0x16. C - Simple Shell

C Group project Syscall

This is an ALX-SE (Software engineering) Collaborative project.The objective of this project is to access our understanding about project collaboration, the shell and UNIX operation system. This project accessing the understanding and implementation of the simple shell architecture and some basic UNIX command and how it behaves.

Table of Content

===================

• Concepts
• Resources
• Learning Objectives
• Requirements
• Github
• More Info
• List of Allowed Functions and System Calls
• Compilation
• Testing
• Checks

=========================================================================================

Concept

For this project, we expect you to look at these concepts:

Everything you need to know to start coding your own shell Approaching a Project

Resources

Read or watch:

• Unix shell
• Thompson shell
• Ken Thompson
• Everything you need to know to start coding your own shell concept page 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”?

Copyright - Plagiarism

• You are tasked to come up with solutions for the tasks below yourself to meet with the above learning objectives.
• You will not be able to meet the objectives of this or any following project by copying and pasting someone else’s work.
• You are not allowed to publish any content of this project.
• Any form of plagiarism is strictly forbidden and will result in removal from the program. =========================================================================================

Requirement

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?)
• Write a README with the description of your project
• You should have an AUTHORS file at the root of your repository, listing all individuals having contributed content to the repository. Format, see Docker =========================================================================================

GitHub

There should be one project repository per group. If you and your partner have a repository with the same name in both your accounts, you risk a 0% score. Add your partner as a collaborator.

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.

Task

0. Betty would be proud

Write a beautiful code that passes the Betty checks

1. Simple shell 0.1

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 execve will be the core part of your Shell, don’t forget to pass the environ to it…

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
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$

=========================================================================================

2. Simple shell 0.2

Simple shell 0.1 +

• Handle command lines with arguments =========================================================================================

3. Simple shell 0.3

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$ 

=========================================================================================

4. Simple shell 0.4

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 =========================================================================================

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$ 

=========================================================================================

6. Simple shell 0.1.1

Simple shell 0.1 +

• Write your own getline function
• Use a buffer to read many chars at once and call the least possible the read system call
• You will need to use static variables
• You are not allowed to use getline You don’t have to:
• be able to move the cursor

==============================================================

7. Simple shell 0.2.1

Simple shell 0.2 +

• You are not allowed to use strtok ============================================================== ===========================

8. Simple shell 0.4.1 Simple shell 0.4 +

• handle arguments for the built-in exit
• Usage: exit status, where status is an integer used to exit the shell

julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ ./shell_0.4.1
$ exit 98
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ echo $?
98
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ 

========================================================================================= 9. setenv, unsetenv Simple shell 1.0 +

Implement the setenv and unsetenv builtin commands

• setenv
  • Initialize a new environment variable, or modify an existing one
  • Command syntax: setenv VARIABLE VALUE
  • Should print something on stderr on failure
• unsetenv
  • Remove an environment variable
  • Command syntax: unsetenv VARIABLE
  • Should print something on stderr on failure =========================================================================================

10. cd

Simple shell 1.0 +

Implement the builtin command cd:

• Changes the current directory of the process.
• Command syntax: cd [DIRECTORY]
• If no argument is given to cd the command must be interpreted like cd $HOME
• You have to handle the command cd -
• You have to update the environment variable PWD when you change directory man chdir, man getcwd ============================================================== ===========================

11. ;

Simple shell 1.0 + Handle the commands separator ;

alex@~$ ls /var ; ls /var
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$ ls /hbtn ; ls /var
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$ ls /var ; ls /hbtn
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
alex@~$ ls /var ; ls /hbtn ; ls /var ; ls /var
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$

==============================================================

12. && and ||

Simple shell 1.0 + Handle the && and || shell logical operators

alex@~$ ls /var && ls /var
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$ ls /hbtn && ls /var
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
alex@~$ ls /var && ls /var && ls /var && ls /hbtn
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
alex@~$ ls /var && ls /var && ls /var && ls /hbtn && ls /hbtn
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
alex@~$
alex@~$ ls /var || ls /var
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$ ls /hbtn || ls /var
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$ ls /hbtn || ls /hbtn || ls /hbtn || ls /var
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$ ls /hbtn || ls /hbtn || ls /hbtn || ls /var || ls /var
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access /hbtn: No such file or directory
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  spool  tmp
alex@~$

=========================================================================================

13. alias

Simple shell 1.0 +

• Implement the alias builtin command
  • Usage: alias [name[='value'] ...]
  • alias: Prints a list of all aliases, one per line, in the form name='value'
  • alias name [name2 ...]: Prints the aliases name, name2, etc 1 per line, in the form name='value'
  • alias name='value' [...]: Defines an alias for each name whose value is given. If name is already an alias, replaces its value with value =========================================================================================

14. Variables

Simple shell 1.0 + Handle variables replacement Handle the $? variable Handle the $$ variable

julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ ./hsh
$ ls /var
backups  cache  crash  lib  local  lock  log  mail  metrics  opt  run  snap  spool  tmp
$ echo $?
0
$ echo $$
5104
$ echo $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
$ exit 
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$

==============================================================

15. Comments

Simple shell 1.0 +

• Handle comments (#)

julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ sh
$ echo $$ # ls -la
5114
$ exit
julien@ubuntu:~/shell$ 

==============================================================

16. File as input

Simple shell 1.0 +

• Usage: simple_shell [filename]
• Your shell can take a file as a command line argument
• The file contains all the commands that your shell should run before exiting b* The file should contain one command per line
• In this mode, the shell should not print a prompt and should not read from stdin