16

I use PuTTY in order to SSH to some Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS x64 server. Pressing the key ENTER causes the terminal to go to a new line. However, from time to time, some program outputs some text, and afterward pressing the key ENTER doesn't causes the terminal to go to a new line anymore (see demonstration below).

enter image description here

Is there any way to prevent that, or at least when pressing the key ENTER doesn't causes the terminal to go to a new line anymore, is there anyway to reset the terminal so that ENTER causes the terminal to go to a new line again?

Franck Dernoncourt
  • 24,246
  • 64
  • 231
  • 400

2 Answers2

25

You can use the reset command by typing in reset then pressing Enter when that occurs to reset the terminal so it'll go to a new line when pressing Enter again.

Command

ubuntu@db200krctc:~$ ubuntu@db200krctc:~$ ubuntu@db200krctc:~$ ubuntu@db200krctc:~$
ubuntu@db200krctc:~$ reset
ubuntu@db200krctc:~$
ubuntu@db200krctc:~$
ubuntu@db200krctc:~$

Further Resources

  • reset

    When invoked as reset, tset sets cooked and echo modes, turns off cbreak and raw modes, turns on newline translation and resets any unset special characters to their default values before doing the terminal initialization described above. This is useful after a program dies leaving a terminal in an abnormal state.

Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
  • 42,624
17

The reset command does more than you really need here in this particular case, as your problem is merely that echo has been turned off. reset actually emits control sequences to reset the terminal itself, when all that you actually need is to reconfigure the line discipline within the operating system kernel, turning echo mode back on, and not touch the terminal at all.

For that, simply use: 

stty sane
or even just: 
stty echo

reset addresses situations when it is actually the terminal's own state that needs resetting and not (just) the state of the line discipline; i.e. the tabstops have been erased, the terminal is left switched to the alternative screen buffer, an inconvenient 8-bit character set has been swapped in, and so forth.

Further reading

JdeBP
  • 27,556
  • 1
  • 77
  • 106