From Linux Man Pages
console_codes - Linux console escape and control sequences
DESCRIPTION
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. Other-
wise 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).
LINUX CONSOLE CONTROLS
This section describes all the control characters and escape sequences that invoke special functions (i.e. any-
thing 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;
CR (0x0D, ^M) gives a carriage return;
SO (0x0E, ^N) activates the G1 character set, and if LF/NL (new line mode) is set also a carriage return;
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
l l l. 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 T{ DEC private identification. The kernel
returns the string ESC [ ? 6 c, claiming that it is a VT102. T} ESC 7 DECSC T{ Save current state (cur-
sor coordinates, attributes, character sets pointed at by G0, G1). T} 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 T{ (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 T}
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 sin-
gle 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.
l l l. @ 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 dis-
play (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 indi-
cated 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.
l l. param result 0 reset all attributes to their defaults 1 set bold 2 set half-bright (simulated
with color on a color display) 4 T{ set underscore (simulated with color on a color display) (the colors used
to simulate dim or underline are set using ESC ] ...) T} 5 set blink 7 set reverse video 10 T{ reset
selected mapping, display control flag, and toggle meta flag (ECMA-48 says "primary font"). T} 11 T{ select
null mapping, set display control flag, reset toggle meta flag (ECMA-48 says "first alternate font"). T} 12 T{
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. T}
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 fore-
ground color 40 set black background 41 set red background 42 set green background 43 set brown back-
ground 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 con-
sole 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 col-
umn 132 of DECCOLM is on) forces a wrap to the beginning of the following line first.
ESC [ ? 8 h
DECARM (default on): Set keyboard autorepreat 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. Col-
ors are in SGR parameters: 0 = black, 1 = red, 2 = green, 3 = brown, 4 = blue, 5 = magenta, 6 = cyan, 7 = white.
l l. 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 power-
down interval in minutes.
CHARACTER SETS
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 distribu-
tions 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).
MOUSE TRACKING
The mouse tracking facility is intended to return xterm-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 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 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 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).
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER TERMINALS
Many different terminal types are described, like the Linux console, as being `VT100-compatible'. Here we dis-
cuss 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 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:
l l l. 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 + ... Desig-
nate G3 character set
The program xterm (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 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 accepts a BEL to terminate an OSC string. These are a few of the OSC control sequences recognized by
xterm:
l l. 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):
l l l. ESC 7 DECSC Save cursor ESC 8 DECRC Restore cursor
It also recognizes
l l l. ESC F Cursor to lower left corner of screen (if enabled by xterm's hpLowerleftBugCom-
pat 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, e.g., from X11R5, interpret the blink SGR as a bold SGR. Later versions which implemented
ANSI colors, e.g., 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 alter-
nate 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 implements several ECMA-48 and DEC control sequences not recognized by Linux.
The xterm program recognizes all of the DEC Private Mode sequences listed above, but none of the Linux private-
mode sequences. For discussion of xterm's own private-mode sequences, refer to the Xterm Control Sequences docu-
ment 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 source distribution also contains sample scripts which
exercise other features.
NOTE
ESC 8 (DECRC) is not able to restore the character set changed with ESC %.
BUGS
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 partic-
ular, those ending with ] do not use a standard terminating character. The OSC (set palette) sequence is a
greater problem, since xterm may interpret this as a control sequence which requires a string terminator (ST).
Unlike the setterm sequences which will be ignored (since they are invalid control sequences), the palette
sequence will make xterm appear to hang (though pressing the return-key will fix that). To accommodate applica-
tions which have been hardcoded to use Linux control sequences, set the xterm 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.
RELATED
console(4), console_ioctl(4), charsets(7)
CATEGORY