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cp -r, rm -rf, mkpath, cat and which as portable Raku subs — the shell one-liners your script was about to shell out for, without the shell.

Version

1.2 zef:raku-community-modules

Depends

File::Find

License

MIT

Its own test suite

1 file, green

Checked

2026-08-28 against Raku++ 3.20.1 and Rakudo 2026.08

Where it lives

raku.land · source

Install it #

$ rakupp install Shell::Command

zef install Shell::Command writes the same store; either installer leaves the module usable by both engines.

What it is for #

Every build script reaches a line where the author thinks "this is just cp -r" — and then either shells out (goodbye Windows, hello quoting bugs) or writes a recursive copy by hand. This module is the middle path: the famous shell verbs as plain Raku subs that walk the filesystem through Raku's own IO, so they behave the same everywhere Raku runs:

use Shell::Command;

my $work = $*TMPDIR.add("sc-demo-$*PID").Str;
mkpath "$work/src/deep";
"$work/src/a.txt".IO.spurt('first');
"$work/src/deep/b.txt".IO.spurt('second');

cp "$work/src", "$work/backup", :r;
say "$work/backup/deep/b.txt".IO.slurp;

rm_rf $work;
say $work.IO.e;

second
False

mkpath is mkdir -p; cp copies one file, or with :r a whole tree — creating the destination directories as it goes; rm_rf takes the tree down again, files and all, and does not blink at a path that is already gone. The names keep their shell spelling, underscores and all, so the line reads like what it does.

The rest of the toolbox #

Three more verbs round it out. rm_f unlinks files (no directories, no error if absent); cat prints files in order — the workhorse for concatenating build fragments; and which walks PATH for an executable:

use Shell::Command;

my $work = $*TMPDIR.add("sc-cat-$*PID").Str;
mkpath $work;
"$work/one.txt".IO.spurt('line one');
"$work/two.txt".IO.spurt('line two');

cat "$work/one.txt", "$work/two.txt";

say which('sh');
rm_rf $work;

line one
line two
/bin/sh

One habit to know: cat prints each file with say, so a file that already ends in a newline gets a blank line after it — the files above deliberately do not, and for byte-exact concatenation you would print the slurps yourself.

If which is the main thing you came for, the dedicated File::Which distribution does that one job with more care — :all results, Windows PATHEXT handling — where this which is the simple Unix walk. The overlap is honest: this module is a toolbox, that one is a tool.

There is also run-command, a thin wrapper over run that invokes an external program portably — on Windows it routes through cmd.exe for you — and hands back the Proc. It is the escape hatch for the verb this module does not have.

Where the two engines differ #

Nothing on this page. The tree copy, the recursive removal, path creation, concatenation and the PATH walk answer identically under Raku++ and Rakudo — File::Find, which powers the recursion and has a page of its own, already made the same claim.

What was run to put this page here #

1. Parse — every file of the distribution is parsed by Raku++ itself.
2. Install — rakupp install Shell::Command, which brings File::Find with it.
3. Test — the distribution's own suite: 1 file, green.
4. Run — every example on this page, twice under each engine, as the site is built.

Twelve distributions depend on it — mostly build tooling, which is exactly the code that cannot afford to assume a shell.