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chore: update blog post date

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2025-09-15 12:16:51 +00:00
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@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ description: Latest news and updates from the Task team
<BlogPost
title="Announcing Built-in Core Utilities for Windows"
url="/blog/windows-core-utils"
date="2025-08-26"
date="2025-09-15"
author="andreynering"
description="When I started Task back in 2017, one of my biggest goals was to build a task runner that would work well on all major platforms, including Windows. At the time, I was using Windows as my main platform, and it caught my attention how much of a pain it was to get a working version of Make on Windows, for example."
:tags="['windows', 'core-utils']"

127
website/src/blog/windows-core-utils.md
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@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
---
title: "Announcing Built-in Core Utilities for Windows"
title: 'Announcing Built-in Core Utilities for Windows'
description: The journey of enhancing Windows support in Task.
author: andreynering
date: 2025-08-26
date: 2025-09-15
outline: deep
---
@@ -11,42 +11,39 @@ outline: deep
<AuthorCard :author="$frontmatter.author" />
When I started Task back in 2017, one of my biggest goals was to build a task
runner that would work well on all major platforms, including Windows.
At the time, I was using Windows as my main platform, and it caught my attention
how much of a pain it was to get a working version of Make on Windows, for
example.
runner that would work well on all major platforms, including Windows. At the
time, I was using Windows as my main platform, and it caught my attention how
much of a pain it was to get a working version of Make on Windows, for example.
## The very beginning
The very first versions, which looked very prototyp-ish, already supported
Windows, but it was falling back to Command Prompt (`cmd.exe`) to run commands
if `bash` wasn't available in the system. That didn't mean you couldn't run
Bash commands on Windows necessarily, because if you used Task inside Git Bash,
it would expose `bash.exe` into your `$PATH`, which made possible for Task to
use it. Outside of it, you would be out of luck, though, because running on
Command Prompt meant that the commands wouldn't be really compatible.
if `bash` wasn't available in the system. That didn't mean you couldn't run Bash
commands on Windows necessarily, because if you used Task inside Git Bash, it
would expose `bash.exe` into your `$PATH`, which made possible for Task to use
it. Outside of it, you would be out of luck, though, because running on Command
Prompt meant that the commands wouldn't be really compatible.
## Adopting a shell interpreter
I didn't take too much time to discover that there was
[a shell interpreter for Go that was very solid][mvdan], and I quickly adopted
it to ensure we would be able to run commands with consistency across all
platforms. It was fun because once adopted, I had the opportunity to
[make some contributions to make it more stable][mvdan-prs], which I'm sure the
author appreciated.
I didn't take too much time to discover that there was [a shell interpreter for
Go that was very solid][mvdan], and I quickly adopted it to ensure we would be
able to run commands with consistency across all platforms. It was fun because
once adopted, I had the opportunity to [make some contributions to make it more
stable][mvdan-prs], which I'm sure the author appreciated.
## The lack of core utilities
There was one important thing missing, though. If you needed to use any core
utilities on Windows, like copying files with `cp`, moving with `mv`, creating
a directory with `mkdir -p`, that likely would just fail :boom:.
There were workarounds, of course. You could run `task` inside Git Bash which
exposed core utils in `$PATH` for you, or you could install these core utils
manually (there are a good number of alternative implementations available
for download).
utilities on Windows, like copying files with `cp`, moving with `mv`, creating a
directory with `mkdir -p`, that likely would just fail :boom:. There were
workarounds, of course. You could run `task` inside Git Bash which exposed core
utils in `$PATH` for you, or you could install these core utils manually (there
are a good number of alternative implementations available for download).
That was still far from ideal, though. One of my biggest goals with Task is that it
should "just work", even on Windows. Requiring additional setup to make
That was still far from ideal, though. One of my biggest goals with Task is that
it should "just work", even on Windows. Requiring additional setup to make
things work is exactly what I wanted to avoid.
## They finally arrive!
@@ -55,21 +52,21 @@ And here we are, in 2025, 8 years after the initial release. We might be late,
but I'm happy nonetheless. From now on, the following core utilities will be
available on Windows. This is the start. We want to add more with time.
