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Tip: The default Bourne-shell-compatible prompts end with $ while the default C-shell-compatible prompts end with % or >. (zsh is an exception to this.) Root (s
by funkah 15y ago
Tip: The default Bourne-shell-compatible prompts end with $ while the default C-shell-compatible prompts end with % or >. (zsh is an exception to this.) Root (super-user) prompts often end with # by default. Of course, this behavior is configurable.
Gee, who could ever find that confusing?!
As much as I love Unix now, I can't help but understand when the author says students see the above as a "baroque regression". It just seems so ridiculously arcane when you're used to clicking on things. Of course things are much better once you're on the other side of the learning curve, but it can be a doozy.
- dredmorbius 15y agoWell, the above descriptions of shell prompts are the defaults. If you strip out all configuration files, this is the behavior you'll see. Of course, it's better to explicitly check to see what shell you're running ('help', 'ps up $$', grep $UID /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f7').