be GNU.

## ubuntu-26.04 ships uutils there; older images have no such switch.

sudo apt-get update

if apt-cache show coreutils-from-gnu >/dev/null 2>&1; then

sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-

fi

Why do we need to introduce such complex detection instead of using host that we are 100% sure that the package is available?

The package being available on a specific host doesn’t necessarily justify coupling the CI job to that host.

We’re interested in whether coreutils-from-gnu is available, not specifically whether we’re on Ubuntu 26.04. The check expresses that requirement directly and keeps the workflow resilient to runner changes.

We can just change the job when we lost it. No need to detect dynamically.

Actually, we should catch failure instead of silently fallbacking to uutils (when package name was changed by some reason).

It's outside of the scope of the linked issue #15023 to change the runner image to ubuntu-26.04.

fair, a renamed package is the only case where they differ, and it's unlikely. two smaller differences: where GNU is already the system coreutils (ubuntu-latest today) the step skips apt-get update, and the check after the install fails the job if the switch didn't happen, which oech3 asked for. if you'd still rather have apt-cache show, I can switch.

I think there's a much higher likelihood that utilities are added to or removed from the coreutils-from-uutils package than that the package itself is renamed. For example, ls could be removed from the package while coreutils-from-uutils remains installed. In that case, relying on ls --version to detect the switch would be unreliable.

It is hard to imagine, but we can

for _b in $(target/release/coreutils --list);do sudo cp -sf /usr/bin/gnu${_b} /usr/bin/${_b} done

cp -sf fails at missing source binary.

Agreed, switched to the apt-cache show step. After it, the step fails if coreutils-from-uutils is still installed, which covers every utility, not just ls: on 26.04 cp, mv, rm, df and true already point at GNU while ls is uutils. I didn't use the cp -sf loop: on 26.04 it stops at the first utility without a GNU twin (cp: cannot stat '/usr/bin/gnuchroot'), and the fuzz jobs don't build coreutils before this step.

xtqqczze · 2026-10-05T19:17:22Z

    needs: detect
    if: needs.detect.outputs.targets != '[]'
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ubuntu-26.04


Suggested change

runs-on: ubuntu-26.04

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

Same, ubuntu-latest again.

xtqqczze · 2026-10-05T19:19:48Z

+        ## ubuntu-26.04 ships uutils as the system coreutils; give configure and the
+        ## test harness GNU's tools instead of whichever rust-coreutils the image has.
+        sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-


Suggested change

## ubuntu-26.04 ships uutils as the system coreutils; give configure and the

## test harness GNU's tools instead of whichever rust-coreutils the image has.

sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-

- name: Use GNU as the system coreutils

shell: bash

run: |

## The examples compare against the system coreutils, which must be GNU.

## ubuntu-26.04 ships uutils there; older images have no such switch.

sudo apt-get update

if apt-cache show coreutils-from-gnu >/dev/null 2>&1; then

sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-

fi

I'd keep this one unconditional. This job is already pinned to ubuntu-26.04 on main (# some strace? test needs newer glibc), so the package is always there, and if it ever isn't, a failed install is the right outcome for the GNU job.

it would be great if we weren't as tightly coupled to the runner image in case we want to change it in the future

Check is useful if and only if we know every possible error. But it is very hard to do that. We should just do what we want to do and fail.

f1b4415 does that. There's no availability check anymore, and all three jobs run the same step: if ls --version already says GNU it does nothing, otherwise it installs coreutils-from-gnu and then fails unless ls --version reports GNU. A missing or renamed package fails the apt install, and an install that doesn't switch fails the check, so this job isn't tied to 26.04 either. I ran the step in Ubuntu containers: 24.04 stays on GNU 9.4 without apt, 26.04 switches from uutils 0.8.0 to GNU 9.7, a renamed package fails with 100, and an install that doesn't switch fails the check.

oech3 · 2026-10-05T19:28:22Z

This PR has 2 commit to separate things. No worry about confusion.

