Command Line Interfaces

[Derek Broughton]

Brian McKee wrote:

> On 04/10/2007, Pete Holsberg <pjh42 at pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>>  What is the difference between the command line screen you get by typing
>> Ctrl-Alt-F[1-6] and what you get by using a "terminal" program?
> 
> The prompt is a shell like bash or dash that interacts with the
> system.  It's the same shell regardless of how it's displayed to you.
... 
> PS  unix geeks know the above is a gross oversimplification - but I
> think it most accurately answers the question as posed....

That might be just a touch too gross :-)

A terminal program is not generally going to be started as a "login" shell,
I think.  Whereas the physical consoles are.  This will make small
differences to your environment variables.
-- 
derek