Ruby

Remember that FileUtils is loaded dynamically, so it would be something like

class Pathname
  def mkdir_p(...) = _fileutils(:mkdir_p, ...)
  def ln(...) = _fileutils(:ln, ...)
  def ln_s(...) = _fileutils(:ln_s, ...)
  def ln_sf(...) = _fileutils(:ln_sf, ...)
  def cp(...) = _fileutils(:cp, ...)
  def cp_r(...) = _fileutils(:cp_r, ...)
  def mv(...) = _fileutils(:mv, ...)
  def rm(...) = _fileutils(:rm, ...)
  def rm_r(...) = _fileutils(:rm_r, ...)
  def rm_rf(...) = _fileutils(:rm_rf, ...)
  
  private def _fileutils(name, ...)
    require "pathname/fileutils"
    send(name, ...)
  end
end


#pathname/fileutils.rb
require "fileutils"
class Pathname
  def mkdir_p(...) = FileUtils.mkdir_p(@path, ...)
  def ln(...) = FileUtils.ln(@path, ...)
  def ln_s(...) = FileUtils.ln_s(@path, ...)
  def ln_sf(...) = FileUtils.ln_sf(@path, ...)
  def cp(...) = FileUtils.cp(@path, ...)
  def cp_r(...) = FileUtils.cp_r(@path, ...)
  def mv(...) = FileUtils.mv(@path, ...)
  def rm(...) = FileUtils.rm(@path, ...)
  def rm_r(...) = FileUtils.rm_r(@path, ...)
  def rm_rf(...) = FileUtils.rm_rf(@path, ...)
end

I'm open to any and all implementation suggestions, happy to do whatever is required. I just want the feature!

I am thinking in this direction: it is not unseen for standard libraries, when required, to add methods to core objects:

{a: 1}.to_json # NoMethodError
require 'json'
{a: 1}.to_json #=> {"a": 1}

Time.parse('12:20') # NoMethodError
require 'time'
Time.parse('12:20') #=> 2025-12-08 12:20:00 +0200

Why not this, then?

Pathname('tmp.txt').cp('tmp/') # NoMethodError
require 'fileutils'
Pathname('tmp.txt').cp('tmp/') # Works

As Pathname have became core object, it seems to be OK for a library like fileutils to be aware of it and extend it?

I feel Unix command names are too short for usual programs.
So, I'm negative.

I feel Unix command names are too short for usual programs.

At the same time:

• they are known at least to most of the console-using programmers, so this is a "dictionary" many of us familiar with
• FileUtils have a practice of aliasing them to more common words (cp as copy, mv as move, and so on) which Pathname can borrow, too. Pathname.new('test.txt').move('tmp/') is perfectly clear and unambiguous.