I was jus writin some perl scripts in linux and in the konsole I accidently type the double-qoute character ". bash ignored my whole command and dropped me into some kind of program or an alternate shell which is prompted by the forward arrow >, just like telnet or ftp. In here I can't make any commands or execute any programs and anything I enter it just displays another > prompt. I exited out of it with Ctrl-C so I know it's some kind of program, I just never heard about it and I can't find any info. I'm wonderin if anybody knows the purpose of " on the command line.

It means it is waiting for the rest of the input. A " or ' must have a terminating " or '. a \ followed by newline means continued on the next line. The prompt is letting you know you are continuing from the previous line.

ah alright, thanks.

no problem, looks like you don't know EVERYTHING.... hehe :p

lol