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CONSOLE_CODES(4) Linux Programmer's Manual CONSOLE_CODES(4)
console_codes - Linux console escape and control sequences
The Linux console implements a large subset of the VT102 and ECMA-48/ISO
6429/ANSI X3.64 terminal controls, plus certain private-mode sequences for
changing the color palette, character-set mapping, etc. In the tabular
descriptions below, the second column gives ECMA-48 or DEC mnemonics (the
latter if prefixed with DEC) for the given function. Sequences without a
mnemonic are neither ECMA-48 nor VT102.
After all the normal output processing has been done, and a stream of
characters arrives at the console driver for actual printing, the first thing
that happens is a translation from the code used for processing to the code
used for printing.
If the console is in UTF-8 mode, then the incoming bytes are first assembled
into 16-bit Unicode codes. Otherwise each byte is transformed according to
the current mapping table (which translates it to a Unicode value). See the
Character Sets section below for discussion.
In the normal case, the Unicode value is converted to a font index, and this
is stored in video memory, so that the corresponding glyph (as found in video
ROM) appears on the screen. Note that the use of Unicode (and the design of
the PC hardware) allows us to use 512 different glyphs simultaneously.
If the current Unicode value is a control character, or we are currently
processing an escape sequence, the value will treated specially. Instead of
being turned into a font index and rendered as a glyph, it may trigger cursor
movement or other control functions. See the Linux Console Controls section
below for discussion.
It is generally not good practice to hard-wire terminal controls into
programs. Linux supports a terminfo(5) database of terminal capabilities.
Rather than emitting console escape sequences by hand, you will almost always
want to use a terminfo-aware screen library or utility such as ncurses(3),
tput(1), or reset(1).
This section describes all the control characters and escape sequences that
invoke special functions (i.e., anything other than writing a glyph at the
current cursor location) on the Linux console.
Control characters
A character is a control character if (before transformation according to the
mapping table) it has one of the 14 codes 00 (NUL), 07 (BEL), 08 (BS), 09
(HT), 0a (LF), 0b (VT), 0c (FF), 0d (CR), 0e (SO), 0f (SI), 18 (CAN), 1a
(SUB), 1b (ESC), 7f (DEL). One can set a "display control characters" mode
(see below), and allow 07, 09, 0b, 18, 1a, 7f to be displayed as glyphs. On
the other hand, in UTF-8 mode all codes 00-1f are regarded as control
characters, regardless of any "display control characters" mode.
If we have a control character, it is acted upon immediately and then
discarded (even in the middle of an escape sequence) and the escape sequence
continues with the next character. (However, ESC starts a new escape
sequence, possibly aborting a previous unfinished one, and CAN and SUB abort
any escape sequence.) The recognized control characters are BEL, BS, HT, LF,
VT, FF, CR, SO, SI, CAN, SUB, ESC, DEL, CSI. They do what one would expect:
BEL (0x07, ^G) beeps;
BS (0x08, ^H) backspaces one column (but not past the beginning of the line);
HT (0x09, ^I) goes to the next tab stop or to the end of the line if there is
no earlier tab stop;
LF (0x0A, ^J), VT (0x0B, ^K) and FF (0x0C, ^L) all give a linefeed, and if
LF/NL (new-line mode) is set also a carriage return;
CR (0x0D, ^M) gives a carriage return;
SO (0x0E, ^N) activates the G1 character set;
SI (0x0F, ^O) activates the G0 character set;
CAN (0x18, ^X) and SUB (0x1A, ^Z) interrupt escape sequences;
ESC (0x1B, ^[) starts an escape sequence;
DEL (0x7F) is ignored;
CSI (0x9B) is equivalent to ESC [.
ESC- but not CSI-sequences
ESC c RIS Reset.
ESC D IND Linefeed.
ESC E NEL Newline.
ESC H HTS Set tab stop at current column.
ESC M RI Reverse linefeed.
ESC Z DECID DEC private identification. The kernel returns the
string ESC [ ? 6 c, claiming that it is a VT102.
ESC 7 DECSC Save current state (cursor coordinates,
attributes, character sets pointed at by G0, G1).
