To the best of my knowledge, I can view /var/log/syslog with the command
sudo nano /var/log/syslog
and successfully did so several times during a session; however, I was trying to search the log for keywords and apparently entered some 'unknown commands' by mistake. The terminal froze, so I killed it to try starting over.
Now, when I issue the command above, I get what appears to be a blank file with the prompt at the bottom of the terminal window:
File /var/log/syslog is being edited (by root using Nano 2.4.2) CONT
with options, Yes, No and Cancel.
Why is this happening? Have I screwed up my syslog file? If so, how dire is that?
ctrl-s
was pressed which causes the display to stop updating. To recover from that, pressctrl-q
. Also, if you don't intend on editing a file, consider using something likeless
instead of an editor so you don't inadvertently make changes. – Pooping Feb 5 '16 at 23:06