Escape Sequence
An escape sequence is a combination of characters that signifies a command for the terminal rather than a literal combination of characters. In terminals that respond to ANSI character sequences, the escape character has the ASCII value of hexadecimal 1B, octal 33, or decimal 27. A symbol for the escape character can be defined as follows:
esc[0,7] = 27
or:
esc[0,8]=%x1B
Contents
Control Sequences
Examples in the following tables use the following symbols:
esc[0,7] = 27 text="Text to be displayed"
Character attributes
| Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | [1m |
write sys$output "''esc'[1m''text'''esc'[m" |
| Underscore | [4m |
write sys$output "''esc'[4m''text'''esc'[m" |
| Blink | [5m |
write sys$output "''esc'[4m''text'''esc'[m" |
| Reverse video | [7m |
write sys$output "''esc'[7m''text'''esc'[m" |
| All attributes off | [0m |
write sys$output "''esc'[0m''text'''esc'[m" |
Line Size
The attributes below are valid only for the current line.
| Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Double-height top half | #3 | Used with #4 to display double-height text:
$ pipe w "''esc'#3''text'''esc'#3" ; w "''esc'#4''text'''esc'#4" |
| Double-height bottom half | #4 | Used with #3 to display double-height text:
$ pipe w "''esc'#3''text'''esc'#3" ; w "''esc'#4''text'''esc'#4" |
| Single width/single height | #5 |
$ w "''esc'#5''text'''esc'#5" |
| Double width/double height | #6 |
$ w "''esc'#6''text'''esc'#6" |
Erasing
| Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Erases from cursor to end of line | [K | |
| Erases from the beginning of line to cursor | [1K |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[1K" |
| Erases the line containing cursor | [2K |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[2K" |
| Erases from the cursor to end of screen | [J |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[J" |
| From beginning of screen to cursor | 1J |
$ write sys$output "''esc'1J" |
| Erase the entire screen | [2J |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[2J" |
Cursor Positioning
| Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Move the cursor to line Pl and column Pc | [Pl;PcH or ESC[Pl;Pcf |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[0;0H" |
| Cursor up Pn positions | [PnA |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[1A''text'" |
| Cursor down Pn positions | [PnB |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[1B''text'" |
| Save cursor and attributes | 7 |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[1B''esc'7" |
| Cursor forward Pn spaces | [PnC |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[2C''text'" |
| Cursor backward Pn spaces | [PnD |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[2C''text'" |
| Next line | E |
$ write sys$output "''text'''esc'E''text'" |
| Restore cursor and attributes | ESC 8 |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[1B''esc'8" |
Scrolling Region
The scrolling region can be established with escape code [Pt;Pbr, where Pt is the top line of the scrolling region and Pb is the bottom line.
Colors
| Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Reset (resets the color to default) | [0m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[30m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Black | [30m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[30m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Red | [31m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[31m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Green | [32m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[32m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Yellow | [33m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[33m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Blue | [34m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[34m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Magenta | [35m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[35m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| Cyan | [36m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[36m''text'''esc'[0m" |
| White | [37m |
$ write sys$output "''esc'[37m''text'''esc'[0m" |
