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232
votes
4answers
41k views

What is the exact difference between a 'terminal', a 'shell', a 'tty' and a 'console'?

I think these terms almost refer to the same thing, when used loosely: terminal shell tty console What exactly do each of these terms refer to?
4
votes
3answers
266 views

Construct a command by putting a string into a tty

I managed to do this echo -n "command" > /dev/tty1 The letters appear, and the cursor moves, but they are "ghosts" - if you hit enter, nothing happens (they are not in stdin). Edit: In the ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views

Show a notification across all running X displays

Using the command line, I'd like show a notification on every running X display. ( and running console ) Something like: notify-send-all 'Warning' 'Nuclear launch in 5 minutes, please evacuate' Is ...
5
votes
1answer
102 views

How do I ensure that a terminal remains scrollable?

On my tty terminals (1-6), I lose text when I move away from it and back (i.e. pressing ShiftPg Up doesn't reveal any scrolled-off text). How can I recover this text?
12
votes
2answers
2k views

Linux: Difference between /dev/console , /dev/tty and /dev/tty0

On a Linux system, what is the difference between /dev/console , /dev/tty and /dev/tty0 ? What is their respective use? How do they compare?
23
votes
2answers
936 views

Can a terminal emulator be as fast as TTY 1-6?

I've been trying various terminal emulators lately, from the built-in gnome-terminal, aterm, xterm, wterm, to rxvt. The test I've been doing is in this order: Open up a tmux window with 2 panes The ...
4
votes
4answers
356 views

ls command operating differently depending on recipient

How does commands like ls know what its stdout is? It seems ls is operating different depending on what the target stdout is. For example if I do: ls /home/matt/tmp the result is: a.txt b.txt ...
4
votes
4answers
4k views

How to stop cursor from blinking

How do I make the cursor stop blinking when in a TTY? (or anywhere else). BONUS Points for one universal setting that stops the cursor blinking almost everywhere.
3
votes
2answers
303 views

Print console colors

Wrote a bash function to display the console colors. But, it seems some of the colors are not possible to show that way! (?) Also, note the strange "bright black"! (Note: The below screendump is of ...
3
votes
2answers
3k views

Run getty on a serial port on startup on RHEL

I want to put a getty on ttyS2 on a RHEL 6.1 box so I can use IPMI's serial-over-ethernet functionality to log in to a machine when SSH isn't working. In the past (on Ubuntu?), I used to add a line ...
1
vote
1answer
113 views

Start IceWM from the command line *and* get sound working?

So, I hate window managers. I hate them all. My current distribution is Ubuntu 12.04. Here is my /etc/init/lightdm.conf: # LightDM - light Display Manager # # The display manager service manages ...
0
votes
1answer
49 views

What are the different virtual TTY numbers used for?

It seems by default (at least on Ubuntu, but I think I saw the same on other distros) there are virtual TTYs 1-6 for text login, 7 for GUI login, and 8 upwards are unused or at least non-interactive ...