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type="guide" style="task"
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id="overview">
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<info>
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<revision version="0.1" date="2013-01-10" status="draft"/>
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<link type="guide" xref="index"/>
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<credit type="author copyright">
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<name>Sindhu S</name>
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<email>sindhus@live.in</email>
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<years>2013</years>
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</credit>
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<credit type="copyright editor">
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<name>Ekaterina Gerasimova</name>
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<email>kittykat3756@gmail.com</email>
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<years>2013</years>
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</credit>
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<include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
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<desc>What is a terminal?</desc>
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</info>
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<title>Overview of a terminal</title>
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<app>Terminal</app> is a terminal program for <gui>GNOME</gui>. The
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following terms and their descriptions will help you to be familiar with
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<app>Terminal</app> and its capabilities.
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<terms>
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<item>
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<title>A terminal</title>
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A terminal is a text input point in a computer that is also called
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the Command Line Interface (CLI).
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>Physical terminals</title>
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IBM 3270, VT100 and many others are hardware terminals that are no
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longer produced as physical devices. To emulate these terminals, there are
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terminal emulators.
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>Terminal emulators</title>
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Emulation is the ability of a computer program to imitate another
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program or device.
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A terminal emulator, also called tty, is a software program that emulates
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a video terminal in modern computers that use graphical user interfaces
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and provide interactive access to applications that run only in the
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command line environments. These applications may be running either on the
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same machine or on a different one via <app>telnet</app>, <app>ssh</app>,
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or <app>dial-up</app>.
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>VTE</title>
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Virtual Terminal Environment (VTE) is a terminal emulator which
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emulates a text terminal inside a graphical user interface (GUI)
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environment. <app>Terminal</app> is largely based on the <app>VTE</app>.
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<app>VTE</app> has widgets that implement a fully functional terminal
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emulator.
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>Shell</title>
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A shell is a program that provides an interface to invoke or
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“launch” commands or another program inside a terminal. It also allows you
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to view and browse the contents of directories. Popular shells include
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<app>bash</app>, <app>zsh</app>, <app>fish</app>.
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>Escape Sequences</title>
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An escape sequence is a series of characters used to change the meaning
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of data in a terminal. Escape sequences are used when a computer has only
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single channel to send information back and forth. Escape sequences are
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used to distinguish if data being sent is a command to be executed or
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information to be stored and displayed.
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>Prompt</title>
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A prompt is also called a command prompt. It is a sequence of
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characters used in the command line environment to indicate the readiness
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of the shell to accept commands.
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A prompt usually ends with the characters <sys>$</sys>, <sys>%</sys>,
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<sys>#</sys> or <sys>></sys> and includes
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information about the path of the present working directory. On Unix based
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systems, it is common for the prompt to end in a <sys>$</sys> or
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<sys>#</sys> character depending on the user role such as <sys>$</sys>
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for user and <sys>#</sys> for superuser (also called <sys>root</sys>).
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</item>
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<item>
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<title>Command</title>
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An input entered in the prompt to be executed is called a
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command. It is a combination of the program name along with any
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other additional parameters passed as flags to alter the execution of the
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program.
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</item>
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</terms>
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</page>
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