CSI ECH — Erase Character

ECH (final 'X') erases Pn characters starting at the cursor by overwriting them with blanks (current background color), WITHOUT shifting the rest of the line. The cursor position is unchanged. Pn defaults to 1. Contrast with DCH which deletes and shifts.

frame

CSI introducer: \x1b[ ESC [ (0x1B 0x5B)

terminator (none): ST · BEL

parameters / subcommands

id	name	bytes (ST)	meaning
ech	ECH — Erase Character (X)	\x1b[4X	CSI Pn X erases Pn characters starting at the cursor, replacing them with blanks in the current background color. Characters after the erased run do NOT shift; the cursor does not move.

gotchas

ECH erases IN PLACE without shifting — unlike DCH (CSI P) which deletes and pulls the rest of the line left.
Erased cells take the current SGR background color.
The cursor does not move; subsequent output overwrites the erased blanks starting at the cursor.
ECH stops at the right margin; it does not wrap to the next line.
Pn of 0 is treated as 1.

provenance

source: https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
version: xterm ctlseqs, patch #410, 2026/04/19
retrieved: 2026-05-29 · updated: 2026-05-29T00:00:00Z

per-fact attribution:

#summary — https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html xterm ctlseqs: CSI Ps X = Erase Ps Character(s) (ECH). Default Ps = 1. Erases in place without moving following characters.
ext.params — https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-48/ ECMA-48 defines ECH (final 'X') as erasing Pn characters from the active position, default 1, without repositioning.

agent: curl -H 'accept: application/json' wire.phall.io/terminal-csi/ech or /terminal-csi/ech.json

CSI ECH — Erase Character

frame

parameters / subcommands

gotchas

provenance

see also