minishell

42 project minishell

A simple Unix shell implemented in C, designed as a project to understand and practice basic shell functionalities such as parsing commands, managing environment variables, handling redirections, and implementing built-in commands.

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Overview

minishell is a minimalistic command-line shell that replicates a subset of common shell features. This project is an educational exercise to deepen knowledge of process control, parsing, and system calls in Unix-based systems.

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Features

• Execute external commands with arguments
• Built-in commands: cd, echo, env, exit, pwd, export, unset
• Environment variable management
• Input/output redirection (>, <, >>)
• Command pipelines (|)
• Signal handling (e.g., Ctrl-C to interrupt)
• Proper error handling and exit statuses

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Unix-like operating system (Linux, macOS)
• GCC compiler (or compatible C compiler)
• Make utility

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

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

2. Compile the project using make:

   make

3. Run the shell:

   ./minishell

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Usage

Once running, you can enter commands just like in a regular shell.

Examples:

$ echo Hello, minishell!
Hello, minishell!
$ cd ..
$ pwd
/home/user
$ ls -l | grep minishell
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user user  12345 Jun 10 2025 minishell

To exit the shell, use the exit command or press Ctrl-D.

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Project Structure

• src/ - Source code files implementing the shell
• includes/ - Header files
• Makefile - Build configuration
• .gitignore - Ignored files for Git

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Contributing

This project is primarily for educational purposes. Feel free to fork and experiment with improvements or additional features.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Acknowledgments

Inspired by basic shell design principles and implemented as part of 42 coding curriculum.