CSI EL — Erase in Line

EL (final 'K') erases part or all of the current line: Ps = 0 (or omitted) from the cursor to end of line, 1 from start of line to cursor, 2 the entire line. The cursor does not move and 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	EL 0 — cursor to end of line	\x1b[0K	CSI 0 K (or CSI K) erases from the cursor (inclusive) to the end of the line.
1	EL 1 — start of line to cursor	\x1b[1K	CSI 1 K erases from the start of the line to the cursor (inclusive).
2	EL 2 — entire line	\x1b[2K	CSI 2 K erases the whole current line. The cursor column does not change.

gotchas

The cursor does NOT move; to also return to column 1 add CR or CSI G.
Erased cells take the CURRENT SGR background color.
Default (no parameter) is Ps = 0 (erase to end of line), matching ED's default.
EL only touches the current row; for multi-line clears use ED (CSI J).
A common 'redraw this line' idiom is CR + EL 0 (\r\x1b[K) then reprint.

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 K = Erase in Line (EL): Ps = 0 to right, 1 to left, 2 all.
ext.params — https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-48/ ECMA-48 defines EL (final 'K') with Ps 0 (cursor to end), 1 (start to cursor), 2 (all of line).

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

CSI EL — Erase in Line

frame

parameters / subcommands

gotchas

provenance

see also