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

abendrothj · 2026-10-06T07:32:30Z

The runner changes are gone, and all three jobs run on the image they had on main. Rather than probing for coreutils-from-gnu, the step checks what's actually installed: it does nothing if ls --version is already GNU, otherwise it installs the package and fails unless the result is GNU. That keeps it independent of the Ubuntu version without falling back silently to uutils (f1b4415). This is meant to land after #15005.

oech3 · 2026-10-07T08:52:08Z

Actually, fuzzer itself is designed to reject non-GNU coreutils on $PATH. So we can wait doing this until ubuntu-latest was updated and we see actual error.

abendrothj · 2026-10-08T04:03:28Z

the native GNU job already runs on ubuntu-26.04, and its runner has uutils as the system coreutils: this PR's run removes coreutils-from-uutils there. so that job is affected now, and the fuzz jobs follow when ubuntu-latest moves to 26.04.

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

xtqqczze · 2026-10-10T09:31:49Z

+        if apt-cache show coreutils-from-gnu >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+          sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils-
+        fi
+        if dpkg -s coreutils-from-uutils >/dev/null 2>&1; then


why do check whether coreutils-from-uutil is installed when we've just uninstalled it? if the previous operation succeeded than this state is impossible

If coreutils-from-gnu isn't in the index (renamed, say), the install is skipped and uutils stays the system coreutils. This check is what fails the job then.

If we can check whether coreutils-from-uutils is installed, why not:

if dpkg -s coreutils-from-uutils >/dev/null 2>&1; then sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y --allow-remove-essential coreutils-from-gnu coreutils-from-uutils- fi

Good point, changed.

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

xtqqczze · 2026-10-11T21:58:51Z

@abendrothj please rewrite the commit description, it reads like AI and doesn't really add anything

xtqqczze · 2026-10-11T22:13:40Z

+    - name: Use GNU as the system coreutils
+      shell: bash
+      run: |
+        ## Images such as ubuntu-26.04 ship uutils as the system coreutils; switch to GNU, or fail.


I'm not sure these comments are adding much value.

…ainst it

abendrothj · 2026-10-11T22:40:43Z

Fair, dropped the commit body and the comments.

Copilot

Copilot was unable to review this pull request because the user who requested the review has reached their quota limit.

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 2, 2026 02:28

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 2, 2026

oech3 mentioned this pull request Oct 2, 2026

GnuTests: use coreutils-from-gnu #15007

Closed

abendrothj force-pushed the ci-runner-gnu-coreutils branch from bf81051 to 23333fd Compare October 4, 2026 00:23

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 4, 2026 00:23

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 4, 2026

xtqqczze reviewed Oct 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

abendrothj force-pushed the ci-runner-gnu-coreutils branch from 23333fd to 47face8 Compare October 5, 2026 20:48

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 5, 2026 20:48

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 5, 2026

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 6, 2026 07:15

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 6, 2026

abendrothj changed the title ~~CI: use GNU as the system coreutils on ubuntu-26.04 runners~~ CI: make sure GNU is the system coreutils in the jobs that compare against it Oct 6, 2026

abendrothj mentioned this pull request Oct 6, 2026

GnuTests.yml: let root tests run the uutils build #15005

Open

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 10, 2026 04:26

abendrothj force-pushed the ci-runner-gnu-coreutils branch from f1b4415 to 44e0404 Compare October 10, 2026 04:26

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 10, 2026

xtqqczze reviewed Oct 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

abendrothj force-pushed the ci-runner-gnu-coreutils branch from 44e0404 to b0003f1 Compare October 11, 2026 21:46

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 11, 2026 21:46

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 11, 2026

xtqqczze reviewed Oct 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

CI: make sure GNU is the system coreutils in the jobs that compare ag…

ed8c931

…ainst it

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 11, 2026 22:40

abendrothj force-pushed the ci-runner-gnu-coreutils branch from b0003f1 to ed8c931 Compare October 11, 2026 22:40

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 11, 2026

Conversation

abendrothj commented Oct 2, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

github-actions Bot commented Oct 2, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

oech3 commented Oct 2, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

abendrothj commented Oct 4, 2026

Uh oh!

xtqqczze left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

oech3 Oct 5, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

oech3 Oct 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

oech3 commented Oct 5, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

abendrothj commented Oct 6, 2026

Uh oh!

oech3 commented Oct 7, 2026

Uh oh!

abendrothj commented Oct 8, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

abendrothj commented Oct 2, 2026 •

edited

Loading

github-actions Bot commented Oct 2, 2026 •

edited

Loading

oech3 Oct 5, 2026 •

edited

Loading

oech3 Oct 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

oech3 commented Oct 5, 2026 •

edited

Loading

xtqqczze commented Oct 11, 2026 •

edited

Loading