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authorMarc Cornellà <marc.cornella@live.com>2019-12-27 00:04:40 +0100
committerMarc Cornellà <marc.cornella@live.com>2019-12-27 00:04:40 +0100
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gnu-utils: add README, simplify plugin
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+# gnu-utils plugin
+
+This plugin binds GNU coreutils to their default names, so that you don't have
+to call them using their prefixed name, which starts with `g`. This is useful
+in systems which don't have GNU coreutils installed by default, mainly macOS
+or FreeBSD, which use BSD coreutils.
+
+To use it, add `gnu-utils` to the plugins array in your zshrc file:
+```zsh
+plugins=(... gnu-utils)
+```
+
+The plugin works by changing the path that the command hash points to, so
+instead of `ls` pointing to `/bin/ls`, it points to wherever `gls` is
+installed.
+
+Since `hash -rf` or `rehash` refreshes the command hashes, it also wraps
+`hash` and `rehash` so that the coreutils binding is always done again
+after calling these two commands.
+
+Look at the source code of the plugin to see which GNU coreutils are tried
+to rebind. Open an issue if there are some missing.
+
+## Other methods
+
+The plugin also documents two other ways to do this:
+
+1. Using a function wrapper, such that, for example, there exists a function
+named `ls` which calls `gls` instead. Since functions have a higher preference
+than commands, this ends up calling the GNU coreutil. It has also a higher
+preference over shell builtins (`gecho` is called instead of the builtin `echo`).
+
+2. Using an alias. This has an even higher preference than functions, but they
+could be overridden because of a user setting.
+
+## Author
+
+- [Sorin Ionescu](https://github.com/sorin-ionescu).