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Lesson 2 / 31

The Terminal & Shell

Open a terminal, understand the shell and read the prompt to see your user, host and directory.

What is a shell?

The shell is a program that reads commands you type and asks the kernel to execute them. Bash is the most common Linux shell. The terminal is just the window you type into.

Opening a terminal

On most desktop distros, Ctrl+Alt+T opens a terminal. You'll land in your shell with a prompt waiting for input.

whoami          # who am I logged in as
hostname        # this machine's name
date            # current date/time

Output:

alice
ubuntu-server
Thu Sep  4 10:00:00 IST 2026

Reading the prompt

A typical prompt alice@ubuntu-server:~$ shows user@host:current-directory. A trailing $ means a normal user; # means you're root (superuser).

Quick check: A prompt ending in `#` instead of `$` usually means:

  • A syntax error occurred
  • The terminal is frozen
  • You are logged in as root
  • The shell is in read-only mode
Answer

You are logged in as root — `#` is the traditional prompt symbol for the root/superuser account.