Curiosity About Terminal Command Prompt

[PGB1]

Hi All!
This question is simply something I am curious about and is not causing problems with the computer. I like to learn stuff, so...

My computer is MacBook Pro Model 3.,1 and it's running OSX 10.6.8
There are two volumes (partitions?) on the hard drive. One is called 'Macintosh HD'. (That's the one I use daily) The other is called 'Fallout Shelter'. (That's the one I boot to if I am going to experiment. If I wreck something, I start over). It has a separately purchased copy of 10.6.8. Fallout Shelter only has one user,.

Macintosh HD has two users: 'Real Life" and 'Work Stuff'. Real Life is the administrator.


When I open Terminal while logged in as Real Life, I see the command prompt (if that is the correct term). The prompt is
real-lifes-computer-2:~(my name is here)$

If I am logged in as Work Stuff, the prompt is
real-lifes-computer-2: ~workstuff$

If I am booted to Fallout Shelter, the prompt is
fallout-selters-macbook-pro: ~falloutshelter$

So, my not-important, but curiosity question is:
Why is there a "2" after real-lifes-computer? Where is #1?

Is it there because there are two volumes on the hard drive or is there yet another user account I can not see?

Thanks Very Much for your ideas and suggestions!
Paul
PS: What's the real name for what I'm calling 'Command Prompt"?

 

[sullij]

'Command Prompt" is the command line or command line interface ( CLI ) aka a "terminal emulator"

This is also can be referred to as a "shell" and the "prompt" is configurable for a number of things. As you've already deduced (my name is here) represents the user name which you used during login and also indicated your home directory name ( ~falloutshelter )

I just looked at Take control of you mac's command line by Joe Kissell:

The second line is the actual command line (the line on which you type commands): MacBook-Pro-13: ~ jk $ ▮ The rectangular box at the end (which may instead appear as a vertical line or an underscore, any of which may or may not blink) is the cursor (not to be confused with your pointer, which reflects mouse movement). Everything before the cursor is known as the prompt, which is to say it’s prompting you to type something. The first part of the prompt, MacBook-Pro-13, is the name of my Mac (spaces are replaced with hyphens, and punctuation, if any, usually disappears). The colon ) is simply a visual separator. Next is the tilde (~), which signifies that I’m currently in my home directory (which, for me, is /Users/jk). The jk is the short user name of the account under which I’m logged in. And finally, the $ signifies that I’m logged in as an ordinary (non-root) user. (I say more about the $ in the sidebar The $, #, and Other Strange Things on My Command Line , ahead.) If your short user name is cindy and your computer’s name (as shown in the Sharing pane of System Preferences) is Cindy’s Groovy iMac, your command line may look something like this: Cindys-Groovy-iMac: ~ cindy $

This is similar to other unix/linux systems.

hmm he didn't really say it; however, I think that the Number ( in your case 2 - in his case 13 ) represents a "session" for example you could have multiple sessions open. the system provides the number so you can tell which is which.

 

[Dysfunction]

The 2 is there, because it's part of your machine name. If you go into Preferences > Sharing.. you'll see the 2 in there either in Computer Name.. or if you click Edit.. under Localhost Name. Remove it, and it'll be gone from your prompt.

I've got about 7 different sessions open and... no change to my prompts

mike@foo ~ $ w
13:21  up 3 days, 22:29, 8 users, load averages: 2.86 2.84 2.63
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@  IDLE WHAT
mike     console  -                Thu14   3days -
mike     s000     -                13:19       2 -bash
mike     s001     -                13:19       2 -bash
mike     s002     -                13:21       - -bash
mike     s003     -                13:21       - -bash
mike     s004     -                13:21       - -bash
mike     s005     -                13:21       - -bash
mike     s006     -                13:21       - w
mike@foo ~ $

 

[PGB1]

Thank You Sullij & Dysfunction for taking the time to reply & give great explanations for my questions.

I will certainly save the "anatomy lessons" you provided Sullij. Now when I mess things up, I can use the proper terms when I come begging for help.

Thanks, too, Dysfunction for explaining the "2" suffix. I did as you suggested and re-named. Terminal now shows the computer without the "2".

I wonder how I managed to put the "2" there in the first place?

It's always a good day when I learn something new!

Thanks Again Guys & Enjoy This Day!
Paul

 

[cradom]

And to give you something to play with...
Enhancing the System Prompt in Bash
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Color_Bash_Prompt
Bash Prompt HOWTO
You can make it say anything you want. See also my article right here: Learning the Command Line – Bash Prompts (1) | Mac-Forums Blog

 

[PGB1]

Those links are cool. Thanks Crandom

I enjoyed your article and saved it. Looks like some experimenting in in order...

Thanks Again,
Paul

 

[Dysfunction]

If you have any questions, or are confused, ask

 

[PGB1]

Thanks Mike!
I've been having fun learning (slowly) about Terminal.

I experiment while booted to the second partition I have on the computer in case I goof stuff up (Hence the name "Fallout Shelter"). Nothing's on it but the OS, so wipe outs are easy to fix.

Enjoy Today!
Paul

 

[johnodd4]

Terminal is awesome to mess around with when you honestly know what you are doing.

However if you are not it was a excellent idea to have two partitions on the drive great choice.