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ANSI escape sequences are a standard for
in-band signaling In telecommunications, in-band signaling is the sending of control information within the same band or channel used for data such as voice or video. This is in contrast to out-of-band signaling which is sent over a different channel, or even o ...
to control cursor location, color, font styling, and other options on video text terminals and terminal emulators. Certain sequences of
byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...
s, most starting with an ASCII escape character and a
bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
character, are embedded into text. The terminal interprets these sequences as commands, rather than text to display verbatim. ANSI sequences were introduced in the 1970s to replace vendor-specific sequences and became widespread in the computer equipment market by the early 1980s. They are used in development, scientific, commercial text-based applications as well as
bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such ...
s to offer standardized functionality. Although hardware text terminals have become increasingly rare in the 21st century, the relevance of the ANSI standard persists because a great majority of terminal emulators and command consoles interpret at least a portion of the ANSI standard.


History

Almost all manufacturers of video terminals added vendor-specific escape sequences to perform operations such as placing the cursor at arbitrary positions on the screen. One example is the VT52 terminal, which allowed the cursor to be placed at an x,y location on the screen by sending the character, a character, and then two characters representing numerical values equal to the x,y location plus 32 (thus starting at the ASCII space character and avoiding the control characters). The
Hazeltine 1500 The Hazeltine 1500 was a popular smart terminal introduced by Hazeltine Corporation in April 1977 at a price of . Using a microprocessor and semiconductor random access memory, it implemented the basic features of the earlier Hazeltine 2000 in a ...
had a similar feature, invoked using , and then the X and Y positions separated with a comma. While the two terminals had identical functionality in this regard, different control sequences had to be used to invoke them. As these sequences were different for different terminals, elaborate libraries such as
termcap Termcap (''terminal capability'') is a software library and database used on Unix-like computers. It enables programs to use display computer terminals in a device-independent manner, which greatly simplifies the process of writing portable text ...
("terminal capabilities") and utilities such as
tput In computing, tput is a standard Unix operating system command which makes use of terminal capabilities. Depending on the system, ''tput'' uses the terminfo or termcap database, as well as looking into the environment for the terminal type. ...
had to be created so programs could use the same API to work with any terminal. In addition, many of these terminals required sending numbers (such as row and column) as the binary values of the characters; for some programming languages, and for systems that did not use ASCII internally, it was often difficult to turn a number into the correct character. The ANSI standard attempted to address these problems by making a command set that all terminals would use and requiring all numeric information to be transmitted as ASCII numbers. The first standard in the series was ECMA-48, adopted in 1976. It was a continuation of a series of character coding standards, the first one being
ECMA-6 ISO/IEC 646 is a set of ISO/IEC standards, described as ''Information technology — ISO 7-bit coded character set for information interchange'' and developed in cooperation with ASCII at least since 1964. Since its first edition in ...
from 1965, a 7-bit standard from which
ISO 646 ISO/IEC 646 is a set of ISO/IEC standards, described as ''Information technology — ISO 7-bit coded character set for information interchange'' and developed in cooperation with ASCII at least since 1964. Since its first edition in ...
originates. The name "ANSI escape sequence" dates from 1979 when
ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
adopted ANSI X3.64. The ANSI X3L2 committee collaborated with the ECMA committee TC 1 to produce nearly identical standards. These two standards were merged into an international standard, ISO 6429. In 1994, ANSI withdrew its standard in favor of the international standard. The first popular video terminal to support these sequences was the
Digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals ** Digital camera, which captures and stores digital ...
VT100 The VT100 is a video terminal, introduced in August 1978 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was one of the first terminals to support ANSI escape codes for cursor control and other tasks, and added a number of extended codes for special ...
, introduced in 1978. This model was very successful in the market, which sparked a variety of VT100 clones, among the earliest and most popular of which was the much more affordable Zenith Z-19 in 1979. Others included the
Qume Qume was a manufacturer of daisy-wheel printers originally located in Hayward, California, later moving to San Jose. Around 1980, it also opened a manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico. It once dominated the daisy-wheel market. As the market fo ...
QVT-108,
Televideo TeleVideo Corporation was a U.S. company that achieved its peak of success in the early 1980s producing computer terminals. TeleVideo was founded in 1975 by K. Philip Hwang, a Utah State University, Hanyang University graduate born in South K ...
TVI-970,
Wyse WYSE (970 AM) is a radio station located in Canton, North Carolina, that simulcasts WISE's sports format from Asheville, North Carolina. Owned by the Asheville Radio Group subsidiary of Saga Communications, the station is licensed by the Fe ...
WY-99GT as well as optional "VT100" or "VT103" or "ANSI" modes with varying degrees of compatibility on many other brands. The popularity of these gradually led to more and more software (especially
bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such ...
s and other online services) assuming the escape sequences worked, leading to almost all new terminals and emulator programs supporting them. In 1981, ANSI X3.64 was adopted for use in the US government by FIPS publication 86. Later, the US government stopped duplicating industry standards, so FIPS pub. 86 was withdrawn. ECMA-48 has been updated several times and is currently at its 5th edition, from 1991. It is also adopted by ISO and
IEC The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
as standard ISO/IEC 6429. A version is adopted as a Japanese Industrial Standard, as
JIS X 0211 JIS X 0211, originally designated JIS C 6323 is a Japanese Industrial Standard defining C0 and C1 control codes and control sequences. It was first established in 1986, with subsequent editions in 1991 and 1994. It defines C0 and C1 control charac ...
. Related standards include ITU T.61, the Teletex standard, and the ISO/IEC 8613, the Open Document Architecture standard (mainly ISO/IEC 8613-6 or ITU T.416). The two systems share many escape codes with the ANSI system, with extensions that are not necessarily meaningful to computer terminals. Both systems quickly fell into disuse, but ECMA-48 does mark the extensions used in them as reserved.


