Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 4th Edition

CHAPTER 2Getting to the Shell

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Accessing the command line
• Reaching CLI via a Linux console terminal
• Reaching CLI via a graphical terminal emulator
• Using the GNOME terminal emulator
• Using the Konsole terminal emulator
• Using the xterm terminal emulator

In the old days of Linux, system administrators, programmers, and system users all sat at something called a Linux console terminal entering shell commands and viewing text output. These days, with graphical desktop environments, it's getting harder to find a shell prompt on the system in order to enter shell commands. This chapter discusses what is required to reach a command-line environment. And it walks you through a few terminal emulation packages you may run into in the various Linux distributions.

Reaching the Command Line

Before the days of graphical desktops, the only way to interact with a Unix system was through a text command-line interface (CLI) provided by the shell. The CLI allowed text input only and could display only text and rudimentary graphics output.

Because of these restrictions, output devices were not very fancy. Often, you needed only a simple dumb terminal to interact with the Unix system. A dumb terminal was usually nothing more than a monitor and keyboard connected to the Unix system via a communication cable (usually a multiwire serial cable). This simple combination provided an easy way to enter text data into the Unix system and view text results.

As you well know, things ...