The Unix Shell

Recognising prompts and how to exit

I don’t recognise my prompt…where am I?

If the top of your shell window shows…

GNU nano

…you are in the nano text editor.

If your shell window shows…

~
~
~
~
"filename.txt" ...

…you are in the vi text editor.

If the bottom of your shell window shows…

filename.txt  (Fundamental) ----

…you are in the emacs or xemacs text editor.

If the bottom of your shell window shows…

XEmacs: filename.txt  (Fundamental) ----

…you are in the xemacs text editor.

If your shell prompt is…

>>>

… you are in python.

If your shell prompt is…

In [123]:

…you are in ipython.

If your shell prompt is…

…you may have typed ' or ", to specify a string, as part of a shell command but have not typed another ' or " to close the string.

If the bottom-left of your shell window shows…

--More--(...%)

…you are viewing a file using more.

If the bottom-left of your shell window shows…

filename.txt

…you may be viewing a file using less.

If the bottom-left of your shell window shows…

(END)

…you may be viewing a file using less.

If the bottom-left of your shell window shows…

…you may be viewing a file using less or viewing a man page.

If the bottom-left of your shell window shows…

Manual page...

…you are viewing a man page.

How do I exit from…

nano:

Press CTRL-X
If you have unsaved changes, you will be asked to save these - press y to save, or n to quit without saving.

vi:

Type :q! to exit without saving.
If this text just appears on screen then press ESC then type :q!

emacs or xemacs:

Press CTRL-X CTRL-C
If you have unsaved changes, you will be asked to save these - press y to save, or n then type yes to quit without saving.

python:

Type exit() or CTRL-D

ipython:

Type exit(), or CTRL-D then press y

man page:

Press q

more or less:

Press q

An open string in a shell, denoted by a > prompt:

If you can see on screen what the character you used to open the strin g was (' or "") then type the same character again to close the string.
Or, press CTRL-C