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Date:      Fri, 16 Jan 1998 10:06:36 -0800
From:      Don Wilde <don@partsnow.com>
To:        Frank Griffith <frankg@idfw.com>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Prompts
Message-ID:  <34BFA1AC.E8805F3C@partsnow.com>
References:  <199801151522.IAA03272@idfw.com>

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Frank Griffith wrote:
> 
> I have been looking at some of the docs and several
> e-mail responses. The % prompt keeps showing up.
> However, in using FreeBSD as root I only see a # prompt
> and when logged in as other user I see the $ prompt.
> 
> How do I get to the % prompt?

Since nobody else has picked this up, I'll help. This depends on which
shell you have enabled for each user. By default, the system loads csh
for root and sh for regular users, but you can change this if you have
added other shells from the ports collection. Prompts at different
points are different to help clue you int to what the system expects.
When you start your session, the shell reads startup files for you as a
user which tell the shell how to configure itself for your convenience.
In sh, the file is .profile in your home directory. In csh, it's .cshrc.
You can customize the prompt from there. Read the man pages before you
make changes, 'man csh' and 'man sh' are your friends here. I personally
like BASH2.0 from the ports, but supposedly Real Power Users use csh...
:} A good reference on shell tricks is 'UNIX Power Tools' by O'Reilly.
One final note: csh is used for root for good reason. Bash uses
libraries which are not available to the system at certain early stages
of bootup. However, If you don't know enough to understand this, it's
not going to do you any good anyway, so for a personal system go ahead
and choose whatever shell you like. :)
-- 
  oooOOO O O O o * * *  *   *   *
 o     ___       _________ _________ ________ _________ _________ ___==_
 V_=_=_DW ===--- Don Wilde [don@PartsNow.com] [http://www.PartsNow.com ]
/oo0000oo-oo--oo-ooo---ooo-ooo---ooo-ooo--ooo-ooo---ooo-ooo---ooo-oo--oo




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