Terminal Help: Stuck Again

Thanks!

In article <160420061452590324%dave@N_O_T_T_H_I_Sbalderstone.ca>, Dave
Balderstone <dave RemoveThis @N_O_T_T_H_I_Sbalderstone.ca> wrote:

> You've invoked some app. Try typing "q", "exit" or CTRL-C.

In article <160420061540469065%yocraigst@gmail.com>,
Craig Stevenson <yocraigst.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote:

> This has happened before, but this time I thought I'd ask for help...
>
>
> My normal prompt in Terminal is my user name folowed by a dollar sign.
> (My IP address is in there somewhere also). Every once in a while, and
> I've just done it now, I apparently type the wrong thing and the prompt
> changes to a ">". No words before it, nothing else, just that. Nothing
> I type at that point seems to have any effect except hitting "return"
> gives me a new line.
>
> What did I get myself into and how do I get out?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> (Yes, I'm going to get a book on all this stuff probably tomorrow)

It's probably some kind of editor. When this happens to me, I start
flailing with things that I know quit some editors: q(uit), e(x)it,
ctrl-c, ctrl-z, :q, etc. Often, I end up just closing the terminal
window and starting over. Of course, you might lose your command
scroll-back that way.

--
AF
"Non Sequitur U has a really, really lousy debate team."
--artyw raises the bar on rec.sport.baseball

Control-c got me out. Thanks!!!!

In article <afaber-691FB7.16480116042006 DeleteThis @reader1.panix.com>, Alice
Faber <afaber DeleteThis @panix.com> wrote:

> It's probably some kind of editor. When this happens to me, I start
> flailing with things that I know quit some editors: q(uit), e(x)it,
> ctrl-c, ctrl-z, :q, etc. Often, I end up just closing the terminal
> window and starting over. Of course, you might lose your command
> scroll-back that way.

Craig Stevenson <yocraigst.RemoveThis@gmail.com> writes:

> My normal prompt in Terminal is my user name folowed by a dollar sign.
> (My IP address is in there somewhere also). Every once in a while, and
> I've just done it now, I apparently type the wrong thing and the prompt
> changes to a ">". No words before it, nothing else, just that. Nothing
> I type at that point seems to have any effect except hitting "return"
> gives me a new line.
>

You have typed an incomplete command, and the ">" is the secondary
prompt indicating that this is a continuation line.

For example

$ echo "Hello World" |
> echo

The pipe symbol '|' at the end indicates that the standard output from the
first echo command is to be the standard input of another command.
Since the second command was not given on the first line, the shell
waits for the command to be completed (or at least continued) on the
next line. In shell programming, it is common to have chained
commands of this sort which are 5 or 10 lines long.

Another example would be

$ echo &&
>

Here '&&' means 'and', and the shell is waiting to see "and what?".
--
Bill Mitchell
Dept of Mathematics, The University of Florida
PO Box 118105, Gainesville, FL 32611--8105
mitchell.RemoveThis@math.ufl.edu (352) 392-0281 x284

On Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:40:46 -0500, Craig Stevenson wrote:
> This has happened before, but this time I thought I'd ask for help...


> My normal prompt in Terminal is my user name folowed by a dollar sign.
> (My IP address is in there somewhere also). Every once in a while, and
> I've just done it now, I apparently type the wrong thing and the prompt
> changes to a ">". No words before it, nothing else, just that. Nothing
> I type at that point seems to have any effect except hitting "return"
> gives me a new line.

> What did I get myself into and how do I get out?

> Thanks!!

> (Yes, I'm going to get a book on all this stuff probably tomorrow)

You have invoked a shell command that is incomplete. The shell is asking
you to continue the command on the next line.

One way to get this behaviour is to leave an unclosed quote on the
command line. In that case, the shell is waiting for you to finish
typing the string that you started.

Another way is to invoke a multiline shell command, such as

$ for FILE in *.c
> do
> echo $FILE
> wc -l $FILE
> grep include $FILE
> done
$

The ">" means more input is expected. Completing the command will get
you back to the "$" prompt. If you get the command by accident, a ctrl-C
will get you out, as you found.


