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ED

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Standard

ED (Erase in Display / Erase in Page) is a CSI sequence that erases part or all of the visible screen.

Syntax​

CSI Ps J      ED — Erase in Display
Formal syntax
ED = 0x1b, "[", [ Ps ], "J" ;
Ps = "0" | "1" | "2" ;                  (* default: 0 *)

Parameters​

ValueMeaning
0Erase from cursor to end of display (default)
1Erase from start of display to cursor
2Erase the entire display

Description​

Per ECMA-48 §8.3.39, ED puts character positions into the erased state depending on the parameter value. "Erased state" means the positions are filled with the current background color (as set by SGR).

  • CSI 0 J or CSI J — Erases from the cursor position (inclusive) through the end of the screen. The cursor position does not change.
  • CSI 1 J — Erases from the beginning of the screen through the cursor position (inclusive). The cursor position does not change.
  • CSI 2 J — Erases the entire visible screen. The cursor position does not change. The scrollback buffer is not affected.
note

CSI 2 J clears the screen but does not move the cursor. To clear the screen and move home, use CSI 2 J followed by CSI H. This pair is what the clear command typically sends.

DECSED​

The selective erase variant CSI ? Ps J (DECSED) erases only characters that were not written with the "protected" attribute set by DECSCA. Most applications use the non-selective form.

Examples​

printf '\e[J'        # Erase from cursor to end of screen
printf '\e[1J'       # Erase from start of screen to cursor
printf '\e[2J'       # Erase entire screen
printf '\e[2J\e[H'   # Clear screen and move home

Specifications​

SpecificationSection
ECMA-48—

Terminal support​

TerminalSupportVersionNotes
Terminal Emulators
Alacritty✓0.1.0Implemented via clear_screen with modes Above/Below/All
Bobcat✓0.9.0Supported via TerminalCtrl library
contour✓v0.1.0
foot✓YesED (J) modes 0, 1, 2 at csi.c:964-1005
Ghostty✓v1.0.0
iTerm2✓YesVT100CSI_ED token parsed with parameter handling for modes 0, 1, 2 via terminalEraseInDisplayBeforeCursor:afterCursor:
Kitty✓YesED (CSI J) with modes 0/1/2/22 fully implemented in screen.c:2470-2532
Konsole✓YesED with parameters 0, 1, 2 implemented at src/Vt102Emulation.cpp:2020-2022
mintty✓YesED (CSI J) at line 3182-3192, supports parameters 0 (below), 1 (above), 2 (all)
mlterm✓rel-2_9_0Implemented at vt_parser.c:5651-5674
PuTTY✓0.45
Rio✓v0.0.3
rxvt-unicode✓1.2
st✓0.1
terminology✓v0.1.0
VT100✓Yes
VTE✓YesFully implemented in vteseq.cc, supports modes 0, 1, 2
WezTerm✓YesED with parameters 0, 1, 2 implemented as EraseInDisplay::{EraseToEndOfDisplay, EraseToStartOfDisplay, EraseDisplay}
Windows Terminal✓YesImplemented in ITermDispatch.hpp:98 as EraseInDisplay with support for modes 0, 1, and 2
xterm✓xterm-406
xterm.js✓2.3.0
Multiplexers
cy✓v0.1.0
GNU Screen✓v.4.2.0Supports modes 0, 1, 2 only
tmux✓1.6ED (CSI J) with parameters 0, 1, 2 all implemented
tuios✓v0.0.15
Zellij✓v0.1.0-alpha

See also​