Description
Objectives
In this assignment you will extend the simple command line interpreter (or shell) developed in assignments
2 and 3. This assignment will allow you to gain experience, or extend your knowledge, in the following
areas:
• More ’C’ Programming: This includes variable declaration, data types, arrays, pointers, operators, expressions, selection statements, looping statements, functions, structs, and header files.
• File Descriptor Redirection: Learn how to redirect stdout information into to a text file.
• Non-Blocking Operations: Learn how to fork and execute a child process that runs in the background while the parent continues to work (i.e. no wait operation is performed).
• Signals: Learn how to write signal handlers used in asynchronous non-blocking operations.
System and Standard Lib Functions
In addition to the system and standard library functions used in assignments 2 and 3, this assignment will
also use the system and standard library functions listed below. Please become familiar with the syntax
and usage of these calls. Detailed information about each function listed below can be found using the
man command from the console: i.e. man dup2, will show the man page (short for manual page) for the
dup2 function.
• Duplicate a File Descriptor: int dup2(int oldfd, int newfd)
• Create/Open a New File Descriptor: int open(const char∗ pathname, int flags,
mode t mode)
• Signals: sighandler t signal(int signum, sighandler t handler)
Provided Files
Modify the hw3.c and shell.c files submitted in assignment 3. Instructor solutions for hw3.c and shell.c
will be provided and may be used as a starting point for your assignment 4.
Todo
Please perform the following three tasks:
1. Include Header Files: In the hw3.c and shell.c files include fcntl.h and signal.h.
2. Modify Execute Function: Add the following shell operations:
• Fork a child process that runs in the background. This operation can be identified by determining
if an ampersand (&) is the last element in the command struct argv array. For instance, and
example shell command would be “geany &”, where geany is a text editor in Puppy Linux.
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• Redirect stdout to a text file. This operation can be identified by determining if a greater than
(>) is present in the command struct argv array. For instance, and example shell command
would be “ls -lrot > text.txt”.
3. Add Signal Hander: Add a SIGCHLD signal handler function (prototype and implementation) in
the hw3.c that is able to asynchronously reclaim (or reap) a forked child process that has terminated
normally.
For further help regarding a background process, implementing a signal handler, and file redirection, see
the Additional Guidance section at the end of this document. Please note, shell.h does not need to be
modified in this assignment.
Collaboration and Plagiarism
This is an individual assignment, i.e. no collaboration is permitted. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Submitted solutions that are very similar (determined by the instructor) will be given a grade of zero. Please
do your own work, and everything will be OK.
Submission
Create a compressed tarball, i.e. tar.gz, that only contains the completed hw4.c, shell.h and shell.c files.
The name of the compressed tarball must be your last name. For example, ritchie.tar.gz would be correct
if the original co-developer of UNIX (Dennis Ritchie) submitted the assignment. Only assignments submitted in the correct format will be accepted (no exceptions). Submit the compressed tarball (via OAKS)
to the Dropbox setup for this assignment. You may resubmit the compressed tarball as many times as you
like, Dropbox will only keep the newest submission.
To be fair to everyone, late assignments will not be accepted. Exceptions will only be made for extenuating
circumstances, i.e. death in the family, health related problems, etc. You will be given a week to complete
this assignment. Poor time management is not excuse. Please do not email assignment after the due date,
it will not be accepted. Please feel free to setup an appointment to discuss the assigned coding problem. I
will be more than happy to listen to your approach and make suggestions. However, I cannot tell you how
to code the solution. Additionally, code debugging is your job. You may use the debugger (gdb) or print
statements to help understand why your solution is not working correctly, your choice.
Grading Rubric
For this assignment the grading rubric is provided in the table shown below.
Program Compiles 10 points
Program Runs with no errors 10 points
signal handler implementation 5 points
execute() function implementation 25 points
In particular, the assignment will be graded as follows, if the submitted solution
• does not compile: 0 of 50 points
• compiles but does not run: 10 of 50 points
• compiles and runs with errors: 15 of 50 points
• compiles and runs without errors: 20 of 50 points
• all functions correctly implemented: 50 of 50 points
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Additional Guidance
File Descriptor Redirection
An example code segment that illustrates how redirect stdout to a text file named test.txt using the
dup2 system call. Please note, this example is not considered complete, and should not be blindly
copied from here into your homework soution. The provided example is only meant to guide you
in this coding assignment.
int main( int argc, char** argv ) {
int child_process_status;
int outfile;
pid_t cpid1;
// This example is simulating a ls -lrot > test.txt command
char* pargs[] = { “ls”, “-lrot”, NULL };
outfile = open( “test.txt”, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP );
if ( outfile == -1 ) {
fprintf(stderr, “failed to open file\n”);
} else if ( cpid1 = fork() == 0 ) {
dup2( outfile, 1 );
execv(“/bin/ls”, pargs);
exit(-1);
}
close( outfile );
waitpid( cpid1, &child_process_status, 0 );
return 0;
}
My information about the dup2 function can be found in Section 3.12 in the Advanced Programming in
the UNIX Environment (APUE) textbook written by W. Richard Stevens. A PDF version of the APUE
textbook has been placed on OAKS.
Signal Handler and Background Processes
An example code segment that illustrates how implement two different signal handlers. Specifically. the
SIGCHLD signal handler is used by the parent process to reclaim forked child process that ran in the
background and exited normally, and the SIGINT signal handler is used to handle Ctrl-C signals sent by
the user to terminate the running process. Please note, this example is not considered complete, and
should not be blindly copied from here into your homework soution. The provided example is
only meant to guide you in this coding assignment.
static void sig_child_handler( int sig );
static void sig_int_handler( int sig );
int main( int argc, char** argv ) {
pid_t pid;
char* pargs[] = { “gedit”, NULL };
if ( signal( SIGCHLD, sig_child_handler ) == SIG_ERR ) {
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perror(“Unable to create new SIGCHLD signal handler!”);
exit(-1);
}
if ( signal( SIGINT, sig_int_handler ) == SIG_ERR ) {
perror(“Unable to create new SIGINT signal handler!”);
exit(-1);
}
pid = fork();
if ( pid == 0 ) {
execv(“/usr/bin/gedit”, pargs);
perror(“Child process terminated in error condition!”);
exit(-1);
}
// endless loop that sleeps every second
while ( 1 ) {
printf(“parent is working … la la la …\n”);
sleep(1);
}
return 0;
}
static void sig_int_handler( int sig ) {
printf(“In SIGINT handler\n”);
exit( 0 );
}
static void sig_child_handler( int sig ) {
printf(“In SIGCHLD handler\n”);
int status;
pid_t pid;
while ( ( pid = waitpid(-1, &status, WNOHANG ) ) != -1 ) {
printf(“Child Process (%d) has Terminated\n”, pid );
}
}
My information about the signal function can be found in Section 1.9 and Chapter 10 in the Advanced
Programming in the UNIX Environment (APUE) textbook written by W. Richard Stevens. A PDF version
of the APUE textbook has been placed on OAKS.
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