When I type

echo it's terminal

or anything containing 'blah blah terminal blah blah with echo the output shows

Blockquote

what does this mean.

3

1 Answer

This is normal behaviour. ' has a special meaning to bash: it quotes a string. The > prompt indicates that the command is not yet complete, and bash awaits further input. Indeed, you opened the quotes, that means bash expects a string that later is closed by another '.

You will have the result you expected with either one of

echo "it's terminal"
echo it\'s terminal

1