# Why use a terminal?



## Deleted member 9563 (Dec 16, 2009)

FreeBSD has gotten me used to switching between consoles, and I like that environment. Why then use a terminal? Is there a downside?


----------



## SirDice (Dec 16, 2009)

Sometimes you don't have access to the console. Simply because the server is 100 miles away or it's locked inside a closet.


----------



## Deleted member 9563 (Dec 17, 2009)

Well, I can control all my computers using SSH from the console - no need to open a terminal. What difference does 100 miles make?


----------



## crsd (Dec 17, 2009)

What do you mean by "terminal" then?


----------



## sixtydoses (Dec 17, 2009)

I think it's way easier just to fire up a terminal to run some basic commands like `ls`, `cp`, `rm`, `mv`, etc. What I meant was I wouldn't wanna switch to another console just to `ls`.

I normally switch to a different console when I need to run something that will take a long period of time to complete(say building OpenOffice), because it happened to me a couple of times that my X crashed and it killed some foreground processes that I executed on my terminals.

Plus I prefer everything to be on the same screen. Even if I were to run something on a different console, sometimes I'd open up a terminal to `watch` the tty.

Hope I got the question right.


----------



## graudeejs (Dec 17, 2009)

sixtydoses said:
			
		

> I think it's way easier just to fire up a terminal to run some basic commands like `ls`, `cp`, `rm`, `mv`, etc. What I meant was I wouldn't wanna switch to another console just to `ls`.
> 
> I normally switch to a different console when I need to run something that will take a long period of time to complete(say building OpenOffice), because it happened to me a couple of times that my X crashed and it killed some foreground processes that I executed on my terminals.
> 
> ...



you should get familiar with
sysutils/tmux
or sysutils/screen


----------



## Deleted member 9563 (Dec 17, 2009)

*@sixtydoses:* Yes, you got the question exactly right.  And those are good ideas. Thanks.



> *crsd:*  	 What do you mean by "terminal" then?


I realize there is a bit of confusion these days, but I mean "terminal" as in Xterminal and it's ilke. By console I mean the Ctl-Alt-Fx sequence of consoles.

I'm putting FreeBSD together bit by bit so as to learn, and haven't developed a taste for the GUI yet. I did install Fluxbox (which is *very* nice) but I haven't found much use for it yet, except to open a GUI browser. That's why I'm asking questions about how other people like to work.

*@killasmurf86:* Interesting links.


----------



## crsd (Dec 17, 2009)

OJ said:
			
		

> *@sixtydoses:* Yes, you got the question exactly right.  And those are good ideas. Thanks.
> 
> I realize there is a bit of confusion these days, but I mean "terminal" as in Xterminal and it's ilke. By console I mean the Ctl-Alt-Fx sequence of consoles.



I see. One of the reasons for me- unicode (UTF-8) support.



> I'm putting FreeBSD together bit by bit so as to learn, and haven't developed a taste for the GUI yet. I did install Fluxbox (which is *very* nice) but I haven't found much use for it yet, except to open a GUI browser. That's why I'm asking questions about how other people like to work.
> 
> *@killasmurf86:* Interesting links.


----------



## sixtydoses (Dec 17, 2009)

killasmurf86 said:
			
		

> you should get familiar with
> sysutils/tmux
> or sysutils/screen



Yea I should've used screen :r .


----------



## Deleted member 9563 (Dec 17, 2009)

Yep, UTF-8 is a good reason to use the terminals. Scrollback is also a nice feature that can save a bit of effort.


----------



## Daisuke_Aramaki (Dec 17, 2009)

dvtm for tiling window management.

sysutils/dvtm


----------



## graudeejs (Dec 17, 2009)

In console [real console] you can use scroll-lock and then navigate with arrow keys and pg-up/down....


----------



## Deleted member 9563 (Dec 17, 2009)

killasmurf86 said:
			
		

> In console [real console] you can use scroll-lock and then navigate with arrow keys and pg-up/down....



That works! killasmurf86, you're brilliant!
Now I don't have to redirect to a file and then use less, as I was doing before.


----------



## graudeejs (Dec 17, 2009)

That is traditional meaning of *scroll-lock* key


----------



## DutchDaemon (Dec 17, 2009)

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2125/whats-the-scroll-lock-key-on-my-computer-for


----------



## Beastie (Dec 17, 2009)

You can scroll in both tty as killasmurf86 mentioned as well as most (all?) terminal emulators using shift+page up/down for some such as xterm, or shift+arrows for others, or your mouse wheel.

You may also be interested in `jobs`, ^Z (ctrl+Z), `bg` and `fg` (see your shell's man page).


----------



## phrac (Dec 17, 2009)

OJ said:
			
		

> That works! killasmurf86, you're brilliant!
> Now I don't have to redirect to a file and then use less, as I was doing before.



you don't need to pipe to a file and then use less, you can use less directly in the pipeline:


```
ps aux | less
```


----------



## phoenix (Dec 17, 2009)

If you use tmux or screen, you also get a scrollback buffer.

In tmux, the default keybinding is Ctrl+B,= after which you can use the cursors to move up/down.  Esc will leave the scroll mode.


----------

