Steps
When You're Stuck
The terminal seems frozen or weird
Common situations where you feel stuck:
**Situation: Cursor is gone, can't type** You probably ran a program that's still running. → Press `Ctrl+C` to stop it
**Situation: Weird prompt (not normal)** You might be in a different program (vim, nano, python REPL). → Try typing `exit` or `:q` or `quit()` → Or press `Ctrl+C` or `Ctrl+D`
**Situation: "Press q to exit"** You're in a pager (showing long output). → Press `q` to quit
**Situation: Command is taking forever** → Press `Ctrl+C` to cancel it
**Situation: Terminal filled with weird characters** → Type `reset` and press Enter
**The universal escape hatch:** **Ctrl+C** — Cancel/stop almost anything
**If all else fails:** Close the terminal window and open a new one. Nothing bad happens.