ESC 8 DECRC Restore state most recently saved by ESC 7.
ESC [ CSI Control sequence introducer
ESC % Start sequence selecting character set
ESC % @ Select default (ISO 646 / ISO 8859-1)
ESC % G Select UTF-8
ESC % 8 Select UTF-8 (obsolete)
ESC # 8 DECALN DEC screen alignment test - fill screen with E's.
ESC ( Start sequence defining G0 character set
ESC ( B Select default (ISO 8859-1 mapping)
ESC ( 0 Select VT100 graphics mapping
ESC ( U Select null mapping - straight to character ROM
ESC ( K Select user mapping - the map that is loaded by
the utility mapscrn(8).
ESC ) Start sequence defining G1
(followed by one of B, 0, U, K, as above).
ESC > DECPNM Set numeric keypad mode
ESC = DECPAM Set application keypad mode
ESC ] OSC (Should be: Operating system command) ESC ] P
nrrggbb: set palette, with parameter given in 7
hexadecimal digits after the final P :-(. Here n
is the color (0-15), and rrggbb indicates the
red/green/blue values (0-255). ESC ] R: reset
palette
ECMA-48 CSI sequences
CSI (or ESC [) is followed by a sequence of parameters, at most NPAR (16),
that are decimal numbers separated by semicolons. An empty or absent
parameter is taken to be 0. The sequence of parameters may be preceded by a
single question mark.
However, after CSI [ (or ESC [ [) a single character is read and this entire
sequence is ignored. (The idea is to ignore an echoed function key.)
The action of a CSI sequence is determined by its final character.
@ ICH Insert the indicated # of blank characters.
A CUU Move cursor up the indicated # of rows.
B CUD Move cursor down the indicated # of rows.
C CUF Move cursor right the indicated # of columns.
D CUB Move cursor left the indicated # of columns.
E CNL Move cursor down the indicated # of rows, to column 1.
F CPL Move cursor up the indicated # of rows, to column 1.
G CHA Move cursor to indicated column in current row.
H CUP Move cursor to the indicated row, column (origin at 1,1).
J ED Erase display (default: from cursor to end of display).
ESC [ 1 J: erase from start to cursor.
ESC [ 2 J: erase whole display.
K EL Erase line (default: from cursor to end of line).
ESC [ 1 K: erase from start of line to cursor.
ESC [ 2 K: erase whole line.
L IL Insert the indicated # of blank lines.
M DL Delete the indicated # of lines.
P DCH Delete the indicated # of characters on the current line.
X ECH Erase the indicated # of characters on the current line.
a HPR Move cursor right the indicated # of columns.
c DA Answer ESC [ ? 6 c: "I am a VT102".
d VPA Move cursor to the indicated row, current column.
e VPR Move cursor down the indicated # of rows.
f HVP Move cursor to the indicated row, column.
g TBC Without parameter: clear tab stop at the current position.
ESC [ 3 g: delete all tab stops.
h SM Set Mode (see below).
l RM Reset Mode (see below).
m SGR Set attributes (see below).
n DSR Status report (see below).
q DECLL Set keyboard LEDs.
ESC [ 0 q: clear all LEDs
ESC [ 1 q: set Scroll Lock LED
ESC [ 2 q: set Num Lock LED
ESC [ 3 q: set Caps Lock LED
r DECSTBM Set scrolling region; parameters are top and bottom row.
s ? Save cursor location.
u ? Restore cursor location.
` HPA Move cursor to indicated column in current row.
ECMA-48 Set Graphics Rendition
The ECMA-48 SGR sequence ESC [ parameters m sets display attributes. Several
attributes can be set in the same sequence, separated by semicolons. An empty
parameter (between semicolons or string initiator or terminator) is
interpreted as a zero.
param result
0 reset all attributes to their defaults
1 set bold
2 set half-bright (simulated with color on a color display)
4 set underscore (simulated with color on a color display)
(the colors used to simulate dim or underline are set
using ESC ] ...)
5 set blink
7 set reverse video
10 reset selected mapping, display control flag, and toggle
meta flag (ECMA-48 says "primary font").
11 select null mapping, set display control flag, reset
toggle meta flag (ECMA-48 says "first alternate font").
