Minishell

A small Unix-like shell implemented in C that reproduces core bash features: parsing, execution, redirections, heredoc, pipes, and a selection of builtins.

Goals

• Display interactive prompt with history.
• Handle quoted strings (single & double quotes).
• Support input/output redirections and heredoc.
• Support pipes between commands.
• Expand environment variables.
• Provide builtin commands executed in the parent where required.
• Basic signal handling to avoid unwanted termination.

Quick start

Build:

make

Run:

./minishell

Run tests (simple script included):

./test_minishell.sh
# or the checker:
./github_checker_checker.sh

Project layout (important files)

• Entry point: main.c (main)
• Core loop: src/minishell.c (minishell) — reads prompt, history, calls parser and executor.
• Parser & helpers: src/parse/* (see files under src/parse/aux/) — tokenization and argument handling.
  • Heredoc: src/parse/aux/heredoc.c (heredoc) — creates temporary heredoc files and collects input.
  • File handling: src/parse/aux/handle_file.c
• Execution: src/execute/* — process management, redirection, builtins.
  • Interfaces: include/execute.h
• Verification & shutdown: src/verify/end.c (end)
• Data types & globals: include/structs.h
• Public API and macros: include/minishell.h
• Build: Makefile

Features & behavior

• Prompt and history via GNU readline (linked by Makefile).
• Built-in commands implemented in src/builtin/* (examples: ft_cd, ft_pwd, ft_export, ft_unset, ft_env, ft_echo, ft_exit).
• Redirections:
  • < (ARROW_LEFT), << (DOUBLE_ARROW_LEFT/heredoc), > (ARROW_RIGHT), >> (DOUBLE_ARROW_RIGHT).
• Heredoc: temporary file .heredoc_<n> created by heredoc.
• Process management: pipes and forks handled under src/execute/ (see include/execute.h).
• Errors: reported using end in src/verify/end.c.

Development notes

• The project depends on a local libft (see Makefile LIBFT_PATH).
• Compiler flags: -Werror -Wextra -Wall -g.
• Object files are placed under .build/ as configured in the Makefile.

Running / debugging tips

• Use make to compile with debug symbols (-g).
• Use the included test scripts:
  • test_minishell.sh
  • github_checker_checker.sh
• For investigating heredoc behavior inspect heredoc and handle_file.

Contributing

• Follow coding style and tests already present.
• Add unit tests or integration tests under minishell_tester/ or via new scripts.

License & credits

• Libft helper library required: clone or build as defined in Makefile (LIBFT_URL).
• See Makefile for build and test targets.