Tasks for GNU fileutils (listed in order of decreasing priority): unify textutils/fileutils/sh-utils libitize update copyright dates make help/version output conformant ls: test suite to exercize -l and -l --full-time with various LANG settings mv: move non-regular files between partitions. This will probably involve factoring out and librarizing cp's copying code. ls: recognize --format="%a %b..." strftime formats ls: add new % formats to get the 10 bytes of the permissions string (both individually and as groups) cp, mv, ln, install: make --verbose report on backup files chmod, chown (maybe others): Don't strip slashes unless configure detects that e.g. lstat can't deal with them. fix automake's rm -f $(libexec_PROGRAMS) rule of clean-libexecPROGRAMS chown/chgrp/chmod: add new option: --reference=FILE see +utils/chown