diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
index a7a7c95..0c1ccfe 100644
--- a/src/main.zig
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -1,7 +1,41 @@
 const std = @import("std");
+const builtin = @import("builtin");
+const File = std.fs.File;
+
+// step 1: [x] read in a file from stdin and write out to stdout
+// step 2: [ ] read in a named file in parameters and write out to stdout
+// step 3: [ ] skip a number of lines
+// step 4: [ ] skip a number of matching lines
+// step 5: [ ] skip a number of tokens
 
 pub fn main() anyerror!void {
-    std.log.info("All your codebase are belong to us.", .{});
+    const stdin = std.io.getStdIn();
+    const stdout = std.io.getStdOut();
+    try dumpInput(stdin, stdout);
+}
+
+fn dumpInput(in: File, out: File) !void {
+    var buffer: [100]u8 = undefined;
+    while (true) {
+        const input = (try nextLine(in.reader(), &buffer));
+        if (input) |line| {
+            try out.writer().print("{s}\n", .{ line });
+        } else {
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+fn nextLine(reader: anytype, buffer: []u8) !?[]const u8 {
+    var line = (try reader.readUntilDelimiterOrEof(
+        buffer,
+        '\n',
+    )) orelse return null;
+    // trim annoying windows-only carriage return character
+    if (builtin.os.tag == .windows) {
+        line = std.mem.trimRight(u8, line, "\r");
+    }
+    return line;
 }
 
 test "basic test" {