why write a command-line utility that mimics another

It is part of the "Perl Power Tools" / Unix Reconstruction Project — for which the README says

"Our goal is quite simply to reimplement the classic Unix command set in pure Perl, and to have as much fun as we can doing so."

(discontinued by now, AFAIK)

In reply to Re^2: file(1) equivalent? by Eliya
in thread file(1) equivalent? by Anonymous Monk

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