README.md

Rshell - A basic command shell

Rshell, much like Bash, is a program that takes in the user input commands and executes them. In fact, Rshell is a more user-friendly version of Bash with some modifications and limitations. Please see the Uses and Specifications section first to understand how Rshell interprets commands from the user and how to use it effectively. Then please see the Bugs, Limitations, and Errors section to see what my program cannot support or properly carry out.

All bugs, errors, fixes, or modifications can be sent to [email protected]. Reported bugs and errors will be handled as soon as possible and submitted for correctness. Modifications will be implemented based on evaluations of effectiveness.

Installing and Running

To get Rshell and run it, please open up a terminal and run these commands:

git clone https://github.com/ykamo001/rshell.git
cd rshell/
make
bin/rshell

Uses and Specifications

1. To exit Rshell, simply enter in the command exit whenever you wish to exit.

2. Supports the connectors ; && and ||.

   • Commands separated by ; will be executed regardless of whether the previous command was successful or not.
   • Commands separated by && will only execute if the last command was successful.
   • Commands separated by || will only execute if the last command failed.

   An example of precedence: ls -a && rmdir folder || mkdir new_folder; touch main.cpp; mv main.cpp new_folder

   Rshell will interpret this command as such:(ls -a && rmdir folder) || (mkdir new_folder); touch main.cpp; mv main.cpp new_folder

   Thus only if both ls -a and rmdir folder are successful will mkdir new_folder not execute, otherwise if any of the first two fail, a new directory called "new_folder" will be made. As for the next two commands, they will execute regardless of whatever happened before.

3. Anything typed after the comment identifier # will not be registered as commands and will be considered as comments.

   An example of how Rshell interprets comments: ls -a && touch file.cpp #anything I type now will not be executed; cat file.cpp; exit

   Rshell will filter out this command to: ls -a && touch file.cpp, and thus literally everything after the # does not get recognized by Rshell as a command. If you must write comments, please do so at the very end of you entire command line, as such: ls -a && touch file.cpp ; cat file.cpp; exit #anything I type now will not be executed

Bugs, Limitations, and Errors

Rshell

1. Rshell does not differentiate between && and &, and between || and |.

2. Rshell does not support i/o command such as echo "Hello World" >> file.cpp and will cause the program to terminate and crash.

3. After pressing ctrl-z, Rshell will stop properly and be pushed to the background; however, after returning to Rshell by using fg, Rshell will not output a command line or prompt, but it is still running; press enter once to see prompt.

4. If accidentally inserted more connectors, such as &&&&& or ||||||, Rshell will interpret this as a user mistake and consider them as && and ||, respectively.

5. When using echo, if connectors are combined improperly with other connectors or symbols, such as: echo hello &| echo world or echo hello &\ echo world will cause the program to terminate and crash.

6. You will be able to recursively call Rshell within Rshell, resulting in multiple Rshells running Rshells. Executing the exit command will simply make you exit the current Rshell you are running; therefore, if you ran Rshell, then ran Rshell again, and ran Rshell one more time, in order to exit Rshell completely, you would need to execute exit, followed by exit, now placing you in the initial Rshell you called, and finally executing exit one last time. This can lead to Rshell-ception and is not recommended, as you can easily lose track of which Rshell you are in.

ls

7. Running ls with the -l and/or R flag may cause unexpected output of do_ypcall: clnt_call: RPC: Unable to send; errno = Operation not permitted to randomly appear. Program will still run and output everything as expected, except this, too, shall be there.

8. ls cannot output the files, directories, executables, and hidden files with specific colors.

9. If any error is occurred with any directory or file, ls will terminate and output a specific error message indicating where things went wrong.

10. If there is a soft link to another file, when running ls -l there will be no indication of which file it points to, i.e. you will not see the output of -> filename.

Piping and I/O Redirection

11. Solely for I/O redirection, order of commands entered will not matter. Program will effectively separate inputted command and execute all input redirection first, i.e <, then will implement all output redirection, i.e >, and finally run all >> commands. This may, depending on the inputted command, cause result to be not as expected or executed like bash.

12. Adding excessive white-space in the command will increase the chances of the program NOT crashing or producing error.

13. The command echo < file1 file2 file3 will definitely cause the program to abort and produce errors. This can be fixed by placing any extra amount of white-space anywhere in the command after echo and before file3. If any command causes program to abort, using more white-space may fix error.

14. Running the command cat > file1 will land you in an infinite loop to enter whatever you like to be put into file1, and can be ended by ctrl+c, but will also cause rshell to terminate.

15. Running big commands will cause program to produce memory map error and may abort, depending on the length and command.

16. Piping and I/O both use extensive heap allocation and may cause memory errors to occur.

17. If an I/O command fails, then it will not execute any command connector by ||, the program will think it is a success; therefore even if an I/O command failed, it will go on to execute the commands connected by &&, as it is a success.

18. Adding comments to the I/O command line will cause program to terminate, but is not affected in piping stand-alone, or if I/O is implemented with piping.

Signals

19. ^C while in use of cat will also append an empty line to the end of the file

20. ^C with big, complex commands might cause zombie processes to remain while running rshell

21. ^Z will send rshell to the background