/simple_shell

A simple shell project done during our ALX Software Engineering program

Primary LanguageC

0x16. C - Simple Shell

  • By Julien Barbier
  • Project to be done in teams of 2 people (team: David Oduse, Oladipupo Solarin)

Concepts

For this project, students are expected to look at these concepts:

Background Context

Write a simple UNIX command interpreter.

^ "The Gates of Shell", by Spencer Cheng, featuring Julien Barbier

Resources

Read or watch:

man or help:

  • sh (Run sh as well)

Learning Objectives

At the end of this project, you are expected to be able to explain to anyone, without the help of Google:

General

  • Who designed and implemented the original Unix operating system
  • Who wrote the first version of the UNIX shell
  • Who invented the B programming language (the direct predecessor to the C programming language)
  • Who is Ken Thompson
  • How does a shell work
  • What is a pid and a ppid
  • How to manipulate the environment of the current process
  • What is the difference between a function and a system call
  • How to create processes
  • What are the three prototypes of main
  • How does the shell use the PATH to find the programs
  • How to execute another program with the execve system call
  • How to suspend the execution of a process until one of its children terminates
  • What is EOF / "end-of-file"?

Requirements

General

  • Allowed editors: vi, vim, emacs
  • All your files will be compiled on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS using gcc, using the options -Wall -Werror -Wextra -pedantic -std=gnu89
  • All your files should end with a new line
  • A README.md file, at the root of the folder of the project is mandatory
  • Your code should use the Betty style. It will be checked using betty-style.pl and betty-doc.pl
  • Your shell should not have any memory leaks
  • No more than 5 functions per file
  • All your header files should be include guarded
  • Use system calls only when you need to (why?)

GitHub

There should be one project repository per group. If you clone/fork/whatever a project repository with the same name before the second deadline, you risk a 0% score.

More Info

Output

  • Unless specified otherwise, your program must have the exact same output as sh (/bin/sh) as well as the exact same error output.
  • The only difference is when you print an error, the name of the program must be equivalent to your argv[0] (See below)

Example of error with sh:

$ echo "qwerty" | /bin/sh
/bin/sh: 1: qwerty: not found
$ echo "qwerty" | /bin/../bin/sh
/bin/../bin/sh: 1: qwerty: not found
$

Same error with your program hsh:

$ echo "qwerty" | ./hsh
./hsh: 1: qwerty: not found
$ echo "qwerty" | ./././hsh
./././hsh: 1: qwerty: not found
$

List of allowed functions and system calls

  • access (man 2 access)
  • chdir (man 2 chdir)
  • close (man 2 close)
  • closedir (man 3 closedir)
  • execve (man 2 execve)
  • exit (man 3 exit)
  • _exit (man 2 _exit)
  • fflush (man 3 fflush)
  • fork (man 2 fork)
  • free (man 3 free)
  • getcwd (man 3 getcwd)
  • getline (man 3 getline)
  • getpid (man 2 getpid)
  • isatty (man 3 isatty)
  • kill (man 2 kill)
  • malloc (man 3 malloc)
  • open (man 2 open)
  • opendir (man 3 opendir)
  • perror (man 3 perror)
  • read (man 2 read)
  • readdir (man 3 readdir)
  • signal (man 2 signal)
  • stat (__xstat) (man 2 stat)
  • lstat (__lxstat) (man 2 lstat)
  • fstat (__fxstat) (man 2 fstat)
  • strtok (man 3 strtok)
  • wait (man 2 wait)
  • waitpid (man 2 waitpid)
  • wait3 (man 2 wait3)
  • wait4 (man 2 wait4)
  • write (man 2 write)

Compilation

Your shell will be compiled this way:

gcc -Wall -Werror -Wextra -pedantic -std=gnu89 *.c -o hsh

Testing

Your shell should work like this in interactive mode:

$ ./hsh
($) /bin/ls
hsh main.c shell.c
($)
($) exit
$

But also in non-interactive mode:

$ echo "/bin/ls" | ./hsh
hsh main.c shell.c test_ls_2
$
$ cat test_ls_2
/bin/ls
/bin/ls
$
$ cat test_ls_2 | ./hsh
hsh main.c shell.c test_ls_2
hsh main.c shell.c test_ls_2
$

Checks

The Checker will be released at the end of the project (1-2 days before the deadline). We strongly encourage the entire class to work together to create a suite of checks covering both regular tests and edge cases for each task. See task 8\. Test suite.

