using 'printf' in a script in terminal window

Mike McNally emmecinque at gmail.com
Sat Nov 21 18:26:09 CET 2009


There's no truly standard character sequence that clears a terminal display,
and there never has been. The '\f' code is a "form feed", which is a printer
control to feed out paper up to the next page perforation.

Most "terminal" programs (xterm et al) emulate old DEC VT-100 terminals,
which did not clear the screen in response to a form feed character, as
far as I know.

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Jerry <gesbbb at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:32:48 +0100
> Mike Massonnet <mmassonnet at gmail.com> replied:
>
>> I tested it on Terminal, Konsole, and finally xterm, none of those
>> clear the screen. And if xterm isn't doing pretty much nobody does it.
>>
>> Why don't you use `clear'?
>
> This would appear to be a "by design" feature; although I cannot fathom
> why. Using 'clear' is fine as long as the script is not used via CRON.
> 'Clear' produces strange output with scripts run via CRON. I know that
> there are ways to program around that; however, it does complicate
> things. I prefer the "KISS" approach.
>
> Although it probably would not make any appreciable difference, I
> might appeal to the developers to change this behavior.
>
> --
> Jerry
> gesbbb at yahoo.com
>
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