Minishell Project

Welcome to my Minishell project, a deep dive into the heart of Unix-based command-line interfaces. This repository showcases my journey through building a miniature version of the Bash shell as part of the 42 School curriculum.

Overview

Minishell is a simplified shell implementation written in C. Its goal is to replicate essential Bash functionalities while teaching core concepts like process management, memory allocation, system calls, and parsing techniques.

Key Features

• Command Execution: Supports built-in commands like echo, cd, pwd, export, unset, env, and exit.
• Redirections & Pipes: Handles input/output redirection and pipelines like ls | grep file > output.txt.
• Environment Management: Manages environment variables dynamically.
• Signal Handling: Responds gracefully to signals like Ctrl+C and Ctrl+D.
• Custom Parsing: Tokenizes and processes user input for seamless command execution.

My Role

I focused on:

• Parsing: Converting raw user input into executable command structures.
• Built-ins Implementation: Writing and optimizing core shell commands.
• Memory Management: Debugging memory leaks and ensuring efficient resource use.

Challenges & Lessons Learned

• System Calls Mastery: Leveraging fork, execve, and pipe for process control.
• Error Handling: Managing unexpected input and edge cases.
• Norminette Compliance: Following strict C coding standards for clean, maintainable code.

Why This Project Matters

Working on Minishell has deepened my understanding of operating systems, process management, and shell functionality. It’s more than just a project — it’s a hands-on exploration of how Unix systems operate under the hood.

How to Use

1. Clone the repository:

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

2. Compile the source code:

   make
   

3. Run the shell:

   ./minishell
   

What’s Next?

While I completed the core features, there’s always room for improvement. Future goals include implementing logical operators like && and ||, enhancing error handling, and refining built-in commands.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my teammate for tackling command execution and system calls. This project was an intense but rewarding experience, blending theory and practice in low-level programming.

Happy coding! 🚀