ANSI escape sequences

Standard escape codes are prefixed with Escape:

• Ctrl-Key: ^[
• Octal: \033
• Unicode: \u001b
• Hexadecimal: \x1b
• Decimal: 27

Followed by the command, somtimes delimited by opening square bracket ([), known as a Control Sequence Introducer (CSI), optionally followed by arguments and the command itself.

Arguments are delimeted by semi colon (;).

For example:

sh \x1b[1;31m # Set style to bold, red foreground.

General ASCII Codes #

Note: Some control escape sequences, like \e for ESC, are not guaranteed to work in all languages and compilers. It is recommended to use the decimal, octal or hex representation as escape code.

Note: The Ctrl-Key representation is simply associating the non-printable characters from ASCII code 1 with the printable (letter) characters from ASCII code 65 ("A"). ASCII code 1 would be ^A (Ctrl-A), while ASCII code 7 (BEL) would be ^G (Ctrl-G). This is a common representation (and input method) and historically comes from one of the VT series of terminals.

Cursor Controls #

Note: Some sequences, like saving and restoring cursors, are private sequences and are not standardized. While some terminal emulators (i.e. xterm and derived) support both SCO and DEC sequences, they are likely to have different functionality. It is therefore recommended to use DEC sequences.

Erase Functions #

Colors / Graphics Mode #

Note: Some terminals may not support some of the graphic mode sequences listed above.

Color codes #

Most terminals support 8 and 16 colors, as well as 256 (8-bit) colors. These colors are set by the user, but have commonly defined meanings.

8-16 Colors #

Note: the Reset color is the reset code that resets all colors and text effects.

Most terminals, apart from the basic set of 8 colors, also support the "bright" or "bold" colors. These have their own set of codes, mirroring the normal colors, but with an additional ;1 in their codes:

sh

Set style to bold, red foreground.

\x1b[1;31mHello

Set style to dimmed white foreground with red background.

\x1b[2;37;41mWorld

256 Colors #

The following escape codes tells the terminal to use the given color ID:

Where {ID} should be replaced with the color index from 0 to 255 of the following color table:

The table starts with the original 16 colors (0-15).

The proceeding 216 colors (16-231) or formed by a 3bpc RGB value offset by 16, packed into a single value.

The final 24 colors (232-255) are grayscale starting from a shade slighly lighter than black, ranging up to shade slightly darker than white.

Some emulators interpret these steps as linear increments (256 / 24) on all three channels, although some emulators may explicitly define these values.

RGB Colors #

More modern terminals supports Truecolor (24-bit RGB), which allows you to set foreground and background colors using RGB.

These escape sequences are usually not well documented.

Note that ;38 and ;48 corresponds to the 16 color sequence and is interpreted by the terminal to set the foreground and background color respectively. Where as ;2 and ;5 sets the color format.

Screen Modes #

Set Mode #

Common Private Modes #

These are some examples of private modes, which are not defined by the specification, but are implemented in most terminals.

Refer to the XTerm Control Sequences for a more in-depth list of private modes defined by XTerm.

Note: While these modes may be supported by the most terminals, some may not work in multiplexers like tmux.

Keyboard Strings #

sh ESC[{code};{string};{...}p

Redefines a keyboard key to a specified string.

The parameters for this escape sequence are defined as follows:

• code is one or more of the values listed in the following table. These values represent keyboard keys and key combinations. When using these values in a command, you must type the semicolons shown in this table in addition to the semicolons required by the escape sequence. The codes in parentheses are not available on some keyboards. ANSI.SYS will not interpret the codes in parentheses for those keyboards unless you specify the /X switch in the DEVICE command for ANSI.SYS.

• string is either the ASCII code for a single character or a string contained in quotation marks. For example, both 65 and "A" can be used to represent an uppercase A.

IMPORTANT: Some of the values in the following table are not valid for all computers. Check your computer's documentation for values that are different.

List of keyboard strings #

Resources #

• Wikipedia: ANSI escape code
• Build your own Command Line with ANSI escape codes
• ascii-table: ANSI Escape sequences
• bluesock: ansi codes
• bash-hackers: Terminal Codes (ANSI/VT100) introduction
• XTerm Control Sequences