Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Features
3. Installation
4. Usage
5. Commands

Introduction

Minishell is a minimalist shell. It is a smaller, educational version of a Unix shell like bash or zsh, created to learn how shells operate, manage processes, and handle user input.

Features

• Basic command execution (e.g., ls, echo, pwd)
• Handling of built-in shell commands (cd, echo, exit, export, pwd unset)
• Input and output redirection (>, <, >>, <<)
• Pipelining with |
• Environment variable handling and expansions
• Signal handling (e.g., Ctrl+C to terminate a running command and Ctrl+D)

Installation

To install and set up Minishell, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/uuuuuvika/minishell.git
   cd minishell

2. Build the project:

   make m

   This will compile the source code and run the executable named minishell.

Usage

To start using Minishell, run the following command in your terminal:

./minishell

You will be greeted with a prompt where you can start typing commands.

Commands

Minishell supports both built-in commands and external commands available in your system's PATH.

Built-in Commands

    cd [directory]: Change the current directory to directory.
        cd ..: Move to the parent directory.
        cd ~: Move to the home directory.
        cd .: Stay in the current directory.

    exit [status]: Exit the shell with an optional exit status.

    echo [string]: Print string to the terminal.
        echo -n [string]: Print string without a trailing newline.

    env: Print all environment variables.

    export [var]=[value]: Set an environment variable var to value.

    unset [var]: Remove the environment variable var.

External Commands

Any executable found in the directories listed in the PATH environment variable can be executed. For example:

• ls -la
• grep "pattern" file.txt

Redirection

• Output Redirection: Use > to redirect output to a file.

  echo "Hello, World!" > hello.txt
  
  

• Append Output Redirection: Use >> to redirect output to a file, appending to the file if it exists.

  echo "Hello, again!" >> hello.txt
  

• Input Redirection: Use < to redirect input from a file.

  cat < hello.txt
  

• Here Document: Use << to redirect input from a string until a delimiter is found.

  cat << EOF
  Hello, World!
  EOF
  

Pipelining

Use | to pipe the output of one command as the input to another.

ls -la | grep "pattern"

This Minishell is a project of the 42 Berlin curriculum designed and written in collaboration by uuuuuvika and ProjectDaiana

For any questions or suggestions, please feel free to open an issue or contact the project maintainers.