Minishell is a Unix shell written in C, designed to provide a basic command-line interface with features inspired by the Bash shell. It is a part of the 42 School curriculum and aims to implement various functionalities commonly found in popular shells.

• Prompt Display: Minishell displays a user-friendly prompt when waiting for a new command.

• Command History: The shell maintains a working history of commands for easy navigation.

• Command Execution: Minishell searches for and launches the right executable based on the PATH variable or using a relative or absolute path.

• Quoting Handling:

  • Does not interpret unclosed quotes or special characters unnecessary for the subject (e.g., \ or ;).
  • Handles single quotes (') to prevent the shell from interpreting meta-characters in the quoted sequence.
  • Handles double quotes (") to prevent the shell from interpreting meta-characters in the quoted sequence except for $ (dollar sign).

• Redirections:

  • < redirects input.
  • > redirects output.
  • << with a delimiter reads input until a line containing the delimiter is seen (without updating history).
  • >> redirects output in append mode.

• Pipes: Implements pipes (|) where the output of each command in the pipeline is connected to the input of the next command via a pipe.

• Environment Variables: Handles $ followed by a sequence of characters, expanding to their values.

• Special Variables:

  • Handles $?, which expands to the exit status of the most recently executed foreground pipeline.

• Signal Handling:

  • Handles ctrl-C, ctrl-D, and ctrl-\ similar to their behavior in Bash.
    • ctrl-C: Displays a new prompt on a new line.
    • ctrl-D: Exits the shell.
    • ctrl-\: Does nothing.

• Built-in Commands:

  • echo with the option -n.
  • cd with only a relative or absolute path.
  • pwd with no options.
  • export with no options.
  • unset with no options.
  • env with no options or arguments.
  • exit with no options.

• Logical Operators:

  • && and || with parentheses for priorities.

• Wildcard Support:

  • Wildcards (*) work for the current working directory.

To compile Minishell, use the provided Makefile:

make

Run the shell:

./minishell

Minishell provides a command-line interface where you can enter commands and explore various shell functionalities. Use ctrl-D to exit the shell.