12 select null mapping, set display control flag, set toggle
meta flag (ECMA-48 says "second alternate font"). The
toggle meta flag causes the high bit of a byte to be
toggled before the mapping table translation is done.
21 set normal intensity (ECMA-48 says "doubly underlined")
22 set normal intensity
24 underline off
25 blink off
27 reverse video off
30 set black foreground
31 set red foreground
32 set green foreground
33 set brown foreground
34 set blue foreground
35 set magenta foreground
36 set cyan foreground
37 set white foreground
38 set underscore on, set default foreground color
39 set underscore off, set default foreground color
40 set black background
41 set red background
42 set green background
43 set brown background
44 set blue background
45 set magenta background
46 set cyan background
47 set white background
49 set default background color
ECMA-48 Mode Switches
ESC [ 3 h
DECCRM (default off): Display control chars.
ESC [ 4 h
DECIM (default off): Set insert mode.
ESC [ 20 h
LF/NL (default off): Automatically follow echo of LF, VT or FF with CR.
ECMA-48 Status Report Commands
ESC [ 5 n
Device status report (DSR): Answer is ESC [ 0 n (Terminal OK).
ESC [ 6 n
Cursor position report (CPR): Answer is ESC [ y ; x R, where x,y is the
cursor location.
DEC Private Mode (DECSET/DECRST) sequences
These are not described in ECMA-48. We list the Set Mode sequences; the Reset
Mode sequences are obtained by replacing the final 'h' by 'l'.
ESC [ ? 1 h
DECCKM (default off): When set, the cursor keys send an ESC O prefix,
rather than ESC [.
ESC [ ? 3 h
DECCOLM (default off = 80 columns): 80/132 col mode switch. The driver
sources note that this alone does not suffice; some user-mode utility
such as resizecons(8) has to change the hardware registers on the
console video card.
ESC [ ? 5 h
DECSCNM (default off): Set reverse-video mode.
ESC [ ? 6 h
DECOM (default off): When set, cursor addressing is relative to the
upper left corner of the scrolling region.
ESC [ ? 7 h
DECAWM (default on): Set autowrap on. In this mode, a graphic
character emitted after column 80 (or column 132 of DECCOLM is on)
forces a wrap to the beginning of the following line first.
ESC [ ? 8 h
DECARM (default on): Set keyboard autorepeat on.
ESC [ ? 9 h
X10 Mouse Reporting (default off): Set reporting mode to 1 (or reset to
0) -- see below.
ESC [ ? 25 h
DECTECM (default on): Make cursor visible.
ESC [ ? 1000 h
X11 Mouse Reporting (default off): Set reporting mode to 2 (or reset to
0) -- see below.
Linux Console Private CSI Sequences
The following sequences are neither ECMA-48 nor native VT102. They are native
to the Linux console driver. Colors are in SGR parameters: 0 = black, 1 =
red, 2 = green, 3 = brown, 4 = blue, 5 = magenta, 6 = cyan, 7 = white.
ESC [ 1 ; n ] Set color n as the underline color
ESC [ 2 ; n ] Set color n as the dim color
ESC [ 8 ] Make the current color pair the default attributes.
ESC [ 9 ; n ] Set screen blank timeout to n minutes.
ESC [ 10 ; n ] Set bell frequency in Hz.
ESC [ 11 ; n ] Set bell duration in msec.
ESC [ 12 ; n ] Bring specified console to the front.
ESC [ 13 ] Unblank the screen.
ESC [ 14 ; n ] Set the VESA powerdown interval in minutes.
The kernel knows about 4 translations of bytes into console-screen symbols.
The four tables are: a) Latin1 -> PC, b) VT100 graphics -> PC, c) PC -> PC, d)
user-defined.
There are two character sets, called G0 and G1, and one of them is the current
character set. (Initially G0.) Typing ^N causes G1 to become current, ^O
causes G0 to become current.
