Basic Linus Shell

SO this is my first post in this forums. Hoping to get better feedback than the others I have tried.

I'm currently working on a project. We were assigned to do a simple linux shell in C. I have since improved the code a little, keep in mind I'm not C expert or linux expert, now using "lex" to tokenize the input from the user instead of strtok. I'm also looking to add some more functionality to the shell. I've done some google searches and such around on other forums and would like my own specific help not links to other boards.

Now to the issue at hand. Most of my basic commands are working, the problem is the command "cd" isn't. I thought it would just work with simple execvp() command, but I guess there is more that will have to go into it. I assume it has something to do with creating the path for the desired directory and such using chdir(). I can post my code around noonish to help better understand my logic. I guess what I'm getting at is i need some direction in getting "cd <directory>" to work.

Check out this thread :
[SOLVED] How to write a replacement for shell command line interpreter

Quote:

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Check out this thread :
[SOLVED] How to write a replacement for shell command line interpreter

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excellent. Figured out my problem. I was trying to fork and do the processesing of the cd in the child process instead of doing it as part of the shell. W00t thx. Ill try to reimplement mine. If i have any questions I'll post. Won't know till tonight.

Glad I could help you :)

So i ran into a fundamental issue that i'm not realizing. So i had my shell running with most of my commands and low and behold my process id's weren't returning correctly. The shell work go back to the parent process before the child process was finished. Here is the code. Can anyone explain why i dont get the right process id returned at "child process finished" pid . I keep getting a -1 instead of the matching pid for "waiting for child" pid.

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/types.h>

//used for lex
extern char **getline();

int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[]){

    int *ret_status;
    char **args;
    pid_t pid;

    while(1){
        printf("$ ");

        args = getline();

        if (args[0]==NULL) continue;
        if (!strcmp(args[0], "exit" )) exit(0);
        pid = fork();
        if (pid){
            printf("Waiting for child (%d)\n", pid);
            pid = wait(ret_status);
            printf("Child (%d) finished\n", pid);
        } else {
            if( execvp(args[0], args)) {
                puts(strerror(errno));
                exit(127);
            }
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

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You are passing an uninitialized pointer to wait(). I think you want to declare ret_status as a regular integer, then pass its pointer to the wait function.

Are you able to compile that code even ? It is giving me:

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conflicting types for ‘getline’
/usr/include/stdio.h:653: note: previous declaration of ‘getline’ was here

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and then a segmentation fault !!

and there is no nedd to decalre int *ret_status; as a pointer . you can do : int ret_status and then use as &ret_status !

sorry...to compile it you need a lex.c which i didn't included with the post. You need to run the command "flex lex.c" then you will get another file called lex.yy.c then run this command to compile "gcc –o shell shell.c lex.yy.c -lfl"
Or if not using gcc umm idk lol!

Code:

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%{
int _numargs = 10;
char *_args[10];
int _argcount = 0;
%}

WORD        [a-zA-Z0-9\/\.-]+
SPECIAL        [()><|&;*]

%%
        _argcount = 0;
        _args[0] = NULL;

{WORD}|{SPECIAL} { 
          if(_argcount < _numargs-1) {
            _args[_argcount++] = (char *)strdup(yytext);
            _args[_argcount] = NULL;
          }
        }

\n        return (int)_args;

[ \t]+

.

%%

char **getline() {
  return (char **)yylex();
}

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ran into an issue with redirecting output to a file in my shell

else if(strncmp(">", args[2], 1) == 0)

if args[2] is null, it crashes. How else can I test for this?

check argc from int main(int argc,char *argv[]).The C Book — Arguments to main

btw:
char **args;

using lex it's treated as an array

Good I fixed that problem. A new one has risen. The following code outputs to the file, however any subsequent commands dont output to the stdout. For instance if after running in my shell, ls -l > foobar.txt, I run ls, the output for ls never appears on the stdout. Any ideas?

Code:

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                                        int orig_stdout;
                                        //char *filename;
                                        // Duplicate the stdout file handle and store it in orig_stdout.
                                        orig_stdout = dup(fileno(stdout));
                                        // This text appears on-screen.
                                        // Reopen stdout and redirect it to the file.

                                        freopen(args[3], "w", stdout);

                                        // This text appears in the file.

                                        pid = fork();

                                        if (pid)
                                        {
                                                pid = wait(&ret_status);
                                        }else
                                        {
                                                //format execlp input
                                                strncat(args[1], "\0", 1);

                                                if(execlp(args[0], args[1], NULL))
                                                {
                                                        puts(strerror(errno));
                                                        exit(127);
                                                }

                                        }

                                        // Close the redirected stdout.
                                        fclose(stdout);
                                        // Restore the original stdout and print to the screen again.
                                        fdopen(orig_stdout, "w");
                                        printf("I'm back writing to the original stdout.\n");

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