In single user mode Darwin reads all those files in an invisible directory called "etc". In that directory is a file called cshrc, in that file are directions that tell the system what the prompt will look like depending on the sh (shell) you're in...
code:
# System-wide .cshrc file for csh(1).
if ($?prompt) then
set promptchars = "%#"
if ($?tcsh) then
set prompt = "[%m:%c3] %n%# "
else
set prompt = "[%m:%c3] `id -nu`%# "
endif
endif
Since you're in single user mode it reads the "else" argument(because we're not in tcsh) and displays `id -nu` because I think Apple got rid of zsh and is now using bash in single user mode. So your prompt probably looked like sh-2.05a#, which, is the bash version in use.
code:
[KARCOM:/bin] karl% bash -version
GNU bash, version 2.05a.0(1)-release (powerpc-apple-darwin6.0)
Copyright 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
As you can see above, the prompt in the Terminal(which uses tcsh) my prompt is:
my computer name followed by the directory I'm in followed by my login mane and the % sign. I then ran the command "bash -version" to confirm that Apple has switched from zsh to bash version 2.05a.0
The # is root or the superuser in OS X, normally the prompt is % I'm afraid tacit is not correct in this case.