Shell Utilities

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The purpose of the "shunix" project is to create a platform independent Unix user environment that requires nothing more than a shell interpreter to run. Each Unix utility, written as a shell function, requires no compiled binaries to perform its work, it uses only shell built-in commands. Together, the shell functions comprise an integrated library that may be utilized by users to build other utilities, programs, and applications.

While the intent of "shunix" is to be platform independent, it is painfully obvious that most shells do not provide all the information necessary to recreate all Unix user utilities. Some of the lacking information includes many of the attributes associated with files, and a current date/time value.

To provide all the information necessary to recreate the Unix utilities will require the inclusion of several "builtin" loadable modules. Although this is contrary to the original intent of "shunix", it is necessary to complete the package.

Those Unix utilities that must utilize these additional "builtin" loadable modules, they shall be written to operate in multiple modes. In default mode, when the "builtin" modules are unavailable, the functions will operate with the limited information normally available in the shell. If the function detects that "builtin" modules are loaded that can provide additional information, the "builtin" modules will be used. This will preserve the original intent of "shunix", while enabling the ability to accurately recreate each Unix utility.