Tasks

0. README, man, AUTHORS

mandatory

  • Write a README
  • Write a man for your shell.
  • You should have an AUTHORS file at the root of your repository, listing all individuals having contributed content to the repository. Format, see Docker

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell
  • File: README.md, man_1_simple_shell, AUTHORS

1. Betty would be proud

mandatory

Write a beautiful code that passes the Betty checks

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell

2. Simple shell 0.1

mandatory

Write a UNIX command line interpreter.

  • Usage: simple_shell

Your Shell should:

  • Display a prompt and wait for the user to type a command. A command line always ends with a new line.
  • The prompt is displayed again each time a command has been executed.
  • The command lines are simple, no semicolons, no pipes, no redirections or any other advanced features.
  • The command lines are made only of one word. No arguments will be passed to programs.
  • If an executable cannot be found, print an error message and display the prompt again.
  • Handle errors.
  • You have to handle the "end of file" condition (Ctrl+D)

You don't have to:

  • use the PATH
  • implement built-ins
  • handle special characters : ", ', ```, \, `*`, `&`, `#`
  • be able to move the cursor
  • handle commands with arguments
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ ./shell
#cisfun$ ls
./shell: No such file or directory
#cisfun$ /bin/ls
barbie_j       env-main.c  exec.c  fork.c  pid.c  ppid.c    prompt   prompt.c  shell.c  stat.c         wait
env-environ.c  exec    fork    mypid   ppid   printenv  promptc  shell     stat test_scripting.sh  wait.c
#cisfun$ /bin/ls -l
./shell: No such file or directory
#cisfun$ ^[[D^[[D^[[D
./shell: No such file or directory
#cisfun$ ^[[C^[[C^[[C^[[C
./shell: No such file or directory
#cisfun$ exit
./shell: No such file or directory
#cisfun$ ^C
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ echo "/bin/ls" | ./shell
#cisfun$ barbie_j       env-main.c  exec.c  fork.c  pid.c  ppid.c    prompt   prompt.c  shell.c stat.c         wait
env-environ.c  exec    fork    mypid   ppid   printenv  promptc  shell     stat test_scripting.sh  wait.c
#cisfun$ julien@ubuntu:~/shell$

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell

3. Simple shell 0.2

mandatory

Simple shell 0.1 +

  • Handle command lines with arguments

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell

4. Simple shell 0.3

mandatory

Simple shell 0.2 +

  • Handle the PATH
  • fork must not be called if the command doesn't exist
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ ./shell_0.3
:) /bin/ls
barbie_j       env-main.c  exec.c  fork.c  pid.c  ppid.c    prompt   prompt.c  shell_0.3  stat    test_scripting.sh  wait.c
env-environ.c  exec    fork    mypid   ppid   printenv  promptc  shell     shell.c    stat.c  wait
:) ls
barbie_j       env-main.c  exec.c  fork.c  pid.c  ppid.c    prompt   prompt.c  shell_0.3  stat    test_scripting.sh  wait.c
env-environ.c  exec    fork    mypid   ppid   printenv  promptc  shell     shell.c    stat.c  wait
:) ls -l /tmp
total 20
-rw------- 1 julien julien    0 Dec  5 12:09 config-err-aAMZrR
drwx------ 3 root   root   4096 Dec  5 12:09 systemd-private-062a0eca7f2a44349733e78cb4abdff4-colord.service-V7DUzr
drwx------ 3 root   root   4096 Dec  5 12:09 systemd-private-062a0eca7f2a44349733e78cb4abdff4-rtkit-daemon.service-ANGvoV
drwx------ 3 root   root   4096 Dec  5 12:07 systemd-private-062a0eca7f2a44349733e78cb4abdff4-systemd-timesyncd.service-CdXUtH
-rw-rw-r-- 1 julien julien    0 Dec  5 12:09 unity_support_test.0
:) ^C
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell

5. Simple shell 0.4

mandatory

Simple shell 0.3 +

  • Implement the exit built-in, that exits the shell
  • Usage: exit
  • You don't have to handle any argument to the built-in exit

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell

6. Simple shell 1.0

mandatory

Simple shell 0.4 +

  • Implement the env built-in, that prints the current environment
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ ./simple_shell
$ env
USER=julien
LANGUAGE=en_US
SESSION=ubuntu
COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE=ubuntu
SHLVL=1
HOME=/home/julien
C_IS=Fun_:)
DESKTOP_SESSION=ubuntu
LOGNAME=julien
TERM=xterm-256color
PATH=/home/julien/bin:/home/julien/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
DISPLAY=:0
$ exit
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$

Repo:

  • GitHub repository: simple_shell

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