CNL/CPL

AI-Generated Content

This page was generated with the assistance of AI and may contain inaccuracies. It is intended as a placeholder for future human verification. If you spot issues ahead of its initial review, please report them on GitHub!

Standard

CNL (Cursor Next Line) and CPL (Cursor Preceding Line) are CSI sequences that move the cursor to the first column of a line relative to the current position.

Syntax

CSI Pn E      CNL — Cursor Next Line
CSI Pn F      CPL — Cursor Preceding Line

Formal syntax

CNL = 0x1b, "[", [ Pn ], "E" ;
CPL = 0x1b, "[", [ Pn ], "F" ;
Pn  = digit, { digit } ;                (* default: 1 *)
digit = "0" | "1" | "2" | "3" | "4"
    | "5" | "6" | "7" | "8" | "9" ;

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
`Pn`	Number of lines to move	1

Description

Per ECMA-48 §8.3.12 (CNL) and §8.3.13 (CPL):

CNL (CSI Pn E) — Moves the cursor to the first character position of the Pn-th following line.
CPL (CSI Pn F) — Moves the cursor to the first character position of the Pn-th preceding line.

These are equivalent to CUD/CUU followed by a move to column 1. The cursor does not scroll the display when it reaches the margin.

Examples

printf '\e[3E'       # Move to column 1 of 3rd line below
printf '\e[2F'       # Move to column 1 of 2nd line above

Specifications

Specification	Section
ECMA-48	—

Terminal support

Terminal	Support	Version	Notes
Terminal Emulators
Alacritty	✓	0.2.1	Added in version 0.2.1 per changelog
Bobcat	✓	0.9.0	Supported via TerminalCtrl library
contour	✓	v0.1.0
foot	✓	Yes	CNL (E) at csi.c:908-912, CPL (F) at csi.c:914-918
Ghostty	✓	v1.0.0
iTerm2	✓	Yes	VT100CSI_CNL/CPL tokens parsed and executed via terminalCursorDown/Up with andToStartOfLine:YES
Kitty	✓	Yes	CNL/CPL (CSI E/F) fully implemented in vt-parser.c:1204-1207
Konsole	✓	Yes	CNL (E), CPL (F) implemented at src/Vt102Emulation.cpp:2128-2129
mintty	✓	Yes	CNL (CSI E) at line 3161-3162, CPL (CSI F) at line 3163-3164
mlterm	✓	rel-2_9_0	Implemented at vt_parser.c:5598-5615
PuTTY	✓	0.45
Rio	✓	v0.0.3
rxvt-unicode	✓	1.2
st	✓	0.1
terminology	✓	v1.4.0
VT100	✗	No
VTE	✓	Yes	Fully implemented in vteseq.cc as CNL/CPL handlers
WezTerm	✓	Yes	CNL (NextLine) and CPL (PrecedingLine) implemented as Cursor::NextLine and Cursor::PrecedingLine
Windows Terminal	✓	Yes	Implemented in ITermDispatch.hpp:45-46 as CursorNextLine and CursorPrevLine
xterm	✓	xterm-406
xterm.js	✓	2.3.0
Multiplexers
cy	✓	v0.1.0
GNU Screen	✓	v.4.2.0
tmux	✓	1.6	CNL (CSI E) and CPL (CSI F) both implemented
tuios	✓	v0.0.15
Zellij	✓	v0.9.0

Syntax​

Parameters​

Description​

Examples​

Specifications​

Terminal support​

See also​