Date: December 1, 2015

Project Report
Project Title: UNIX Shell and History
Feature
Description :

Part -1 Shell Interface:

Algorithm for interface and command execution:

 Enter command in shell.

 The command string is read into inputBuffer[] array(using read()) from the command line.
 Command string is formatted and tokenized into arguments using formatCommand()
function and is passed to args[] array.
 The ‘\t’ or ‘ ’(blank space) in the iput indicates the end of the word.Following that word
will be a new argument word. Thus a single command line is separated in different
argument words. When a ‘\n’ is encountered, that is treated as end of command line and
NULL character is added in the ‘args[]’ array to denote the same
 The arguments are checked for correctness of the command and is stored in
history[10][BUFFER_SIZE] array.
 In the main function the child process is created using ‘fork()’. ‘execvp()’ loads the process
with the given command if successful otherwise gives respective errors.
 Parent process enters in to wait (calls wait()) if & is not entered this is done through using
the ‘flag’ variable
 To exit the virtual shell prompt enter ‘ctrl+c’.

Output for different Cases:

1.Executing a command:

2.Executing a command without ‘&’: As shown in the below image parent process will wait for the
child process (gedit) to complete.

3.Executing a command with ‘&’: As shown in the below image parent process will not wait for the
child process (gedit) to complete.
4.Executing a invalid command

Algorithm for History Feature

 Create a two dimensional character array history[10][BUFFER_SIZE] to store commands
entered in terminal
 Define a function displayHistory() to display the previous commands on terminal when
history command is executed in terminal
 Max size given is 10 i.e., it can store upto 10 recent commands entered.
 Each row stores a command. Each column of a row stores the separate argument words in
the command entered with NULL character as the last character.
 Created a variable named histcount for counting the commands entered. When a command
is entered in terminal the histcount value will be increased by one.
 The oldest entered value will be overwritten for all newly entered commands. Thus the
history array can store 10 commands at a time. So, the array basically holds the 10 recent
commands entered in the terminal at a particular time.
 Type history in the terminal to display the commands entered upto 10.
 For 'history_count' less than 10, the commands entered are displayed keeping the other
positions in history vacant and not accessible.
 Type ‘!!’ to reexecute the most recent command executed.
 Type ‘!n’ where n refers to the index of the rows in history array to reexecute that command
i.e., to execute nth command.

Output :
1.Executing history command to display previous 10 commands
2. Executing the recent command by using ‘!!’ in the terminal
3. Executing 8th recent command by using ‘!8’

4. Executing 9th recent command by using ‘!9’

5. Executing 1st recent command by using ‘!1’ in the terminal

6.Showing the error when 11th command is accessed (history will have only 10 commands
stored)
7. Showing the error when user access a command not in history.

Problems Faced and How We Solved Them

1. We faced problem when trying to compare strings. The string compare can be easily done by using
strcmp() function but we have used ascii values for comparison. If strcmp() is used we have
compare the input with every case of !n like strcmp(str,”!1”), strcmp(str,”!2”), strcmp(str,”!3”) etc.
Instead we used ASCII value as described in below code for compact code and easy access of
command.
2. else if (args[0][0]-'!' ==0)
3. { int x = args[0][1]- '0';
4. int z = args[0][2]- '0';
5.
6. if(x>count) //second letter check
7. {
8. printf("\nNo Such Command in the history\n");
9. strcpy(inputBuffer,"Wrong command");
10. }
11. else if (z!=-48) //third letter check
12. {
 13. printf("\nNo Such Command in the history. Enter <=!9 (buffer size is 10 along with
current command)\n");
14. strcpy(inputBuffer,"Wrong command");
15. }
16. else
17. {
18.
19. if(x==-15)//Checking for '!!',ascii value of '!' is 33.
20. { strcpy(inputBuffer,history[0]); // this will be your 10 th(last)
command
21. }
22. else if(x==0) //Checking for '!0'
23. { printf("Enter proper command");
24. strcpy(inputBuffer,"Wrong command");
25. }
26.
27. else if(x>=1) //Checking for '!n', n >=1
28. {
29. strcpy(inputBuffer,history[count-x]);
30.
31. }
32.
33. }
34. }

Features of the project:

1.Exit command → program exits on entering 'exit' commands

2. Running in background → child process runs in background on adding '&'
3. History feature → shows recently entered 10 commands
case 2: history_count > 10
4. Recent command entered → executes recent command on '!!'
5. Executing Nth command in history → on entering '!N', where 'N' is the history
index
6. Error on entering invalid command in command line
7. Error on entering '!!' as the first command (when there is no command in history)
8. Error on entering '!N' when Nth index is vacant
8. Error on entering '!N' when Nth index is greater than 10
//Source Code
//Venkata Sai deepak Aitha, Chandan dev, shanmukha priya, Madhu
anchuri, saransh singh
//Enter command 'history' for history feature and CTRL - c to exit
the 'osh>' shell
/*Header files */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MAX_LINE 80 /* The maximum length of a command */