These variables G0 and G1 point at a translation table, and can be changed by
the user. Initially they point at tables a) and b), respectively. The
sequences ESC ( B and ESC ( 0 and ESC ( U and ESC ( K cause G0 to point at
translation table a), b), c) and d), respectively. The sequences ESC ) B and
ESC ) 0 and ESC ) U and ESC ) K cause G1 to point at translation table a), b),
c) and d), respectively.
The sequence ESC c causes a terminal reset, which is what you want if the
screen is all garbled. The oft-advised "echo ^V^O" will only make G0 current,
but there is no guarantee that G0 points at table a). In some distributions
there is a program reset(1) that just does "echo ^[c". If your terminfo entry
for the console is correct (and has an entry rs1=\Ec), then "tput reset" will
also work.
The user-defined mapping table can be set using mapscrn(8). The result of the
mapping is that if a symbol c is printed, the symbol s = map[c] is sent to the
video memory. The bitmap that corresponds to s is found in the character ROM,
and can be changed using setfont(8).
The mouse tracking facility is intended to return xterm(1)-compatible mouse
status reports. Because the console driver has no way to know the device or
type of the mouse, these reports are returned in the console input stream only
when the virtual terminal driver receives a mouse update ioctl. These ioctls
must be generated by a mouse-aware user-mode application such as the gpm(8)
daemon.
The mouse tracking escape sequences generated by xterm(1) encode numeric
parameters in a single character as value+040. For example, '!' is 1. The
screen coordinate system is 1-based.
The X10 compatibility mode sends an escape sequence on button press encoding
the location and the mouse button pressed. It is enabled by sending ESC [ ? 9
h and disabled with ESC [ ? 9 l. On button press, xterm(1) sends ESC [ M bxy
(6 characters). Here b is button-1, and x and y are the x and y coordinates
of the mouse when the button was pressed. This is the same code the kernel
also produces.
Normal tracking mode (not implemented in Linux 2.0.24) sends an escape
sequence on both button press and release. Modifier information is also sent.
It is enabled by sending ESC [ ? 1000 h and disabled with ESC [ ? 1000 l. On
button press or release, xterm(1) sends ESC [ M bxy. The low two bits of b
encode button information: 0=MB1 pressed, 1=MB2 pressed, 2=MB3 pressed,
3=release. The upper bits encode what modifiers were down when the button was
pressed and are added together: 4=Shift, 8=Meta, 16=Control. Again x and y
are the x and y coordinates of the mouse event. The upper left corner is
(1,1).
Many different terminal types are described, like the Linux console, as being
"VT100-compatible". Here we discuss differences between the Linux console and
the two most important others, the DEC VT102 and xterm(1).
Control-character handling
The VT102 also recognized the following control characters:
NUL (0x00) was ignored;
ENQ (0x05) triggered an answerback message;
DC1 (0x11, ^Q, XON) resumed transmission;
DC3 (0x13, ^S, XOFF) caused VT100 to ignore (and stop transmitting) all codes
except XOFF and XON.
VT100-like DC1/DC3 processing may be enabled by the tty driver.
The xterm(1) program (in VT100 mode) recognizes the control characters BEL,
BS, HT, LF, VT, FF, CR, SO, SI, ESC.
Escape sequences
VT100 console sequences not implemented on the Linux console:
ESC N SS2 Single shift 2. (Select G2 character set for the next
character only.)
ESC O SS3 Single shift 3. (Select G3 character set for the next
character only.)
ESC P DCS Device control string (ended by ESC \)
ESC X SOS Start of string.
ESC ^ PM Privacy message (ended by ESC \)
ESC \ ST String terminator
ESC * ... Designate G2 character set
ESC + ... Designate G3 character set
The program xterm(1) (in VT100 mode) recognizes ESC c, ESC # 8, ESC >, ESC =,
ESC D, ESC E, ESC H, ESC M, ESC N, ESC O, ESC P ... ESC \, ESC Z (it answers
ESC [ ? 1 ; 2 c, "I am a VT100 with advanced video option") and ESC ^ ... ESC
\ with the same meanings as indicated above. It accepts ESC (, ESC ), ESC *,
ESC + followed by 0, A, B for the DEC special character and line drawing set,
UK, and US-ASCII, respectively.
The user can configure xterm(1) to respond to VT220-specific control
sequences, and it will identify itself as a VT52, VT100, and up depending on
the way it is configured and initialized.
