🚀 Minishell

A custom-built UNIX shell that replicates many of the core features of bash.

---

🎯 Project Goals

This is a major project that combines many core concepts of system programming. The goal is to build a shell that can read user input, parse it, and execute commands. It's the culmination of everything learned in Pipex, requiring robust process management, complex parsing, and handling of PATH, env, signals, and more.

🛠️ Technical Details

• Command Parsing: Developed a lexer and parser to correctly interpret user input, handling single and double quotes, special characters, and environment variable expansion (e.g., $USER).
• Process Management: The shell manages the lifecycle of processes, allowing it to execute external commands found in the system's PATH.
• Pipes & Redirections: Implements full support for input/output redirection (<, >, >>, <<) and pipelines (|), allowing data to flow seamlessly between commands.
• Built-in Commands: Recreated core shell utilities internally, including echo, cd, pwd, export, unset, env, and exit.
• Signal Handling: Mimics standard terminal behavior, correctly processing interrupt signals (like Ctrl-C) without crashing the shell.
• Challenge: The main challenge was coordinating the logic between the parser and the execution engine, ensuring that memory is managed perfectly during long sessions and that multiple processes communicate without errors.

⚙️ How to Compile & Run

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/carlopezc/Minishell.git](https://github.com/carlopezc/Minishell.git)
   cd Minishell

2. Compile the project:

   make

   This will create the main executable minishell.

3. Run the program:

   ./minishell

   This will launch your interactive shell, ready to receive commands.