Washington Shell

Language: C++
Lesson: Development in Linux using the POSIX operating system API

Washington Shell (WASH) is a basic shell for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) with basic commands. This was an individual extra credit project for my Operating Systems course at Seattle Pacific University.

My favorite part of this project was interacting with the operating system using an API. This opens the door to creating more powerful applications. The logic behind the program is a simple loop that accepts user input then responds accordingly. The user input may be one of the commands which I list below, or it may be a program that the user wants to run; in which case we fork a child process in the operating system to run it.

The commands I created for the shell are:

• echo [text] : Print the given text to the console.
• pwd : Print the current working directory.
• cd [dir] : Change the current working directory.
• setpath <dir> : Set the executable search path.
• exit : Exit the shell.

If you would like to know more about this project, feel free to reach out to me!