# New Year, New Series: Build your own [BYO]

As the calendar flips to a new year, it’s the perfect time to embrace fresh challenges and embark on exciting journeys. This year, I’m thrilled to announce a brand-new series: **Build Your Own**. The goal of this series is to dive deep into how common Linux command-line utilities work and recreate them using modern technologies like **Java**, **GraalVM**, and **Spring Native**.

## Why This Series?

Linux command-line tools are the unsung heroes of software development and system administration. Utilities like `grep`, `cat`, `ls`, and `curl` have been around for decades, and they’ve proven to be indispensable in countless workflows. By building these utilities from scratch, we get to:

1. **Understand Their Inner Workings**: There’s no better way to learn than by doing. Rebuilding these tools gives us a peek under the hood.
    
2. **Enhance Problem-Solving Skills**: Each utility comes with unique challenges that push us to think critically and creatively.
    
3. **Leverage Modern Tech**: By using Java, GraalVM, and Spring Native, we can reimagine these utilities with better performance and cross-platform capabilities.
    
4. **Foster Community Learning**: Sharing this journey helps others learn, contribute, and grow alongside me.
    

## The Tech Stack

### 1\. **Java**

Java is a robust and versatile programming language with a rich ecosystem. It’s a perfect choice for this project because it combines simplicity with power, making it ideal for building both small utilities and large-scale applications.

### 2\. **GraalVM**

GraalVM is a high-performance runtime that extends Java capabilities with native image generation. By using GraalVM, we can compile our utilities into lightweight native binaries, ensuring lightning-fast startup times and reduced resource usage.

### 3\. **Spring Native**

Spring Native enables the creation of Spring Boot applications as native executables. This allows us to leverage the Spring ecosystem’s productivity while reaping the benefits of native compilation.

## What to Expect

In this series, we’ll tackle a variety of CLI utilities, starting simple and progressively increasing in complexity. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the tools we’ll build:

* `cat`: Displaying file contents.
    
* `grep`: Searching for patterns in files.
    
* `wc`: Counting words, lines, and characters.
    
* `ls`: Listing directory contents.
    
* `curl`: Fetching data from URLs.
    

For each utility, we’ll cover:

1. **An Overview**: What the tool does and its real-world applications.
    
2. **Implementation**: Step-by-step coding walkthroughs using Java, GraalVM, and Spring Native.
    
3. **Optimization**: Techniques to improve performance and usability.
    
4. **Comparison**: How our version stacks up against the original.
    

## Code repository

All the code used in this series can be found here: [link](https://github.com/arpitrathore/build-your-own)

## Join the Journey

This series is more than just coding; it’s about exploring, learning, and sharing knowledge. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a curious beginner, I invite you to follow along, experiment with the code, and share your thoughts and improvements.

The first post in this series drops soon, where we’ll recreate the humble yet powerful `cat` command. Until then, let’s toast to a year of innovation, learning, and growth.

Stay tuned, and happy New Year!