Platform support


Unix-like systems

On these systems the terminal (or emulator) self-identifies using the $TERM environment variable. A database library such as
termcap Termcap (''terminal capability'') is a software library and database used on Unix-like computers. It enables programs to use display computer terminals in a device-independent manner, which greatly simplifies the process of writing portable text ...
or terminfo would perform a lookup to derive the capabilities of the terminal and specific escape sequences to use the capabilities, which may deviate from ANSI in early days. Although such libraries were primarily developed on and for Unix, by the mid-1980s programs running on
Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...
operating systems could almost always assume they were using a terminal or emulator that supported ANSI sequences; this led to widespread use of ANSI by programs running on those platforms. For instance, many games and shell scripts, and utilities such as color directory listings, directly write the ANSI sequences and thus cannot be used on a terminal that does not interpret them. Many programs, including
text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be ...
s such as vi and
GNU Emacs GNU Emacs is a free software text editor. It was created by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU project and a flagship project ...
, use termcap or terminfo, or use libraries such as curses that use termcap or terminfo, and thus in theory support non-ANSI terminals, but this is so rarely tested nowadays that they are unlikely to work with those terminals. Terminal emulators for communicating with local programs as well as remote machines and the text
system console One meaning of system console, computer console, root console, operator's console, or simply console is the text entry and display device for system administration messages, particularly those from the BIOS or boot loader, the kernel, from the ...
almost always support ANSI escape codes. This includes terminal emulators such as xterm,
rxvt Rxvt (acronym for our extended virtual terminal) is a terminal emulator for the X Window System, and in the form of a Cygwin port, for Windows. History Rxvt was originally written by Rob Nation and later extensively modified by Mark Olesen, who ...
, GNOME Terminal, and
Konsole Konsole is a free and open-source terminal emulator graphical application which is part of KDE Applications and ships with the KDE desktop environment. Konsole was originally written by Lars Doelle. It ls licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later and ...
on systems with X11-based or Wayland-based window systems, and Terminal.app and third-party terminal emulators such as iTerm2 on
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
.


CP/M

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initi ...
machines varied and several competing terminals existed, like for printers, each with their own control sequences. Some early systems were headless (needing an external terminal) and personal computers with a native screen typically emulated a terminal. Application developers had to support various popular terminals and to provide an installation program to configure them. Despite the CP/M hardware abstraction layer (
BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the b ...
), even for the same microprocessor, vendors provided platform-specific versions due to the competing disk formats, that would also be preconfigured for the native terminal (for example, various machine-specific WordStar adaptations were released). The headless
Altair 8800 The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics and was sold by mail order through advertiseme ...
was typically connected to a
teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...
such as the Model 33 ASR or to an external terminal like the TeleVideo 920C, needing to output their respective sequences. The
Osborne 1 The Osborne 1 is the first commercially successful portable computer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. It weighs , cost US$1,795, and runs the CP/M 2.2 operating system. It is powered from a wall socket, as it has no ...
and
Kaypro II Kaypro Corporation was an American home and personal computer manufacturer based out of San Diego in the 1980s. The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems (NLS) to compete with the popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer. Kaypro produced a ...
computers natively emulated a subset of the TeleVideo 920C and ADM-3A control codes, respectively. The TRS-80 Model 4 and the Xerox 820 also emulated the Lear Siegler ADM-3A. The Zenith Z-89, Heathkit H8 and
Amstrad PCW The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider in the early years of the series' life. ...
CP/M-80 computers implemented the Zenith Z19 (Heathkit H19) terminal codes, mostly compatible with VT52, the Z-89 manual also describes it as supporting ANSI. The Microsoft Z-80 SoftCard for the
Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
emulated a limited subset of the Videx Videoterm, corresponding to the Datamedia 1520 sequences that the UCSD-based Apple Pascal supported. Its CP/M had the CONFIGIO command to adapt external terminals or run local applications that issued other control codes. Supported external terminals were the Soroc IQ 120/140 and Hazeltine 1500/1510.


