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17 LINUXUNIX Virtual Terminals

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21 views

17 LINUXUNIX Virtual Terminals

Uploaded by

tamilavatar06
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Linux/Unix Virtual Terminal

Linux is a multi-user system, which allows many users to work on it simultaneously. So what if different users need to work
on the same system at a time? How do you do that? This is where we need the virtual terminals, let us learn about them.

What are Virtual Terminals?

Virtual Terminals are similar to Terminal that you have been using so far. They are used for executing commands and
offering input. The only difference is that you cannot use the mouse with the Virtual Terminals. Therefore, you need to know
the keyboard shortcuts.

Virtual Terminals enable a number of users to work on different programs at the same time on the same computer. This is
the reason they are one of the most distinguished features of Linux.

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Let us learn how to access and utilize them.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

 What are Virtual Terminals?


 Starting a Virtual Terminal
 Navigating through Virtual Terminals
 Virtual Terminal shortcuts
Starting a Virtual Terminal
Usually, there are six (default) virtual terminals on a Linux operating system, and you can log into them as different users
to conducts different tasks. The steps to launch a Virtual terminal are:

1) Press Ctrl+Alt+F1

2) Enter User ID and Password


3) Now the Virtual Terminal is ready to work on

Navigating through Virtual Terminals


You can navigate between the 6 virtual terminals using the following command.

Ctrl + Alt + F (1 to 6) key

F1 being the first while F6 being the last virtual terminal.

You can work on all of at the same time.

To which virtual terminal you are working on, note tty given at the top.
tty is the teletype number which you can also know by typing the command "tty".

The seventh terminal


The seventh terminal is the one which we have been using so for in Linux tutorials. It can be accessed by pressing the
below given key combination.

Ctrl + Alt + F7

Virtual Terminal shortcuts


These are some of the shortcuts that you should be aware of while working on virtual terminals.

Shortcut Function

Home or Ctrl + a Move the cursor to the start of the current line

End or Ctrl + e Move the cursor to the end of the current line

Tab Autocomplete commands

Ctrl + u Erase the current line

Ctrl + w Delete the word before the cursor

Ctrl + k Delete the line from the cursor position to the end
reset Reset the terminal

history List of commands executed by the user

Arrow up Scroll up in history and enter to execute

Arrow down Scroll down in history and enter to execute

Ctrl + d Logout from the terminal

Ctrl + Alt + Del Reboot the system

Summary:
 Virtual terminals are CLIs which execute the user commands
 There are six virtual terminals which can be launched using the shortcut keys
 They offer multi-user environment, and up to six users can work on them at the same time
 Unlike terminals, you cannot use mouse with virtual terminals
 To launch a virtual terminal press Ctrl+Alt+F(1 to 6) on the keyboard
 Use the same command for navigating through the different terminals
 To return to the home screen of the Linux system, use Ctrl+Alt+F7 and it would take to you the terminal

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