Minishell

As beautiful as a shell

Overview

Minishell is a project designed to create a simple, custom shell in C, closely mimicking the functionality of Bash. The project focuses on understanding processes, file descriptors, and various shell operations. This README provides a detailed guide on the structure, functionality, and usage of the Minishell project.

Introduction
Features
Installation
Usage
Built-in Commands
Acknowledgments

Introduction

The existence of shells is linked to the very existence of IT. Initially, developers used aligned 1/0 switches to communicate with computers, which was quite cumbersome. The invention of shells allowed interactive command-line communication in a language closer to human language. With Minishell, we revisit the fundamental problems faced before modern GUIs and sophisticated shells like Bash.

Features

Minishell includes the following features:

Display a prompt while waiting for a new command.
Maintain a working history of commands.
Search and execute the correct executable based on the PATH variable or using a relative/absolute path.
Handle single and double quotes to manage metacharacters.
Implement input (<), output (>), append (>>), and here-document (<<) redirections.
Support pipes (|) to connect the output of one command to the input of another.
Manage environment variables and special parameter $? for the exit status of the most recently executed foreground pipeline.
Handle ctrl-C, ctrl-D, and ctrl-\ signals as in Bash.
Built-in commands: echo, cd, pwd, export, unset, env, and exit.

Installation

To install and run Minishell, follow these steps:

Clone the Repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd minishell

Build the Project
```
make
```
Run Minishell
```
./minishell
```

Usage

Once Minishell is running, you can use it similarly to Bash:

Basic Commands
```
ls -l
echo "Hello, World!"
```

Redirections

cat < input.txt
echo "New content" > output.txt
echo "Append this" >> output.txt
cat << EOF
> This is a
> here-document example
> EOF

Pipes
```
ls -l | grep minishell
```
Environment Variables
```
echo $HOME
echo $?
```
Signal Handling
- ctrl-C: Displays a new prompt on a new line.
- ctrl-D: Exits the shell.
- ctrl-\: Does nothing.

Built-in Commands

Minishell implements several built-in commands:

echo
```
echo -n "No newline"
```
cd
```
cd /path/to/directory
```
pwd
```
pwd
```
export
```
export VAR=value
```
unset
```
unset VAR
```
env
```
env
```
exit
```
exit
```

MiniShell

Install / Use

README