DOS, OS/2, and Windows

MS-DOS 1.x did not support the ANSI or any other escape sequences. Only a few
control character In computing and telecommunication, a control character or non-printing character (NPC) is a code point (a number) in a character set, that does not represent a written symbol. They are used as in-band signaling to cause effects other than the ...
s (
BEL BEL can be an abbreviation for: * The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Belgium * ''BEL'' or bell character in the C0 control code set * Belarusian language, in the ISO 639-2 and SIL country code lists * Bharat Electronics Limited, an Indian sta ...
, CR, LF, BS) were interpreted by the underlying BIOS, making it almost impossible to do any kind of full-screen application. Any display effects had to be done with BIOS calls, which were notoriously slow, or by directly manipulating the IBM PC hardware. DOS 2.0 introduced the ability to add a
device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and o ...
for the ANSI escape sequences – the ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
'' standard being , but others like , and are used as well (these are considerably faster as they bypass the BIOS). Slowness and the fact that it was not installed by default made software rarely take advantage of it; instead, applications continued to directly manipulate the hardware to get the text display needed. ANSI.SYS and similar drivers continued to work in
Windows 9x Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in sub ...
up to
Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...
, and in NT-derived systems for 16-bit legacy programs executing under the
NTVDM Virtual DOS machines (VDM) refer to a technology that allows running 16-bit/32-bit DOS and 16-bit Windows programs when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware. Overview Virtual DOS machines can operate eit ...
. Many clones of DOS were able to interpret the sequences and do not require a separate ANSI driver to be loaded.
PTS-DOS PTS-DOS (aka PTS/DOS) is a disk operating system, a DOS clone, developed in Russia by PhysTechSoft and Paragon Technology Systems. History and versions PhysTechSoft was formed in 1991 in Moscow, Russia by graduates and members of MIPT, i ...
as well as
Concurrent DOS Multiuser DOS is a real-time multi-user multi-tasking operating system for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. An evolution of the older Concurrent CP/M-86, Concurrent DOS and Concurrent DOS 386 operating systems, it was originally developed by ...
, Multiuser DOS and REAL/32 have built-in support (plus a number of extensions).
OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 r ...
had an command that enabled the sequences. The Windows Console did not support ANSI escape sequences, nor did Microsoft provide any method to enable them. Some replacements or additions for the console window such as JP Software's TCC (formerly 4NT), Michael J. Mefford's ANSI.COM, Jason Hood's and Maximus5's ConEmu interpreted ANSI escape sequences printed by programs. A Python package named colorama internally interpretes ANSI escape sequences in text being printed, translating them to win32 calls to modify the state of the terminal, to make it easier to port Python code using ANSI to Windows.
Cygwin Cygwin ( ) is a POSIX-compatible programming and runtime environment that runs natively on Microsoft Windows. Under Cygwin, source code designed for Unix-like operating systems may be compiled with minimal modification and executed. The Cygwin in ...
performs similar translation to all output written to the console using Cygwin file descriptors, the filtering is done by the output functions of , to allow porting of POSIX C code to Windows. In 2016, Microsoft released the
Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...
version 1511 update which unexpectedly implemented support for ANSI escape sequences, over two decades after the debut of Windows NT. This was done alongside Windows Subsystem for Linux, allowing
Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...
terminal-based software to use the sequences in Windows Console. This defaults to off, but Windows PowerShell 5.1 enabled it. PowerShell 6 made it possible to embed the necessary ESC character into a string with . Windows Terminal, introduced in 2019, supports the sequences by default, and Microsoft intends to replace the Windows Console with Windows Terminal.


Atari ST/TT/Falcon series

Atari TOS TOS (The Operating System) is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520ST and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines (Atari TT030, TT, Atari Falcon, Falcon030 ...
used the command system adapted from the VT52 with some expansions for color support, rather than supporting ANSI escape codes.


AmigaOS

AmigaOS AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early versions ...
not only interprets ANSI code sequences for text output to the screen, the AmigaOS printer driver also interprets them (with extensions proprietary to AmigaOS) and translates them into the codes required for the particular printer that is actually attached.


VMS / OpenVMS

VMS was designed to be controlled using Digital's text-based video terminals such as the aforementioned
VT100 The VT100 is a video terminal, introduced in August 1978 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was one of the first terminals to support ANSI escape codes for cursor control and other tasks, and added a number of extended codes for special ...
; thus software tends to write the ANSI escape sequences directly (and will not work on non-ANSI terminals).


Description


C0 control codes

Almost all users assume some functions of some single-byte characters. Initially defined as part of ASCII, the default C0 control code set is now defined in ISO 6429 (ECMA-48), making it part of the same standard as the C1 set invoked by the ANSI escape sequences (although
ISO 2022 ISO/IEC 2022 ''Information technology—Character code structure and extension techniques'', is an ISO/IEC standard (equivalent to the ECMA standard ECMA-35, the ANSI standard ANSI X3.41 and the Japanese Industrial Standard JIS X 0202) in th ...
allows the ISO 6429 C0 set to be used without the ISO 6429 C1 set, and ''vice versa'', provided that 0x1B is always ESC). This is used to shorten the amount of data transmitted, or to perform some functions that are unavailable from escape sequences: Escape sequences vary in length. The general format for an ANSI-compliant escape sequence is defined by ANSI X3.41 (equivalent to ECMA-35 or ISO/IEC 2022). The escape sequences consist only of bytes in the range (all the non-control ASCII characters), and can be parsed without looking ahead. The behavior when a control character, a byte with the high bit set, or a byte that is not part of any valid sequence, is encountered before the end is undefined.


