Why type rxvt into a terminal? (Solved)

[Texaspilot]

I have a question about the tutorial I have been doing. It is probably a very stupid question, but here it is. Why does he have you type rxvt into the terminal? It seems to be the same to me except with inverted colors. Maybe slightly faster... what am I really doing when i do that? Thanks.

[TerryH]

As you now know rxvt is a terminal emulator, you are just running another programam. You didn't mention what terminal application you were using for the tutorial. There are many different terminal emulator applications. The basics are the same. Why the tutorial had you run rxvt, I don't know. Maybe a simple way of showing how applications/programs are invoked from the command line. Similarly, how browsers, office apps, media players and all other applications can be run from the command line of a terminal.

[Texaspilot]

Its not an application, it is a written tutorial in an old thread... I have just been typing the commands I have been learning and playing with into the console on my dpup stretch. Rxvt command opens another window in inverse video, but the functionality of it seems no different than the console.

Is the console a different emulator than rxvt is I guess what I am asking?

I don’t know why but I am bewildered by this. It is as if there are two different emulators, but never installed one, so I am assuming that I should just have whatever it is that dpup stretch comes with, meaning the one I select from the command bar or call up with win-key + t.

[TerryH]

xterm, rxvt, urxvt, sakura, lxterminal....are terminal emulators. You have run a different terminal emulator application, from the terminal you are using for the tutorial. It is not just the inverse of the terminal you are using, it's a different terminal. It may help if you advise which terminal you are using for your tutorial.

The terminal attributes of terminals can be changed, some simply. If you are using urxvt, you can edit the attributes by typing urxvtcontrol in the terminal. This will run a GUI application to allow you to change the attributes of urxvt . You can view where these attributes are stored in /root/.Xdefaults.

Note: If you wanted to use a different terminal emulator, you could reconfigure win-key + t to run your preferred terminal.

Edit: Some more terminal emulators:
https://fossbytes.com/best-linux-terminal-emulators/

[Flash]

Texaspilot, what happens when you type rxvt into a terminal?

[Texaspilot]

That is exactly wha i have been doing. I type rxvt into the terminal and it opens a window with another terminal.

I never added another. That is mostly what is bewildering me. I have dpup stretch 7.5. Unless that comes with it’s own terminal and rxvt. Then it would make some sense.

[Texaspilot]

Ive dug into it a big and see that my linux comes with lxterminal. Rxvt is installed per the package manager, but I never installed it. So do I have 2 different terminals installed?

[puddlemoon]

Hi,
So yes, there is more than one terminal emulator already in the system. That is normal for puppy. some are not in the menu.
Not sure what exactly is in Dpupstretch but at least three I'd say.
xterm will be there too.
For kicks run "rxvt" in the console, then "xterm" in rxvt, then "lxterminal" in xterm... you will have done a terminal loop...

[Texaspilot]

Thanks. Now I understand. I am easily confused... Is there a quick guide anywhere to the differences? To someone at my level of understanding they appear the same, but I am sure some are better at some things than others. There must also be a reason why one was chosen as default...

[user1111]

xterm was the original pseudo terminal. AT&T Unix - the original foundation basically had one textual only console that was booted, and once that was up and running additional 'things/functionality' was started. There was one shell (Bourne shell or simply sh). As part of bootup given that memory/ram was small, only enough files were loaded ... so you have bin and sbin (sbin being for admin type commands/programs for that early phase bootup). Once booted other commands were added on top - hence /usr/bin and /usr/sbin. i.e. once the console was up you could insert/mount a /usr disk-set. For non standard commands, that are specific to individual sites, /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin are used. Once multi-user was up, user files/data could be inserted/mounted, /home.

Over time others have added alternative choices of 'shell', csh, ksh ...etc. As have other choices of terminal emulators been added, rxvt, lxterminal, sakura ...etc. As with the different shells, so also do the different terminal emulators do certain things different ways (or uniquely add additional functionality).

For portability, using xterm, bourne shell, and vi as your text editor would mostly mean that you could move from one system to another and likely have those available to you ... consistency. But other choices are more often preferred. I like sakura for instance for its easier copying/pasting and how it supports clickable links (if a http.... web link is seen then you can simply click that link to have it open your browser).

[Texaspilot]

I have another stupid question. The tutorial asks me to get mrxvt. I have gotten in through the ppm. It says installed. However, when i type mrxvt into any of my terminals it says command not found...

[user1111]

Open a terminal
cd /
find . | grep mrxvt

if that reveals it to be somewhere like /usr/local/bin/mrxvt then cd to that folder and run it

cd /usr/local/bin
./mrxvt

Note that you have to specify the path which the leading ./ does in that example

[Texaspilot]

It came up with a bunch of things. I found it able to run under the title mxrvt-full. Perhaps i am getting lost and should start with a more basic tutorial...

Im sure there is a way to get it to run from anywhere?

[TerryH]

If you post a link to the tutorial you are doing, you may get better explanations to assist your learning. People trying to assist you may not have to guess, as is currently happening.

[Texaspilot]

My tutorial is here:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=44123

[TerryH]

This is a very old tutorial, the purpose of this part of the tutorial was to install a different and as the author (Bruce B) stated, more user friendly. as it was written for older puppies, not so relevant for a newer puppy, as you are using lxterminal, which is a newer more user friendly terminal emulator. The tutorial still gives a learning experience.

The executable for mrxvt, as you have indicated is mrxvt-full. It's misleading. If you run mrxvt-full in a terminal you are running the program you installed.

Just as an exercise, in a terminal run:

Code: Select all

ln -s /usr/bin/mrxvt-full /usr/bin/mrxvt

This command creates a symbolic link mrxvt to the executable mrxvt-full. You can now type mrxvt in a terminal, rather than needing to type mrxvt-full.

An alternate method to creating the symlink, would be in a terminal to change directory to the /usr/bin directory first:

Code: Select all

cd /usr/bin
ln -s mrxvt-full mrxvt

[Texaspilot]

Thanks for the answer. I am beginning to get it. Should I use a different tutorial, and stick with the urxvt and the lxterminal already installed? If so, which of those is best for playing with?

I am also reading introduction to linux by Machtelt Garrels.

[galbi]

I am also reading introduction to linux by Machtelt Garrels.

I wanted to know if that was a book, so I googled it, please read what other people say about that book:
https://www.amazon.es/Introduction-Linu ... 159682199X

Keep in mind that 'Linux', it's a very generic name. Not all Linuxes are the same, and Puppy has it's own way of being.

So, don't get disappointed if things are different (or doesn't work) between Puppy and the book.

[Texaspilot]

Thank you for looking that up. Ive run into several commands that dont work on puppy, but i figured it was just because ive been told puppy is lighter and smaller, which is why i like it. For example, info and apropos dont work.

[bigpup]

I have a question about the tutorial I have been doing.

It could be as simple as they want you doing everything using rxvt terminal which should be in any Puppy version.