Minishell

Minishell is a simple shell implementation written in C. It provides a minimalistic command-line interface with basic shell functionalities.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• Contributing

Introduction

Minishell is a lightweight shell designed to demonstrate basic shell operations and provide a learning resource for understanding shell programming. It includes features commonly found in Unix-like shells, allowing users to interact with the system through a command-line interface.

Features

• Efficient executable search based on the PATH variable
• Support for launching executables with relative or absolute paths
• Basic shell functionalities (e.g., command execution, input/output redirection, pipelines)
• Simple built-in commands (e.g., cd, echo, pwd, export, unset)
• Input/output/appended/heredoc redirection
• Pipeline support
• Basic error handling
• Signal handling for ctrl-C, ctrl-D, and ctrl-\

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
  • Command Execution
  • Built-in Commands
  • Redirection
  • Pipeline Support
• Installation
• Usage
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

Minishell is a lightweight shell designed to demonstrate basic shell operations, with a special emphasis on efficiently searching for and launching executables. It provides a command-line interface that allows users to execute programs either by specifying their absolute or relative path or relying on the system's PATH variable.

Features

• Efficient executable search based on the PATH variable
• Support for launching executables with relative or absolute paths
• Basic shell functionalities (e.g., command execution, input/output redirection, pipelines)
• Simple built-in commands (e.g., cd, echo, pwd, export, unset)
• Input/output/appended/heredoc redirection
• Pipeline support
• Basic error handling
• Signal handling for ctrl-C, ctrl-D, and ctrl-\

Command Execution

Describe the command execution feature here. Include any details about how Minishell executes commands and any specific behaviors.

Built-in Commands

Minishell supports various built-in commands. Some examples include:

• cd: Change directory
• echo: Print arguments to the standard output
• pwd: Print the current working directory
• export: Set environment variables
• unset: Unset environment variables

Redirection

Minishell supports input/output/appended/heredoc redirection. Here are examples:

• Input redirection: command < input.txt
• Output redirection: command > output.txt
• Appended redirection: command >> output.txt
• Heredoc redirection: command << EOF

Pipeline Support

Execute commands in a pipeline using the | operator:

```bash
command1 | command2
```

Installation

To use Minishell, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository:

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

2. Build the project:

   make

3. Run Minishell:

   ./minishell

Usage

Minishell supports standard shell commands and features. Here are some examples:

• Run a command:

  ls -l

• Change directory:

  cd /path/to/directory

• Input/output redirection:

  ls > output.txt

• Pipeline:

  ls | grep keyword

For more information, refer to the man page or help command within Minishell.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to contribute to Minishell, please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
3. Make your changes and submit a pull request.