[ACCEPTED]-How can I implement my own basic unix shell in C?-interpreter
All the unix shells are open-source - so 7 a good place to start may be to read the 6 code.
If you're looking for a good starter 5 article on the subject try Writing Your Own Shell from the Linux 4 Gazette.
Another good starting point is to 3 take a look at the source code of mini-shell just 2 because its one of the smallest to get your 1 head round.
Your main loop is:
- read a line (use
fgets(3)for a simple shell,readline(3)for a fancy one) - parse the command
- fork and execute the pipelines
To parse the command, there 12 are two common choices. Write a recursive 11 descent parser or use yacc(1) to generate one. It's 10 a lot easier to bang out an initial parser 9 using yacc, but you can totally get stuck debugging 8 it and it really wants to be context-free. I 7 prefer recursive descent but just about 6 everyone else in the world prefers using 5 yacc. (Technically, bison.) If the shell is really 4 really simple, like a homework shell, yacc 3 may be overkill.
To do the lexical analysis 2 you can also roll your own or use flex.
You 1 won't need to use any threads.
Many of the Unix books that describe the 5 main system calls also implement a shell 4 to illustrate how and why you might use 3 the various calls. Stevens and Rochkind 2 are two such books:
W Richard Stevens, Stephen 1 A Rago Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, 3rd Edn
Marc J Rochkind Advanced Unix Programming, 2nd Edn
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