CSI ED — Erase in Display

ED (final 'J') erases part or all of the screen depending on Ps: 0 (or omitted) erase from cursor to end of screen, 1 erase from start of screen to cursor, 2 erase the entire screen, 3 (xterm) erase the scrollback buffer. The cursor position is not changed; erased cells take the current background color.

frame

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

terminator (none): ST · BEL

parameters / subcommands

id	name	bytes (ST)	meaning
0	ED 0 — cursor to end of screen	\x1b[0J	CSI 0 J (or CSI J) erases from the cursor (inclusive) to the end of the screen.
1	ED 1 — start of screen to cursor	\x1b[1J	CSI 1 J erases from the start of the screen to the cursor (inclusive).
2	ED 2 — entire screen	\x1b[2J	CSI 2 J erases the whole visible screen. The cursor does NOT move (use CSI H to also home it).
3	ED 3 — scrollback (xterm)	\x1b[3J	CSI 3 J erases the scrollback / saved-lines buffer (xterm extension; widely supported).

gotchas

CSI 2 J clears the screen but does NOT move the cursor; the common 'clear' is \x1b[2J\x1b[H (erase + home) or \x1b[H\x1b[2J.
Ps = 3 (erase scrollback) is an xterm extension, not in ECMA-48; most modern terminals support it but a few do not.
Erased cells are filled with the CURRENT background color (SGR background), so set background before erasing if you want a colored clear.
ED affects the whole display; to clear only the current line use EL (CSI K).
On the alternate screen buffer (DECSET 1049/47), CSI 2 J clears the alt buffer, not your scrollback.

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 J = Erase in Display (ED): Ps = 0 below, 1 above, 2 all, 3 saved lines (xterm).
ext.params — https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-48/ ECMA-48 defines ED (final 'J') with Ps 0 (cursor to end), 1 (start to cursor), 2 (all). Ps = 3 (scrollback) is an xterm extension.

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

CSI ED — Erase in Display

frame

parameters / subcommands

gotchas

provenance

see also