Ctshell is a low-overhead shell designed specifically for resource-constrained embedded systems.
- Tab Completion: Supports auto-completion for commands using the TAB key.
- Command History: Supports cycling through history entries using Up (↑) and Down (↓) arrow keys.
- Line Editing: Supports cursor movement (Left/Right), Backspace handling, and inserting text anywhere in the line.
- Environment Variables: Supports setting, unsetting, listing variables, and expanding them inline using the
$prefix. - Non-blocking Architecture: Decoupled input and processing, making it compatible with both bare-metal and RTOS environments.
- Signal Handling (SIGINT): Implements setjmp/longjmp logic to abort long-running commands via
Ctrl+C. - Built-in Argument Parser: Includes a strictly-typed argument parser to easily handle flags (bool), integers, strings, and verbs within custom commands.
- ANSI Escape Sequence Support: Handles standard VT100/ANSI escape codes for arrow keys and screen control.
- Filesystem Support: Out-of-box for
FatFSnow, other fs native support will come soon. - Command Hierarchy Framework: Supports hierarchical command management.
Ctshell is easy to port — native port implementations for multiple mainstream embedded platforms are provided out of the box.
For other details, please refer to the docs.
Ctshell provides an intuitive interactive experience, and the core function demonstrations are as follows:
Use the help command to quickly list all available commands and their brief descriptions.
Use ls, cd, pwd, cat, mkdir, rm, touch commands to access your filesystem from ctshell.
Integrate ctshell into your embedded project to quickly debug peripheral/module status.
Flexibly manage environment variables with set/unset commands, and expand variables with $ prefix.
Use Ctrl+C (SIGINT) to immediately terminate dead loops/long-running commands without crashing the system.
Available at ctshell Documentation.
Copyright 2026 MDLZCOOL.
Distributed under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license.