execvp() not working in my shell - c

Question

I am trying to make a tiny shell. My problem is that when I call execvp() - I get errors.
For example, when I type in ls -l it returns ls: invalid option -- '
Can someone, please, help me understand why I am getting this error? For my code, the function command split gets the user input, and splits them up into separate commands. Separate commands are seperated by ; character.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define MAX_CHARACTERS 512
#define HISTORY_SIZE 10
int commandSplit(char *c, char *a[], int t[]) {
int count = 0;
int total = 0;
char *temp[MAX_CHARACTERS];
char *readCommands = strtok(c, ";");
while(readCommands != NULL) {
printf("Reading full command: %s\n", readCommands);
temp[count] = readCommands;
count++;
readCommands = strtok(NULL, ";");
}
printf("Done reading full commands\n");
for(int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
char *read = strtok(temp[i], " ");
int track = 0;
while(read != NULL) {
printf("Reading individual command: %s\n", read);
a[total] = read;
track++;
total++;
read = strtok(NULL, " ");
}
t[i] = track;
}
return count;
}
int main() {
int exitProgram = 0;
char *args[MAX_CHARACTERS];
while(!exitProgram) {
char *commands = (char *)(malloc(MAX_CHARACTERS*sizeof(char)));
int tracker[MAX_CHARACTERS];
int numOfCommands = 0;
printf("tinyshell> ");
fgets(commands, MAX_CHARACTERS, stdin);
if(strlen(commands) == 0) continue;
numOfCommands = commandSplit(commands, args, tracker);
printf("There are %i commands!\n", numOfCommands);
if(strcmp(args[0], "exit") == 0) {
printf("Exiting\n");
exitProgram = 1;
continue;
}
int l = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < numOfCommands; i++) {
int status;
char *holder[tracker[i]+1];
for(int j = 0; j < tracker[i]; j++) {
holder[j] = args[l];
printf("Assiging holder:%s\n", holder[j]);
l++;
}
holder[tracker[i]] = NULL;
printf("What is holder? \n");
for(int o = 0; o < tracker[i]; o++) printf("%s", holder[o]);
pid_t p = fork();
pid_t waiting;
if(p == 0) {
printf("I am in child process\n");
execvp(holder[0], holder);
fprintf(stderr, "Child process could not execvp!\n");
exit(1);
}
else {
if(p < 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "Fork FAILED!\n");
}
else {
waiting = wait(&status);
printf("Child %d, status %d\n", waiting, status);
}
}
for(int i = 0; i < numOfCommands; i++) {
args[i] = NULL;
}
}
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

Your problem is that fgets() also reads the newline character. As a result, the last argument of execvp() arguments array contains a newline, causing ls complain about an unrecognized argument: what you acctually pass to ls is -l\n; what you need to pass is just -l without the newline.
Try adding this code after the fgets call to trim the input buffer:
int len;
len = strlen(commands);
if (len > 0 && commands[len-1] == '\n') {
commands[len-1] = '\0';
}