#define BUFFER_SIZE 50
#define buffer "\n\Shell Command History:\n"

//declarations
char history[10][BUFFER_SIZE]; //history array to store history
commands
int count = 0;

//function to display the history of commands

void displayHistory()
{

printf("Shell command history:\n");

int i;
int j = 0;
int histCount = count;

//loop for iterating through commands

for (i = 0; i<10;i++)
{
//command index
printf("%d. ", histCount);
while (history[i][j] != '\n' && history[i][j] != '\0')
{
//printing command
printf("%c", history[i][j]);
j++;
}
printf("\n");
j = 0;
histCount--;
if (histCount == 0)
break;
}
printf("\n");
}
//Fuction to get the command from shell, tokenize it and set the args
parameter

int formatCommand(char inputBuffer[], char *args[],int *flag)

{
int length; // # of chars in command line
int i; // loop index for inputBuffer
int start; // index of beginning of next command
int ct = 0; // index of where to place the next parameter into
args[]
int hist;
//read user input on command line and checking whether the
command is !! or !n

length = read(STDIN_FILENO, inputBuffer, MAX_LINE);

start = -1;
if (length == 0)
exit(0); //end of command
if (length < 0)
{
printf("Command not read\n");
exit(-1); //terminate
}

//examine each character

for (i=0;i<length;i++)
{
switch (inputBuffer[i])
{
case ' ':
case '\t' : // to seperate arguments
if(start != -1)
{
args[ct] = &inputBuffer[start];
ct++;
}
inputBuffer[i] = '\0'; // add a null char at the end
start = -1;
break;

case '\n': //final char

if (start != -1)
{
args[ct] = &inputBuffer[start];
ct++;
}
inputBuffer[i] = '\0';
 args[ct] = NULL; // no more args
break;

default :
if (start == -1)
start = i;
if (inputBuffer[i] == '&')
{
*flag = 1; //this flag is the differentiate
whether the child process is invoked in background
inputBuffer[i] = '\0';
}
}
}

args[ct] = NULL; //if the input line was > 80

if(strcmp(args[0],"history")==0)
{
if(count>0)
{

displayHistory();
}
else
{
printf("\nNo Commands in the history\n");
}
return -1;
}

else if (args[0][0]-'!' ==0)

{ int x = args[0][1]- '0';
int z = args[0][2]- '0';

if(x>count) //second letter check

{
printf("\nNo Such Command in the history\n");
strcpy(inputBuffer,"Wrong command");
}
else if (z!=-48) //third letter check
{
printf("\nNo Such Command in the history. Enter <=!9
(buffer size is 10 along with current command)\n");
strcpy(inputBuffer,"Wrong command");
}
else
{

if(x==-15)//Checking for '!!',ascii value of '!' is

33.
 { strcpy(inputBuffer,history[0]); // this will be
your 10 th(last) command
}
else if(x==0) //Checking for '!0'
{ printf("Enter proper command");
strcpy(inputBuffer,"Wrong command");
}

else if(x>=1) //Checking for '!n', n >=1

{
strcpy(inputBuffer,history[count-x]);

}
}
for (i = 9;i>0; i--) //Moving the history elements one step higher
strcpy(history[i], history[i-1]);

strcpy(history[0],inputBuffer); //Updating the history array with

input buffer
count++;
if(count>10)
{ count=10;
}
}

int main(void)
{
char inputBuffer[MAX_LINE]; /* buffer to hold the input command */
int flag; // equals 1 if a command is followed by "&"
char *args[MAX_LINE/2 + 1];/* max arguments */
int should_run =1;

pid_t pid,tpid;
int i;

while (should_run) //infinite loop for shell prompt

{
flag = 0; //flag =0 by default
printf("osh>");
fflush(stdout);
if(-1!=formatCommand(inputBuffer,args,&flag)) // get next
command
{
pid = fork();

if (pid < 0)//if pid is less than 0, forking fails

{

printf("Fork failed.\n");
 exit (1);
}

else if (pid == 0)//if pid ==0

{

//command not executed

if (execvp(args[0], args) == -1)
{

printf("Error executing command\n");

}
}

// if flag == 0, the parent will wait,

// otherwise returns to the formatCommand() function.
else
{
i++;
if (flag == 0)
{
i++;
wait(NULL);
}
}
}
}
}