It accepts ESC ] (OSC) for the setting of certain resources. In addition to
the ECMA-48 string terminator (ST), xterm(1) accepts a BEL to terminate an OSC
string. These are a few of the OSC control sequences recognized by xterm(1):
ESC ] 0 ; txt ST Set icon name and window title to txt.
ESC ] 1 ; txt ST Set icon name to txt.
ESC ] 2 ; txt ST Set window title to txt.
ESC ] 4 ; num; txt ST Set ANSI color num to txt.
ESC ] 10 ; txt ST Set dynamic text color to txt.
ESC ] 4 6 ; name ST Change log file to name (normally disabled
by a compile-time option)
ESC ] 5 0 ; fn ST Set font to fn.
It recognizes the following with slightly modified meaning (saving more state,
behaving closer to VT100/VT220):
ESC 7 DECSC Save cursor
ESC 8 DECRC Restore cursor
It also recognizes
ESC F Cursor to lower left corner of screen (if enabled by
xterm(1)'s hpLowerleftBugCompat resource)
ESC l Memory lock (per HP terminals).
Locks memory above the cursor.
ESC m Memory unlock (per HP terminals).
ESC n LS2 Invoke the G2 character set.
ESC o LS3 Invoke the G3 character set.
ESC | LS3R Invoke the G3 character set as GR.
ESC } LS2R Invoke the G2 character set as GR.
ESC ~ LS1R Invoke the G1 character set as GR.
It also recognizes ESC % and provides a more complete UTF-8 implementation
than Linux console.
CSI Sequences
Old versions of xterm(1), for example, from X11R5, interpret the blink SGR as
a bold SGR. Later versions which implemented ANSI colors, for example,
XFree86 3.1.2A in 1995, improved this by allowing the blink attribute to be
displayed as a color. Modern versions of xterm implement blink SGR as
blinking text and still allow colored text as an alternate rendering of SGRs.
Stock X11R6 versions did not recognize the color-setting SGRs until the
X11R6.8 release, which incorporated XFree86 xterm. All ECMA-48 CSI sequences
recognized by Linux are also recognized by xterm, however xterm(1) implements
several ECMA-48 and DEC control sequences not recognized by Linux.
The xterm(1) program recognizes all of the DEC Private Mode sequences listed
above, but none of the Linux private-mode sequences. For discussion of
xterm(1)'s own private-mode sequences, refer to the Xterm Control Sequences
document by Edward Moy, Stephen Gildea, and Thomas E. Dickey available with
the X distribution. That document, though terse, is much longer than this
manual page. For a chronological overview,
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html
details changes to xterm.
The vttest program
http://invisible-island.net/vttest/
demonstrates many of these control sequences. The xterm(1) source
distribution also contains sample scripts which exercise other features.
ESC 8 (DECRC) is not able to restore the character set changed with ESC %.
In 2.0.23, CSI is broken, and NUL is not ignored inside escape sequences.
Some older kernel versions (after 2.0) interpret 8-bit control sequences.
These "C1 controls" use codes between 128 and 159 to replace ESC [, ESC ] and
similar two-byte control sequence initiators. There are fragments of that in
modern kernels (either overlooked or broken by changes to support UTF-8), but
the implementation is incomplete and should be regarded as unreliable.
Linux "private mode" sequences do not follow the rules in ECMA-48 for private
mode control sequences. In particular, those ending with ] do not use a
standard terminating character. The OSC (set palette) sequence is a greater
problem, since xterm(1) may interpret this as a control sequence which
requires a string terminator (ST). Unlike the setterm(1) sequences which will
be ignored (since they are invalid control sequences), the palette sequence
will make xterm(1) appear to hang (though pressing the return-key will fix
that). To accommodate applications which have been hardcoded to use Linux
control sequences, set the xterm(1) resource brokenLinuxOSC to true.
An older version of this document implied that Linux recognizes the ECMA-48
control sequence for invisible text. It is ignored.
console(4), console_ioctl(4), charsets(7)
This page is part of release 3.23 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2008-01-01 CONSOLE_CODES(4)