pipex

Finished in: 2024-08-04

About

Pipex is a Unix-based project developed in C as part of the 42 School curriculum, focused on mastering file descriptors, process creation, and inter-process communication using pipes.

The program mimics the shell's piping behavior (e.g., ls | grep txt) by executing chained commands with input/output redirection. In the bonus part, we extended the functionality to support multiple pipes, here_doc, and command path resolution with flexible argument parsing.

Throughout the project, we explored:

• fork(), execve(), and wait() system calls
• File descriptor duplication and redirection with dup2()
• Handling environment paths (PATH) and command resolution
• Creating a shell-like environment with minimal tools

Build

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/joseevilasio/pipex_42.git

Enter the project directory:

cd pipex_42

Run make to build the mandatory version:

make

Run make bonus to build the extended version:

make bonus

Usage

Mandatory Version:

./pipex infile "cmd1" "cmd2" outfile

Example:

./pipex input.txt "grep hello" "wc -l" output.txt

This will execute: < input.txt grep hello | wc -l > output.txt

Bonus Version:

Supports:

• Multiple commands (cmd1 | cmd2 | ... | cmdN)
• here_doc functionality for inline input

Example:

./pipex here_doc LIMITER "cmd1" "cmd2" outfile

The Norm

This project follows the 42 School's "The Norm" (Version 4). To review the Norm, click here.

Contributions

Issues, improvements or suggestions are welcome via pull request or GitHub issue.

Message to Students

Understanding the flow of file descriptors and how processes interact at the system level is key to this project. Take time to visualize your pipeline and test edge cases. The bonus part is not just harder — it’s where you grow the most.