Fe Escape sequences

If the is followed by a byte in the range 0x40 to 0x5F, the escape sequence is of type . Its interpretation is delegated to the applicable
C1 control code The C0 and C1 control code or control character sets define control codes for use in text by computer systems that use ASCII and derivatives of ASCII. The codes represent additional information about the text, such as the position of a cursor, ...
standard. Accordingly, all escape sequences corresponding to C1 control codes from ANSI X3.64 / ECMA-48 follow this format. The standard says that, in 8-bit environments, the control functions corresponding to type escape sequences (those from the set of C1 control codes) can be represented as single bytes in the 0x80–0x9F range. This is possible in character encodings conforming to the provisions for an 8-bit code made in ISO 2022, such as the
ISO 8859 ISO/IEC 8859 is a joint ISO and IEC series of standards for 8-bit character encodings. The series of standards consists of numbered parts, such as ISO/IEC 8859-1, ISO/IEC 8859-2, etc. There are 15 parts, excluding the abandoned ISO/IEC 8859-12. ...
series. However, in character encodings used on modern devices such as
UTF-8 UTF-8 is a variable-length character encoding used for electronic communication. Defined by the Unicode Standard, the name is derived from ''Unicode'' (or ''Universal Coded Character Set'') ''Transformation Format 8-bit''. UTF-8 is capable of e ...
or
CP-1252 Windows-1252 or CP-1252 (code page 1252) is a single-byte character encoding of the Latin alphabet, used by default in the legacy components of Microsoft Windows for English and many European languages including Spanish, French, and German. I ...
, those codes are often used for other purposes, so only the 2-byte sequence is typically used. In the case of UTF-8, representing a C1 control code via the
C1 Controls and Latin-1 Supplement The Latin-1 Supplement (also called C1 Controls and Latin-1 Supplement) is the second Unicode block in the Unicode standard. It encodes the upper range of ISO 8859-1: 80 (U+0080) - FF (U+00FF). C1 Controls (0080–009F) are not graphic. Th ...
block results in a different two-byte code (e.g. for ), but no space is saved this way.


CSI (Control Sequence Introducer) sequences

For Control Sequence Introducer, or CSI, commands, the is followed by any number (including none) of "parameter bytes" in the range 0x30–0x3F (ASCII 0–9:;<=>?), then by any number of "intermediate bytes" in the range 0x20–0x2F (ASCII space and ), then finally by a single "final byte" in the range 0x40–0x7E (ASCII @A–Z _`a–z~). All common sequences just use the parameters as a series of semicolon-separated numbers such as . Missing numbers are treated as ( acts like the middle number is , and no parameters at all in acts like a reset code). Some sequences (such as CUU) treat as in order to make missing parameters useful. A subset of arrangements was declared "private" so that terminal manufacturers could insert their own sequences without conflicting with the standard. Sequences containing the parameter bytes <=>? or the final bytes 0x70–0x7E (p–z~) are private. The behavior of the terminal is undefined in the case where a CSI sequence contains any character outside of the range 0x20–0x7E. These illegal characters are either C0 control characters (the range 0–0x1F), DEL (0x7F), or bytes with the high bit set. Possible responses are to ignore the byte, to process it immediately, and furthermore whether to continue with the CSI sequence, to abort it immediately, or to ignore the rest of it.


SGR (Select Graphic Rendition) parameters

The control sequence CSI m, named Select Graphic Rendition (SGR), sets display attributes. Several attributes can be set in the same sequence, separated by semicolons. Each display attribute remains in effect until a following occurrence of SGR resets it. If no codes are given, is treated as (reset / normal).


Colors


= 3-bit and 4-bit

= The original specification only had 8 colors, and just gave them names. The SGR parameters 30–37 selected the foreground color, while 40–47 selected the background. Quite a few terminals implemented "bold" (SGR code 1) as a brighter color rather than a different font, thus providing 8 additional foreground colors. Usually you could not get these as background colors, though sometimes inverse video (SGR code 7) would allow that. Examples: to get black letters on white background use , to get red use , to get bright red use . To reset colors to their defaults, use (not supported on some terminals), or reset all attributes with . Later terminals added the ability to directly specify the "bright" colors with 90–97 and 100–107. When hardware started using 8-bit
digital-to-analog converter In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC, D/A, D2A, or D-to-A) is a system that converts a digital signal into an analog signal. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) performs the reverse function. There are several DAC archit ...
s (DACs) several pieces of software assigned 24-bit color numbers to these names. The chart below shows the default values sent to the DAC for some common hardware and software; in most cases they are configurable.


= 8-bit

= As 256-color lookup tables became common on graphic cards, escape sequences were added to select from a pre-defined set of 256 colors: ESC[38;5;m Select foreground color where n is a number from the table below ESC[48;5;m Select background color 0- 7: standard colors (as in ESC [ 30–37 m) 8- 15: high intensity colors (as in ESC [ 90–97 m) 16-231: 6 × 6 × 6 cube (216 colors): 16 + 36 × r + 6 × g + b (0 ≤ r, g, b ≤ 5) 232-255: grayscale from dark to light in 24 steps The ITU's T.416 Information technology - Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format: Character content architectures uses ':' as separator characters instead: ESC[38:5:m Select foreground color where n is a number from the table below ESC 8:5:m Select background color There has also been a similar but incompatible 88-color encoding using the same escape sequence, seen in and . Not much is known about the scheme besides the color codes. It uses a 4×4×4 color cube.


