On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 21:38:34 -0500, Dave wrote:

> hi everyone-
>
> sometimes in my curiosity to learn linux, i start "cat"ing random files in
> the log directory and such, thinking they are actual logs... i do this with
> scripts and the such too. However, sometimes i neglect to realize it is a
> binary file i am "cat"ing, and after it is done, my prompt is all garbage
> characters. I tried logging out and killing the agetty that spawns that
> console, but it just respawns, still with garbage instead of letters. Is
> there any way to fix this short of a reboot?

How about trying (ta da):

reset

(If that fails though try: "setterm -reset").

--
-Menno.