Nick Warne wrote: > I was in a SSH session, and checking something inadvertently issued: > > > nano /var/log/messages | grep a > > (I was searching for something else than an 'a', but the above example shows > the issue - about to use 'nano', but then forgot to change it to 'cat'). > > The terminal just sits there doing nothing - CTRL+C doesn't do anything; in > a SSH session, the only option is to kill the terminal. On a local machine, > you can use kill -9 from another terminal to get out of it.
On a remote machine you can do the same. There really is no difference between local and remote here. You just use a second terminal for it. However this is the perfect case for job control. No need for a second terminal. Here is an example. Use Control-Z to stop the foreground job. rwp@havoc:~$ nano /var/log/messages | grep a ^Z [1]+ Stopped nano /var/log/messages | grep a rwp@havoc:~$ jobs [1]+ Stopped nano /var/log/messages | grep a rwp@havoc:~$ kill %1 Received SIGHUP or SIGTERM rwp@havoc:~$ jobs [1]+ Terminated nano /var/log/messages | grep a rwp@havoc:~$ jobs rwp@havoc:~$ Simply stop the process and then kill it using the same terminal. Bob P.S. The other suggestions to use Control-X to exit nano are also good too but job control is general for the entire class type of commands like this and I think good to know too.