= 24-bit

= As "true color" graphic cards with 16 to 24 bits of color became common, applications began to support 24-bit colors. Terminal emulators supporting setting 24-bit foreground and background colors with escape sequences include Xterm, KDE's
Konsole Konsole is a free and open-source terminal emulator graphical application which is part of KDE Applications and ships with the KDE desktop environment. Konsole was originally written by Lars Doelle. It ls licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later and ...
, and iTerm, as well as all libvte based terminals, including GNOME Terminal. ESC 38;2;;;_m_Select_RGB_foreground_color _ESC[_48;2;;;_m_Select_RGB_background_color The_syntax_is_likely_based_on_the_ITU's_T.416__Open_Document_Architecture_(ODA)_and_interchange_format:_Character_content_architectures,_which_was_adopted_as_ISO/IEC_8613-6_but_ended_up_as_a_commercial_failure._The_ODA_version_is_more_elaborate_and_thus_incompatible: *_The_parameters_after_the_'2'_(r,_g,_and_b)_are_optional_and_can_be_left_empty. *_Semicolons_are_replaced_by_colons,_as_above._ *_There_is_a_leading_"colorspace_ID"._The_definition_of_the_colorspace_ID_is_not_included_in_that_document_so_it_may_be_blank_to_represent_the_unspecified_default. *_In_addition_to_the_'2'_value_after_48_to_specify_a_Red-Green-Blue_format_(and_the_'5'_above_for_a_0-255_indexed_color),_there_are_alternatives_of_'0'_for_implementation-defined_and_'1'_for_transparent_-_neither_of_which_have_any_further_parameters;_'3'_specifies_colors_using_a_Cyan-Magenta-Yellow_scheme,_and_'4'_for_a_Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black_one,_the_latter_using_the_position_marked_as_"unused"_for_the_Black_component: _ESC[_38:2:::::::_m_Select_RGB_foreground_color _ESC[_48:2:::::::_m_Select_RGB_background_color The_ITU-RGB_variation_is_supported_by_xterm,_with_the_colorspace_ID_and_tolerance_parameters_ignored._The_simpler_scheme_using_semicolons_is_initially_found_in_Konsole.


_=_Unix_environment_variables_relating_to_color_support_

= Before_termcap_and_terminfo_could_indicate_support_for_colors,_the_S-Lang_library_used__to_indicate_whether_a_terminal_emulator_could_use_colors_at_all_(later_reinterpreted_as_256-colors)_and_whether_it_supports_24-bit_color.
_This_system,_although_poorly_documented,_became_widespread_enough_for_Fedora_and_RHEL_to_consider_using_it_as_a_simpler_and_more_universal_detection_mechanism_compared_to_querying_the_now-updated_libraries._However,_gnome-terminal_3.14_dropped_this_variable_as_its_authors_considered_it_incorrect_and_no_longer_necessary.
Some_terminal_emulators_(urxvt,_konsole)_set__to_report_the_color_scheme_of_the_terminal_(mainly_light_vs._dark_background)._This_behavior_originated_in_S-Lang_and_is_used_by_vim._Again,_gnome-terminal_refuses_to_add_this_behavior,_as_the_more_"proper"_xterm_OSC_4/10/11_sequences_already_exist.


___OSC_(Operating_System_Command)_sequences_

Most_Operating_System_Command_sequences_were_defined_by_Xterm,_but_many_are_also_supported_by_other_terminal_emulators._For_historical_reasons,_Xterm_can_end_the_command_with_Bell_character.html" ;"title="ITU.html" ;"title="38;2;;; m Select RGB foreground color ESC[ 48;2;;; m Select RGB background color The syntax is likely based on the ITU">38;2;;; m Select RGB foreground color ESC[ 48;2;;; m Select RGB background color The syntax is likely based on the ITU's T.416 Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format: Character content architectures, which was adopted as ISO/IEC 8613-6 but ended up as a commercial failure. The ODA version is more elaborate and thus incompatible: * The parameters after the '2' (r, g, and b) are optional and can be left empty. * Semicolons are replaced by colons, as above. * There is a leading "colorspace ID". The definition of the colorspace ID is not included in that document so it may be blank to represent the unspecified default. * In addition to the '2' value after 48 to specify a Red-Green-Blue format (and the '5' above for a 0-255 indexed color), there are alternatives of '0' for implementation-defined and '1' for transparent - neither of which have any further parameters; '3' specifies colors using a Cyan-Magenta-Yellow scheme, and '4' for a Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black one, the latter using the position marked as "unused" for the Black component: ESC[ 38:2::::::: m Select RGB foreground color ESC[ 48:2::::::: m Select RGB background color The ITU-RGB variation is supported by xterm, with the colorspace ID and tolerance parameters ignored. The simpler scheme using semicolons is initially found in Konsole.


= Unix environment variables relating to color support

= Before termcap and terminfo could indicate support for colors, the S-Lang library used to indicate whether a terminal emulator could use colors at all (later reinterpreted as 256-colors) and whether it supports 24-bit color. This system, although poorly documented, became widespread enough for Fedora and RHEL to consider using it as a simpler and more universal detection mechanism compared to querying the now-updated libraries. However, gnome-terminal 3.14 dropped this variable as its authors considered it incorrect and no longer necessary. Some terminal emulators (urxvt, konsole) set to report the color scheme of the terminal (mainly light vs. dark background). This behavior originated in S-Lang and is used by vim. Again, gnome-terminal refuses to add this behavior, as the more "proper" xterm OSC 4/10/11 sequences already exist.