--
Dave Seaman
U.S. Court of Appeals to review three issues
concerning case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
<http://www.mumia2000.org/>

In article <e1ufn7$bpf$1@mailhub227.itcs.purdue.edu>, Dave Seaman
<dseaman.DeleteThis@no.such.host> wrote:

> You have invoked a shell command that is incomplete. The shell is asking
> you to continue the command on the next line.
>
> One way to get this behaviour is to leave an unclosed quote on the
> command line. In that case, the shell is waiting for you to finish
> typing the string that you started.

Yes, there was an open quote.

Thanks!!!!

In article <160420061540469065%yocraigst@gmail.com>,
Craig Stevenson <yocraigst.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:

> This has happened before, but this time I thought I'd ask for help...
>
>
> My normal prompt in Terminal is my user name folowed by a dollar sign.
> (My IP address is in there somewhere also). Every once in a while, and
> I've just done it now, I apparently type the wrong thing and the prompt
> changes to a ">". No words before it, nothing else, just that. Nothing
> I type at that point seems to have any effect except hitting "return"
> gives me a new line.
>
> What did I get myself into and how do I get out?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> (Yes, I'm going to get a book on all this stuff probably tomorrow)

You've entered a command which can accept input from the keyboard and it
is looking for you to enter some text. Usually (I'm not sure about
always, so I won't claim it) you can exit by typing control-D.

Example:

[agbaker] : grep alan
This is a line that doesn't contain the word
This line contains "alan"
This line contains "alan"

aln
alan
alan
Alan
[agbaker] :
Every time I typed a line that contained the search text ("alan") grep
echoed the line back. I typed control-D to exit.

HTH

--
Alan Baker
Vancouver, British Columbia
"If you raise the ceiling 4 feet, move the fireplace from that wall
to that wall, you'll still only get the full stereophonic effect
if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard."

In article <160420061540469065%yocraigst@gmail.com>,
Craig Stevenson <yocraigst RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:

> This has happened before, but this time I thought I'd ask for help...
>
>
> My normal prompt in Terminal is my user name folowed by a dollar sign.
> (My IP address is in there somewhere also). Every once in a while, and
> I've just done it now, I apparently type the wrong thing and the prompt
> changes to a ">". No words before it, nothing else, just that. Nothing
> I type at that point seems to have any effect except hitting "return"
> gives me a new line.
>
> What did I get myself into and how do I get out?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> (Yes, I'm going to get a book on all this stuff probably tomorrow)

As has been said by others, it is most likely an incomplete
command. Either a starting " or ' and not ending " or ', or the
last character on the preceding line is a backslash (each to do as
it is just above the return key; I do this fairly often).

If > confuses you _AND_ you use bash, sh, ksh, zsh then set PS2 in
your .bash_profile, .bashrc, or .profile.

export PS1="Hay! The Command is not finished! Keep typing "

This should let you know very clearly that it is an unfinished
command

Bob Harris

Craig Stevenson wrote:
> This has happened before, but this time I thought I'd ask for help...
>
>
> My normal prompt in Terminal is my user name folowed by a dollar sign.
> (My IP address is in there somewhere also). Every once in a while, and
> I've just done it now, I apparently type the wrong thing and the prompt
> changes to a ">". No words before it, nothing else, just that. Nothing
> I type at that point seems to have any effect except hitting "return"
> gives me a new line.
>
> What did I get myself into and how do I get out?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> (Yes, I'm going to get a book on all this stuff probably tomorrow)

What is "PS2" set to? I bet it is set to "> " and you've type some
reserved words, a here doc or an unclosed quote before hitting return.

In article <yVa1g.18528$43.5895@nnrp.ca.mci.com!nnrp1.uunet.ca>, void *
clvrmnky <clvrmnky.invalid.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com.invalid> wrote:

> What is "PS2" set to? I bet it is set to "> "

> and you've type some reserved words,

> a here doc

> or an unclosed quote before hitting return.
This last one.