Unix shell commands

Hello, ive recently finished university and im working as an assistant teacher in a secondary school. ive been given the objective t o give the students an assignment with a simple shell program in C/C++ with the support for several commands the Shell must also have the ability of processing commands from a batch file alongside usual user interaction through the command prompt.
All commands required will be implemented through the associated
functions or API calls. Under no circumstances will the student be calling a precompiled existing command. I have made excercises for them for the LAB so they have developed the skills on how existing API cuntions can be used to accomplish such tasks.

I have told them that this is not allowed as they are only
calling a precompiled executable:
If user asked for files in directory then
execv ("/bin/ls", cmd);

but i've got this command that is alright to use as it is calling a written function that lists files in the directory:
If user asked for files in directory then
listFiesInDir();
/* Function that list files
in directory*/

Along with this i have also given the task of requiring them to us makefile facilities. and this is up to you on how it is organized. Either all functions can be put under one header, or have independent header files encapsulating individual functions used by the shell. And they are required to put in their
/* Student ID : 0000001*/
/* Name : Syed Alam*/
/* BSc Software Engineering*/

the problem im getting is that i get many syntax errors even from the beginning and im unable to accomplish the task myself. can anyone please help me with this. Thank You !

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