OSC (Operating System Command) sequences

Most Operating System Command sequences were defined by Xterm, but many are also supported by other terminal emulators. For historical reasons, Xterm can end the command with Bell character"> as well as the standard . For example, Xterm allows the window title to be set by . A non-xterm extension is the hyperlink, from 2017, used by VTE, iTerm2, and mintty. The Linux console uses to change the palette, which, if hard-coded into an application, may hang other terminals. However, appending will be ignored by Linux and form a proper, ignorable sequence for other terminals.


Fs Escape sequences

If the is followed by a byte in the range , the escape sequence is of type . This type is used for control functions individually registered with the ISO-IR registry and, consequently, available even in contexts where a different C1 control code set is used. Specifically, they correspond to single control functions approved by
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 Coded character sets is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that devel ...
and standardized by ISO or an ISO-recognised body. Some of these are specified in ECMA-35 (ISO 2022 / ANSI X3.41), others in ECMA-48 (ISO 6429 / ANSI X3.64). ECMA-48 refers to these as "independent control functions".


Fp Escape sequences

If the is followed by a byte in the range , the escape sequence is of type , which is set apart for up to sixteen private-use control functions.


nF Escape sequences

If the is followed by a byte in the range , the escape sequence is of type . Said byte is followed by any number of additional bytes in this range, and then a byte in the range . These escape sequences are further subcategorised by the low four bits of the first byte, e.g. "type " for sequences where the first byte is ; and by whether the final byte is in the range indicating private use (e.g. "type ") or not (e.g. "type "). Escape sequences of this type are mostly used for ANSI/ISO code-switching mechanisms such as those used by
ISO-2022-JP ISO/IEC 2022 ''Information technology—Character code structure and extension techniques'', is an ISO/IEC standard (equivalent to the ECMA standard ECMA-35, the ANSI standard ANSI X3.41 and the Japanese Industrial Standard JIS X 0202) in the ...
, except for type sequences (those where the first intermediate byte is ), which are used for individual control functions. Type sequences are reserved for additional ISO-IR registered individual control functions, while type sequences are available for private-use control functions. Unlike type sequences, no type sequences are presently registered.


Examples

— This clears the screen and, on some devices, locates the cursor to the y,x position 1,1 (upper left corner). — This makes text green. The green may be a dark, dull green, so you may wish to enable Bold with the sequence which would make it bright green, or combined as . Some implementations use the Bold state to make the character Bright. — This reassigns the key F10 to send to the keyboard buffer the string "DIR" and ENTER, which in the DOS command line would display the contents of the current directory. (MS-DOS ANSI.SYS only) This was sometimes used for
ANSI bomb ANSI.SYS is a device driver in the DOS family of operating systems that provides extra console functions through ANSI escape sequences. It is partially based upon a subset of the text terminal control standard proposed by the ANSI X3L2 Technical Co ...
s. This is a private-use code (as indicated by the letter p), using a non-standard extension to include a string-valued parameter. Following the letter of the standard would consider the sequence to end at the letter D. — This saves the cursor position. Using the sequence will restore it to the position. Say the current cursor position is 7(y) and 10(x). The sequence will save those two numbers. Now you can move to a different cursor position, such as 20(y) and 3(x), using the sequence or . Now if you use the sequence CSI u the cursor position will return to 7(y) and 10(x). Some terminals require the DEC sequences / instead which is more widely supported.


In shell scripting

ANSI escape codes are often used in
UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...
and UNIX-like terminals to provide
syntax highlighting Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors that are used for programming, scripting, or markup languages, such as HTML. The feature displays text, especially source code, in different colours and fonts according to the category of terms ...
. For example, on compatible terminals, the following ''
list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
'' command color-codes file and directory names by type. Users can employ escape codes in their scripts by including them as part of '' standard output'' or ''
standard error The standard error (SE) of a statistic (usually an estimate of a parameter) is the standard deviation of its sampling distribution or an estimate of that standard deviation. If the statistic is the sample mean, it is called the standard error o ...
''. For example, the following GNU '' sed'' command embellishes the output of the '' make'' command by displaying lines containing words starting with "WARN" in reverse video and words starting with "ERR" in bright yellow on a dark red background (
letter case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
is ignored). The representations of the codes are highlighted. make 2>&1 , sed -e 's/.*\bWARN.*/\x1b
\x1b[0m/i'_-e_'s/.*\bERR.*/\x1b[93;41m&\x1b \x1b[0m/i'_-e_'s/.*\bERR.*/\x1b[93;41m&\x1b[0m/i' The_following_Bash_(Unix_shell)">Bash_ Bash_or_BASH_may_refer_to: _Arts_and_entertainment *__''Bash!''_(Rockapella_album),_1992 *__''Bash!''_(Dave_Bailey_album),_1961 *_''_Bash:_Latter-Day_Plays'',_a_dramatic_triptych *__''BASH!''_(role-playing_game),_a_2005_superhero_game *__"Bash"_(''_...
_function_flashes_the_terminal_(by_alternately_sending_reverse_and_normal_video_mode_codes)_until_the_user_presses_a_key. __\\e[?5h
_\\e[?5l
This_can_be_used_to_alert_a_programmer_when_a_lengthy_command_terminates,_such_as_with_. _ This_will_reset_the_console,_similar_to_the_command__on_modern_Linux_systems;_however_it_should_work_even_on_older_Linux_systems_and_on_other_(non-Linux)_UNIX_variants.


