CASH

Custom Shell Exploring the Kernel and OS.

What is CASH?

The story behind CASH is a little stupid, honestly. When I first shared the idea of building my own shell, the sheer shock on people's faces made me want to get started on building it. And honestly, it worked out pretty well. CASH (Command and Script Shell) is a minimalist, lightweight shell built in C to explore kernel processes, system calls, and shell internals. Designed as a learning tool, it provides a foundation for understanding how shells interact with the operating system, manage processes, and execute commands.

CASH supports essential shell features like command execution, background processes, input/output redirection, and piping. Compatible with Linux and macOS, it offers an extensible design for adding modern features, making it a great starting point for developers interested in OS-level programming.

Key Features

💻

Command Execution

Run commands with argument parsing.

⚙️

Background Processes

Execute tasks in the background with &.

➡️

Redirection

Support for input/output redirection (> <).

🔗

Piping

Chain commands using pipes (|).

Perfect For

🔍

System Exploration

Learn kernel and OS interactions.

Process Management

Handle processes with system calls.

📝

Scripting

Automate tasks with simple scripts.

🛠️

Development

Test and debug shell features.

Technology & Architecture

CASH is built entirely in C, leveraging system calls for process management, command execution, and I/O operations. It uses standard C libraries to handle file descriptors for redirection and piping, ensuring efficient communication between processes.

The shell is designed to be lightweight and extensible, with a modular structure that supports adding new features like scripting and command history. It runs on Linux and macOS, utilizing the POSIX standard for portability and compatibility with system-level operations.

What's Next

Planned

Auto-Completion

Planned

Alias Support

Planned

Advanced Scripting

Planned

Configuration File

Get Started

Ready to explore the internals of a shell? Clone CASH, build it, and start experimenting with kernel processes and system calls. Contributions are welcome—check out the project on GitHub!

rajin

© 2025 Rajin Khan (a.k.a Adib Ar Rahman Khan)

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