# Introduction

Ion is a modern system shell that features a simple, yet powerful, syntax. It is written entirely
in Rust, which greatly increases the overall quality and security of the shell. It also offers a
level of performance that exceeds that of Dash, when taking advantage of Ion's features. While it
is developed alongside, and primarily for, RedoxOS, it is a fully capable on other \*nix platforms.

# Ion Shell

[![MIT licensed](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg)](./LICENSE)
[![crates.io](https://meritbadge.herokuapp.com/ion-shell)](https://crates.io/crates/ion-shell)

> Ion is still a WIP, and both its syntax and rules are subject to change over time. It is
> still quite a ways from becoming stabilized, but we are getting very close. Changes to the
> syntax at this time are likely to be minimal.

# Ion Specification

Ion has a RFC process for language proposals. Ion's formal specification is located within the
[rfcs](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/ion/tree/rfcs) branch. The RFC process is still in
the early stages of development, so much of the current and future implementation ideas have
yet to be written into the specification.

# Ion Manual

The Ion manual is generated automatically on each commit via [mdBook](https://github.com/azerupi/mdBook).
The manual is located [here](https://doc.redox-os.org/ion-manual/) on Redox OS's website. It is
also included in the source code for Ion, within the **manual** directory, which you may build
with **mdbook**.

# Ion library example
See the [examples folder](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/ion/tree/master/examples) and the [Parallelion project](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/AdminXVII/parallelion)

# Packages

## Pop!\_OS / Ubuntu

The following PPA supports the 18.04 (bionic) and 18.10 (cosmic) releases. Bionic builds were made using the Pop\_OS PPA's rustc 1.35.0 package.

```
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mmstick76/ion-shell
```

# Developer set up

Those who are developing software with Rust should install the [Rustup toolchain manager](https://rustup.rs/).
After installing rustup, run `rustup override set 1.35.0` to set your Rust toolchain to the version that Ion is
targeting at the moment. To build for Redox OS, `rustup override set nightly` is required to build the Redox
dependencies.

# Build dependencies

Please ensure that both cargo and rustc 1.35.0 or higher is installed for your system.
Release tarballs have not been made yet due to Ion being incomplete in a few remaining areas.

# Compile instructions for distribution

```sh
git clone https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/ion/
cd ion
RUSTUP=0 make # By default RUSTUP equals 1, which is for developmental purposes
sudo make install prefix=/usr
sudo make update-shells prefix=/usr
```

> To compile in DEBUG mode, pass `DEBUG=1` as an argument to `make`

# Vim/NeoVim Syntax Highlighting Plugin

We do have an [officially-supported syntax highlighting plugin](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/ion-vim) for all the
vim/nvim users out there.

```vimscript
Plugin 'vmchale/ion-vim'
```

![Screenshot of Syntax Highlighting](https://i.imgur.com/JzZp7WT.png)