TruShell

A general-purpose shell written in Rust. Like Bash and Zsh, but with a modern expression language and task management features planned.

Status: Alpha (actively developing)

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Quick start

Install from source

$ git clone https://github.com/TruFoundation/TruShell.git
$ cd TruShell
$ cargo build --release
$ ./target/release/trushell

Or run directly for development:

$ cargo run

Notes:

• Rust 1.70+ is required (Edition 2021).
• If a prebuilt release is published in the future, you can download that instead of building locally.

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What is TruShell?

TruShell is a modern, extensible shell that:

• Runs standard Unix commands (ls, cat, grep, cd, etc.)
• Exposes a small expression language (variables, arithmetic, comparisons)
• Supports pipelines, redirects, and shell-style subprocess execution
• Includes a WASM plugin host for sandboxed extensions
• Is written in Rust for safety and performance

Think of TruShell as an approachable shell with cleaner syntax and an AST-based execution model.

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Highlights / Features

• Interactive REPL with history and familiar shell commands
• First-class variables declared with let and referenced with $
• Numeric units for readability (e.g. 1mb, 500ms)
• Pipes, redirects, and combination of stdout/stderr handling
• WASM-based plugin host with capability-style access
• Fallback to system command execution when a statement is not recognized

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Examples

Interactive use:

trushell> let name = "Alice"
trushell> let age = 30
trushell> let next_year = $age + 1
trushell> echo "Hello, $name! Next year you'll be $next_year."

Pipes and file operations:

trushell> cat server.log | grep "ERROR" > errors.txt
trushell> echo "Done" &> status.log

Code blocks and grouping:

trushell> let sum = { let a = 5; let b = 10; $a + $b }

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WASM plugin host

TruShell can load sandboxed WASM plugins. Plugins must include a JSON manifest (placed alongside the WASM module) that declares the plugin’s name, version, API version, and the capabilities it requires.

Example manifest:

{
  "name": "log-echo",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "api_version": "1.0",
  "capabilities": ["logging"]
}

Supported capability examples:

• logging — allows the plugin to call a host logging function
• environment-get — allows the plugin to read environment variables via the host

Plugin examples live under examples/plugins/ in the repository. A plugin that imports host functions it has not declared will fail to instantiate.

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Syntax overview

• Variables: let x = 42 and reference as $x
• Strings: double-quoted literals "text"
• Numbers: integers and unit-suffixed numbers 1mb, 500ms
• Blocks: { ... } return the value of the last expression inside
• Operators: arithmetic (+ - * /), comparisons (== != > < >= <=)

Operator precedence (lowest → highest): comparison, addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, primary (literals/identifiers/parentheses).

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Architecture

The interpreter follows a familiar pipeline:

1. Lexer: tokenizes input
2. Parser: builds an AST
3. Executor: runs the AST or falls back to system command execution
4. Output / side effects

Project layout (top-level):

TruShell/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs         - REPL and command execution
│   └── parser.rs       - Lexer and parser
├── Cargo.toml          - Project manifest
├── Cargo.lock          - Dependency lock file
└── README.md           - This file

Design goals:

• Separation of concerns between lexing/parsing/execution
• Robust fallback to system commands when parsing fails
• Minimal dependencies for portability
• Extensible AST-based design to add language features safely

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Development

Requirements:

• Rust 1.70 or later
• Cargo (bundled with Rust)

Build & run:

# debug
cargo build
# release
cargo build --release
# run tests
cargo test
# enable backtraces while running
RUST_BACKTRACE=1 cargo run

Recommended workflow:

• Format: cargo fmt
• Lint: cargo clippy
• Add unit tests for new features and ensure CI passes

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Contributing

We welcome contributions. Suggested flow:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
3. Implement changes and add tests
4. Run cargo fmt and cargo clippy
5. Commit with a clear message and push your branch
6. Open a Pull Request describing the change and motivation

Please open an Issue to discuss larger design changes before implementing them.

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Roadmap

Planned work:

• Task Management (task create/list/complete)
• Time Tracking (time start/stop/log)
• Persistence via SQLite for tasks and history
• Configuration file: ~/.trushellrc
• Command history and tab completion
• Shell integration helpers for .bashrc / .zshrc

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Support

Found a bug or have a question?

• Open an issue on GitHub
• Start a discussion if you want to brainstorm features

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License

TruShell is released under the terms found in LICENSE.md.

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Maintainers: TruFoundation

Made with care — contributions and feedback welcome.

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