help (stuck on ">" bash scripting)

[Fymgee]

this is my bare metal:

computer: Dell Latitude E5430
os: Linux Mint 22.3 "zena" - Cinnamon 64-bit
linux_kernel: 6.17.0-19-generic

So I was learning to create files without using an editor when I wrote this on the terminal:

echo because if you let it sink, you're doomed >> marine

and when I typed enter it started doing the ">" thing so I can write text and after I press enter, I would be adding more lines accordingly, but the thing is that I can't exit that ">" state, how can I do that? (I know I can just exit the terminal and re-open it again but I don't want to exit the terminal everytime I get stuck on ">", so how can I exit it?)

I tried to type EOF as I already done that in another way of creating files without a text editor:

cat << EOF > sunburn

but with "EOF" it doesn't work

 

[dos2unix]

Let's talk about quotes here.

echo "this is a sentence" > myfile.txt

if I want to add a second line.

echo "this is another sentence" >> myfile.txt

Notice I am using double quotes here. But what if I don't?

echo This sentence will usually work, because it has no quotes in it. > myfile.txt

echo But this sentence definitely won't work > myfile.txt

Do you know why the last one doesn't work?

Because bash interprets quotes. It thinks the single quote in won't is the end or start of a string.

In your example above == echo because if you let it sink, you're doomed >> marine
You have a single quote in you're. It's waiting for a second single quote.

The EOF has nothing to do with this (that's a different problem).
How to fix this?

echo "because if you let it sink, you're doomed" > somefile.txt

The double quotes over-ride the single quote.

You can also do this with back slashes..

In plain text it would look like: you backslash-apostrophe re

you\'re

 

[CaffeineAddict]

@dos2unix gave you explicit solution but in general when ever your command drops to > it means that a command was not completed.
This can be due to quotes but it can also be due to non matching statement. (I suppose that's the correct wording for it).

For instance if statement in bash needs matching fi, do and while statements need matching done, if the match is missing you drop to >.

When you get dropped to > the only option you have is to exit with CTRL + C, fix your command and try again.

 

[Fymgee]

Let's talk about quotes here.

echo "this is a sentence" > myfile.txt

if I want to add a second line.

echo "this is another sentence" >> myfile.txt

Notice I am using double quotes here. But what if I don't?

echo This sentence will usually work, because it has no quotes in it. > myfile.txt

echo But this sentence definitely won't work > myfile.txt

Do you know why the last one doesn't work?

Because bash interprets quotes. It thinks the single quote in won't is the end or start of a string.

In your example above == echo because if you let it sink, you're doomed >> marine
You have a single quote in you're. It's waiting for a second single quote.

The EOF has nothing to do with this (that's a different problem).
How to fix this?

echo "because if you let it sink, you're doomed" > somefile.txt

The double quotes over-ride the single quote.

You can also do this with back slashes..

In plain text it would look like: you backslash-apostrophe re

you\'re

thanks for the tip in there @dos2unix I didn't know that that's how it looks the plain text (backslash-apostrophe re)

 

[Fymgee]

@dos2unix gave you explicit solution but in general when ever your command drops to > it means that a command was not completed.
This can be due to quotes but it can also be due to non matching statement. (I suppose that's the correct wording for it).

For instance if statement in bash needs matching fi, do and while statements need matching done, if the match is missing you drop to >.

When you get dropped to > the only option you have is to exit with CTRL + C, fix your command and try again.

Thank you so much! @CaffeineAddict, I did as you mentioned [ pressed "ctrl" + "c" ] and it worked.

 

[Fymgee]

Tough I would like to know why I can only use (ctrl)+(c) and not just type 'q' instead.

'Cause I remember that when I was reading about a command with the "man" command to get the information manual about an specific command it'll work just fine (even the cli tells you that you can exit by pressing q) and there are also others instances where just by pressing q you can exit an interface, cli menu, etc

 

[CaffeineAddict]

CTRL + C is used in the terminal, it is universal keybinding to break a command or process.
q is used in man pages.

Specific file editors and scripting languages have their own key binding or function, for instance vim editor requires :q and python language requires bye() or quit() function call when used in the terminal.