__In_C_

#include_ int_main(void)


__Terminal_input_sequences_

Pressing_special_keys_on_the_keyboard,_as_well_as_outputting_many_xterm_CSI,_DCS,_or_OSC_sequences,_often_produces_a_CSI,_DCS,_or_OSC_sequence,_sent_from_the_terminal_to_the_computer_as_though_the_user_typed_it. When_typing_input_on_a_terminal_keypresses_outside_the_normal_main_alphanumeric_keyboard_area_can_be_sent_to_the_host_as_ANSI_sequences._For_keys_that_have_an_equivalent_output_function,_such_as_the_cursor_keys,_these_often_mirror_the_output_sequences._However,_for_most_keypresses_there_isn't_an_equivalent_output_sequence_to_use. There_are_several_encoding_schemes,_and_unfortunately_most_terminals_mix_sequences_from_different_schemes,_so_host_software_has_to_be_able_to_deal_with_input_sequences_using_any_scheme._ To_complicate_the_matter,_the_VT_terminals_themselves_have_two_schemes_of_input,_''normal_mode''_and_''application_mode''_that_can_be_switched_by_the_application. (draft_section)
_________________________________________->_char
__________________________________->_esc
_____________________________________->_esc
____________________________________->_Alt-keypress_or_keycode_sequence
_'['______________________________->_Alt-[
_'['_()___________________->_keycode_sequence,__is_a_decimal_number_and_defaults_to_1_(xterm)
_'['_()_(';')_'~'______->_keycode_sequence,__and__are_decimal_numbers_and_default_to_1_(vt)
If_the_terminating_character_is_'~',_the_first_number_must_be_present_and_is_a keycode_number,_the_second_number_is_an_optional_modifier_value._If_the_terminating character_is_a_letter,_the_letter_is_the_keycode_value,_and_the_optional_number_is the_modifier_value. The_modifier_value_defaults_to_1,_and_after_subtracting_1_is_a_bitmap_of_modifier keys_being_pressed:_Meta-Ctrl-Alt-Shift._So,_for_example,_<esc>[4;2~_is Shift-End,_<esc>[20~_is_function_key_9,_<esc>[5C_is_Ctrl-Right. In_other_words,_the_modifier_is_the_sum_of_the_following_numbers:
vt_sequences:
[1~____-_Home________[16~___-_____________[31~___-_F17
[2~____-_Insert______[17~___-_F6__________[32~___-_F18
[3~____-_Delete______[18~___-_F7__________[33~___-_F19
[4~____-_End_________[19~___-_F8__________[34~___-_F20
[5~____-_PgUp________[20~___-_F9__________[35~___-_
[6~____-_PgDn________[21~___-_F10_________
[7~____-_Home________[22~___-_____________
[8~____-_End_________[23~___-_F11_________
[9~____-_____________[24~___-_F12_________
[10~___-_F0__________[25~___-_F13_________
[11~___-_F1__________[26~___-_F14_________
[12~___-_F2__________[27~___-_____________
[13~___-_F3__________[28~___-_F15_________
[14~___-_F4__________[29~___-_F16_________
[15~___-_F5__________[30~___-

xterm_sequences:
[A_____-_Up__________[K_____-_____________[U_____-
[B_____-_Down________[L_____-_____________[V_____-
[C_____-_Right_______[M_____-_____________[W_____-
[D_____-_Left________[N_____-_____________[X_____-
[E_____-_____________[O_____-_____________[Y_____-
[F_____-_End_________[1P____-_F1__________[Z_____-
[G_____-_Keypad_5____[1Q____-_F2_______
[H_____-_Home________[1R____-_F3_______
[I_____-_____________[1S____-_F4_______
[J_____-_____________[T_____-_
<esc>[A_to_<esc>[D_are_the_same_as_the_ANSI_output_sequences._The_<modifier>_is_normally_omitted_if_no_modifier_keys_are_pressed,_but_most_implementations_always_emit_the_<modifier>_for_F1-F4._(draft_section) Xterm_has_a_comprehensive_documentation_page_on_the_various_function-key_and_mouse_input_sequence_schemes_from_DEC's_VT_terminals_and_various_other_terminals_it_emulates.
_Thomas_Dickey_has_added_a_lot_of_support_to_it_over_time;_he_also_maintains_a_list_of_default_keys_used_by_other_terminal_emulators_for_comparison. *_On_the_Linux_console,_certain_function_keys_generate_sequences_of_the_form_CSI_[_''char''._The_CSI_sequence_should_terminate_on_the_[. *_Old_versions_of_Terminator_(terminal_emulator).html" ;"title="m/i' The_following_Bash_(Unix_shell).html" "title="m&\x1b[0m/i' -e 's/.*\bERR.*/\x1b[93;41m&\x1b[0m/i' The following Bash (Unix shell)">Bash Bash or BASH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Bash!'' (Rockapella album), 1992 * ''Bash!'' (Dave Bailey album), 1961 * '' Bash: Latter-Day Plays'', a dramatic triptych * ''BASH!'' (role-playing game), a 2005 superhero game * "Bash" ('' ...
function flashes the terminal (by alternately sending reverse and normal video mode codes) until the user presses a key. \\e[?5h \\e[?5l This can be used to alert a programmer when a lengthy command terminates, such as with . This will reset the console, similar to the command on modern Linux systems; however it should work even on older Linux systems and on other (non-Linux) UNIX variants.


