All I get is > when I change directories? Plz help me
 

Hi, I'm new to linux. I've been using Suse 10.0 on my laptop for about 2 months now, and so far I like it alot more than Windows (if for nothing else, I don't get any more viruses) and I hope to become an active contributor to the open source community soon. I'm still trying to learn the command line, but I think I messed something up. I was reading the wiki about commands and I was trying out the find command. All I entered was find /usr, and a list of files popped up (not sure what use the find command is), but now for some reason whenever I go to a new directory, the terminal goes to a > sign and I can't enter anymore commands, all I can do is type, and I hit enter and it starts a new line with another > sign. I tried to open a new terminal, and I even tried restarting the computer, but to no avail. Can someone tell me what I did wrong? Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

jesse@linux:~> cd /home
jesse@linux:/home> cd jesse
jesse@linux:~> cd /home/jesse/Jesse's Music
> now
> I can't type
bash: cd: /home/jesse/Jesses Music
now
I cant: No such file or directory
jesse@linux:~>

PLEASE tell me what I messed up :confused: . Thanks !!!

LizardLappy,

Using TAB to auto-complete will also help :)

-Kristijan

try cd /home/jesse/Jesse (tehn rgiht here, DONT PRESS ENTER, press Tab) Linux will complete it for u or if there is more than 1 possibility, it will list them after the second time u press Tab.
The problem is the "'".
If there is only one DIR starting with Jesse, u will see how to type it.( Pressiing tab is quicker :)

It's likely seeing the single quote ( ' ) as part of a command and is waiting for the ending single quote to complete the command.
To get around this, use double quotes or press tab to complete the dir or file name.
For example:
cd /home/jesse/"Jesse's Music"

Freakin awesome. I didn't expect such a quick reply. Problem solved. Using TAB helps, it's a lot quicker than using typing out the directory with the \ or as I call it, the dos slash. I never realized why the \ slash caught on as being more convenient to type than the / slash which is much more convienently located on the keyboard especially on a laptop. Just one more reason to like linux.

Even better, take the "'" out of your filenames. Linux/Unix does not like spaces and special characters in filenames. using short names with "_" as the separator will save lots of trouble---eg when you need to use ftp and can't use wildcards in the remote filenames