  Among other goals, the NA61/SHINE (SHINE=SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino
Experiment) detector at CERN SPS aims at precision hadro-production
measurements to characterise the neutrino beam of the T2K experiment at J-PARC.
These measurements are performed using a 31 GeV/c proton beam produced at the
SPS with a thin carbon target and a full T2K replica target. Spectra of charged
pion inclusive inelastic cross section were obtained from pilot data collected
in 2007 1 with a 2 cm thick target (4% of the interaction length). The SHINE
detector and its particle identification capabilities are described and the
analysis techniques are briefly discussed.