In C

#include int main(void)


Terminal input sequences

Pressing special keys on the keyboard, as well as outputting many xterm CSI, DCS, or OSC sequences, often produces a CSI, DCS, or OSC sequence, sent from the terminal to the computer as though the user typed it. When typing input on a terminal keypresses outside the normal main alphanumeric keyboard area can be sent to the host as ANSI sequences. For keys that have an equivalent output function, such as the cursor keys, these often mirror the output sequences. However, for most keypresses there isn't an equivalent output sequence to use. There are several encoding schemes, and unfortunately most terminals mix sequences from different schemes, so host software has to be able to deal with input sequences using any scheme. To complicate the matter, the VT terminals themselves have two schemes of input, ''normal mode'' and ''application mode'' that can be switched by the application. (draft section)
                                         -> char
                                  -> esc
                                     -> esc
                                    -> Alt-keypress or keycode sequence
 '['                              -> Alt-[
 '[' ()                   -> keycode sequence,  is a decimal number and defaults to 1 (xterm)
 '[' () (';') '~'      -> keycode sequence,  and  are decimal numbers and default to 1 (vt)
If the terminating character is '~', the first number must be present and is a keycode number, the second number is an optional modifier value. If the terminating character is a letter, the letter is the keycode value, and the optional number is the modifier value. The modifier value defaults to 1, and after subtracting 1 is a bitmap of modifier keys being pressed: Meta-Ctrl-Alt-Shift. So, for example, <esc>[4;2~ is Shift-End, <esc>[20~ is function key 9, <esc>[5C is Ctrl-Right. In other words, the modifier is the sum of the following numbers:
vt sequences:
[1~    - Home        [16~   -             [31~   - F17
[2~    - Insert      [17~   - F6          [32~   - F18
[3~    - Delete      [18~   - F7          [33~   - F19
[4~    - End         [19~   - F8          [34~   - F20
[5~    - PgUp        [20~   - F9          [35~   - 
[6~    - PgDn        [21~   - F10         
[7~    - Home        [22~   -             
[8~    - End         [23~   - F11         
[9~    -             [24~   - F12         
[10~   - F0          [25~   - F13         
[11~   - F1          [26~   - F14         
[12~   - F2          [27~   -             
[13~   - F3          [28~   - F15         
[14~   - F4          [29~   - F16         
[15~   - F5          [30~   -

xterm sequences:
[A     - Up          [K     -             [U     -
[B     - Down        [L     -             [V     -
[C     - Right       [M     -             [W     -
[D     - Left        [N     -             [X     -
[E     -             [O     -             [Y     -
[F     - End         [1P    - F1          [Z     -
[G     - Keypad 5    [1Q    - F2       
[H     - Home        [1R    - F3       
[I     -             [1S    - F4       
[J     -             [T     - 
<esc>[A to <esc>[D are the same as the ANSI output sequences. The <modifier> is normally omitted if no modifier keys are pressed, but most implementations always emit the <modifier> for F1-F4. (draft section) Xterm has a comprehensive documentation page on the various function-key and mouse input sequence schemes from DEC's VT terminals and various other terminals it emulates. Thomas Dickey has added a lot of support to it over time; he also maintains a list of default keys used by other terminal emulators for comparison. * On the Linux console, certain function keys generate sequences of the form CSI [ ''char''. The CSI sequence should terminate on the [. * Old versions of Terminator (terminal emulator)">Terminator generate SS3 1; ''modifiers'' ''char'' when F1–F4 are pressed with modifiers. The faulty behavior was copied from GNOME Terminal. * xterm replies CSI ''row'' ; ''column'' R if asked for cursor position and CSI 1 ; ''modifiers'' R if the F3 key is pressed with modifiers, which collide in the case of ''row''

1. This can be avoided by using the ''?'' private modifier as CSI ? 6 n, which will be reflected in the response as CSI ? ''row'' ; ''column'' R. * many terminals prepend ESC to any character that is typed with the alt key down. This creates ambiguity for uppercase letters and symbols @ _, which would form C1 codes. *
Konsole Konsole is a free and open-source terminal emulator graphical application which is part of KDE Applications and ships with the KDE desktop environment. Konsole was originally written by Lars Doelle. It ls licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later and ...
generates SS3 ''modifiers'' ''char'' when F1–F4 are pressed with modifiers.


See also

* ANSI art * Control character * Advanced Video Attribute Terminal Assembler and Recreator (AVATAR) *
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 Coded character sets is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that devel ...
*
C0 and C1 control codes The C0 and C1 control code or control character sets define control codes for use in text by computer systems that use ASCII and derivatives of ASCII. The codes represent additional information about the text, such as the position of a curso ...


Notes


References


External links


Standard ECMA-48, Control Functions For Coded Character Sets
(''5th edition, June 1991''), European Computer Manufacturers Association, Geneva 1991 (also published by ISO and IEC as standard ISO/IEC 6429)
vt100.net DEC Documents
*




A collection of escape sequences for terminals that are vaguely compliant with ECMA-48 and friends.
*
ITU-T Rec. T.416 (03/93) Information technology – Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format: Character content architectures
{{List of International Electrotechnical Commission standards Computer standards Ecma standards American National Standards Institute standards ISO standards Text user interface