# 2.2 The default terminal

The default terminal is normally `X11_singleWindow`. There are two exceptions to this. When Pyxplot is not called from within an X11 session1, and it therefore cannot open graphical display windows, the default terminal changes to `eps`. When Pyxplot is used non-interactively – i.e. one or more command scripts are specified on the command line, and Pyxplot exits as soon as it finishes executing them – the `X11_persist` terminal becomes default, since it does not close plot windows when Pyxplot exits.

Footnotes

1. i.e. the environment variable `DISPLAY` is not set.