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Administering systems

The keyboard

Many keys and key combinations perform special actions. These actions have names that may not correspond to the keytop labels on your keyboard. ``special keys'' shows which keys on a typical keyboard correspond to special actions on systems. A list for your particular login device is in keyboard(7). Many of these keys can be modified by the user -- see stty(1).

special keys

Name Action
<Enter> terminates a command line and initiates an action. This key is also called the <Return> key; the keytop may indicate a down-left arrow.
<Esc> exits the current mode; for example, exits insert mode when in the editor vi. This is also known as the ESCAPE key.
<Del> stops the current program, returning to the shell prompt. This key is also known as the INTERRUPT key.
<Bksp> deletes the character to the left of the cursor. The keytop may show a left arrow (do not confuse it with the keypad arrow keys).
<Ctrl>D signals the end of input from the keyboard; exits the current shell, or logs you out if the current shell is the login shell.
<Ctrl>H deletes the character to the left of the cursor. This is also called the ERASE key.
<Ctrl>Q restarts printing (or displaying) after it is stopped with <Ctrl>S.
<Ctrl>S stops printing (or displaying) at the standard output device, such as a terminal. This keystroke does not stop the program.
<Ctrl>U deletes all characters on the current line. This is also called the KILL key.
<Ctrl>\ quits current command, creates a core file -- see core(4). This is also called the QUIT key. Recommended for debugging only, but can be used as a last resort when the <Del> key does not stop the current command.


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UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 22 April 2004