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.

Happy coding!