source files for linux commands

Bucephalus · 06-14-2008, 01:27 AM

Hi

I would like to know where I can find the source files for linux commands such as ls, and mkdir.
Better still, the best way to find ls without being told where ls is..
if you know what I mean
I ran a find / -name "*.c"
I think I have to do something else.
Either where it is or how to find it, or both would be very much appreciated.

Buce

Nylex · 06-14-2008, 01:32 AM

You can just google for the project's homepage. ls is part of GNU Coreutils. You won't have the source on your system unless you specifically installed the source packages for your distro.

pinniped · 06-14-2008, 01:37 AM

Another implementation of "ls" is in "busybox". Then again, the GNU Coreutils source may be much easier to read.

Bucephalus · 06-14-2008, 01:43 AM

Great
thanks for you help.

jschiwal · 06-14-2008, 02:07 AM

You should put your distribution in your user profile. If you have an RPM based distribution, you can use "rpm -qf </path/to/command>" to find which package supplies that file. Then it's a matter of downloading the source rpm to obtain the source. Another reason you may want to download the source is to use the info source to produce print worthy versions of the documentation. The coreutils.pdf is over 200 pages long and very good. Either the gawk or gawk-doc package includes an excellent book on AWK programming.

Bucephalus · 06-14-2008, 11:10 PM

thanks for your help.
I updated my profile a little.

btmiller · 06-14-2008, 11:52 PM

On Ubuntu, you can just do "apt-get source <package name>" (no quotes) from the terminal to get the source code for a particular package.