* `base64`
* `cat`
* `chmod`
* `cp`
* `find`
* `gzip`
* `ls`
* `mkdir`
* `mktemp`
* `mv`
* `rm`
* `shasum`
* `tar`
* `touch`
* `xargs`
- `base64`
- `cat`
- `chmod`
- `cp`
- `find`
- `gzip`
- `ls`
- `mkdir`
- `mktemp`
- `mv`
- `rm`
- `shasum`
- `tar`
- `touch`
- `xargs`
## How we made this possible
@@ -78,24 +75,23 @@ projects.
### u-root/u-root
We are using the core utilities implementations in Go from the
[u-root][u-root] project. It wasn't as simple as it sounds because they have
originally implemented every core util as a standalone `main` package, which
means we couldn't just import and use them as libraries. We had some discussion
and we agreed on a common [interface][uroot-interface] and
[base implementation][uroot-base]. Then, I refactored one-by-one of the core
utils in the list above. This is the reason we don't have all of them: there are
too many! But the good news is that we can refactor more with time and include
them in Task.
We are using the core utilities implementations in Go from the [u-root][u-root]
project. It wasn't as simple as it sounds because they have originally
implemented every core util as a standalone `main` package, which means we
couldn't just import and use them as libraries. We had some discussion and we
agreed on a common [interface][uroot-interface] and [base
implementation][uroot-base]. Then, I refactored one-by-one of the core utils in
the list above. This is the reason we don't have all of them: there are too
many! But the good news is that we can refactor more with time and include them
in Task.
### mvdan/sh
The other collaboration was with the maintainer of the shell interpreter.
He agreed on having [an official middleware][middleware] to expose these core
utilities.
This means that other projects that use the shell interpreter can also benefit
from this work, and as more utilities are included, those projects will benefit
as well.
The other collaboration was with the maintainer of the shell interpreter. He
agreed on having [an official middleware][middleware] to expose these core
utilities. This means that other projects that use the shell interpreter can
also benefit from this work, and as more utilities are included, those projects
will benefit as well.
## Can I choose whether to use them or not?
@@ -112,25 +108,28 @@ env TASK_CORE_UTILS=1 task ...
env TASK_CORE_UTILS=0 task ...
```
We'll consider making this enabled by default on all platforms in the future.
In the meantime, we're still using the system core utils on non-Windows
platforms to avoid regressions as the Go implementations may not be 100%
compatible with the system ones.
We'll consider making this enabled by default on all platforms in the future. In
the meantime, we're still using the system core utils on non-Windows platforms
to avoid regressions as the Go implementations may not be 100% compatible with
the system ones.
## Feedback
If you have any feedback about this feature, join our [Discord server][discord]
or [open an issue][gh-issue] on GitHub.
Also, if Task is useful for you or your company, consider
[sponsoring the project][sponsor]!
Also, if Task is useful for you or your company, consider [sponsoring the
project][sponsor]!
[mvdan]: https://github.com/mvdan/sh
[mvdan-prs]: https://github.com/mvdan/sh/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Aandreynering+is%3Aclosed+sort%3Acreated-asc
[mvdan-prs]:
https://github.com/mvdan/sh/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Aandreynering+is%3Aclosed+sort%3Acreated-asc
[u-root]: https://github.com/u-root/u-root
[uroot-interface]: https://github.com/u-root/u-root/blob/main/pkg/core/command.go
[uroot-interface]:
https://github.com/u-root/u-root/blob/main/pkg/core/command.go
[uroot-base]: https://github.com/u-root/u-root/blob/main/pkg/core/base.go
[middleware]: https://github.com/mvdan/sh/blob/master/moreinterp/coreutils/coreutils.go
[middleware]:
https://github.com/mvdan/sh/blob/master/moreinterp/coreutils/coreutils.go
[task-core-utils]: /docs/reference/environment#task-core-utils
[discord]: https://discord.com/invite/6TY36E39UK
[gh-issue]: https://github.com/go-task/task/issues