Nutil

Nutil is a free and open-source collection of cross-platform command-line utilities designed to complement standard shells and scripting workflows. It provides small, focused programs for text processing, numeric computation, data transformation, and simple file management tasks. The project emphasizes modularity, composability, and high performance, with tools designed to be combined in pipelines.

Nutil is implemented in Rust, with a set of independent binaries that share a common runtime library. Each tool performs a single task and can be chained with others using standard input/output streams. The suite covers categories such as text processing (search, filter, transform), data extraction and conversion, numerical operations, and file-system utilities. The project uses a permissive license, typically MIT or BSD-style, and encourages contribution through a public Git repository.

Nutil began as a lightweight set of utilities created by a small development collective in the mid-2010s to address gaps in existing Unix toolchains. It has since grown through community contributions, with periodic major releases that introduce new commands, improved performance, and better platform coverage. The project maintains documentation, API references, and example workflows.

Nutil has seen adoption in software development, data analysis, and system administration, particularly among users who value simple, composable tools. Some criticisms note that the toolset remains less feature-rich than broader ecosystems like coreutils or jq in certain domains, and Windows support is not always on par with Unix-like environments. The project continues to evolve, prioritizing portability, minimalism, and clear UX.