Back in 2025, Canonical began its push toward a full-blown Rustification of the coreutils package (which contains around 100 standard Linux command-line tools, such as chgrp, chmod, chown, cp, dd, df, du, ln, ls, mkdir, mv, pwd, rm, rmdir, and touch), but there were hiccups.

For example, a bug was discovered in the Rust-based version of the date command, which prevented desktops, servers, cloud, and container images from automatically checking for updates when configured to do so. As more bugs were found, it became impossible to "oxidize" Ubuntu 25.10; ergo, the migration was pushed back.

After that deadline passed, Canonical commissioned an audit of the uutils package and, as it turned out, there were time-of-check to time-of-use issues found in three commands: cp, mv, and rm. Those issues have been officially resolved upstream, so Ubuntu 26.10 will include the full Rust-based coreutils and uutils packages when it is released on October 15, 2026.

As well, the Trifecta Tech Foundation is also undertaking the Rustification of the Network Time Protocol (NTP), but that will not appear until the 27.10 version of Ubuntu.

It's important to understand that Rusting these commands isn't about new features but, rather, improved security. "Performance is a frequently cited rationale for ‘Rewrite it in Rust’ projects," stated Jon Seager, VP of Engineering for Canonical. He continues, "While performance is high on my list of priorities, it’s not the primary driver behind this change. These utilities are at the heart of the distribution – and it’s the enhanced resilience and safety that is more easily achieved with Rust ports that are most attractive to me."