Can't clear the terminal programmatically

[fabiospampinato]

Running node -e "process.stdout.write ( '\u001Bc' );" should clear the terminal, but this is what I get if I run it in xterm:

If I try to clear it with a node -e "process.stdout.write ( '\033[2J\033[0f' );" the whole thing becomes black.

Is there a way it can be cleared properly?

[Tyriar]

Using node -e "process.stdout.write ( '\u001Bc' );" or echo -e '\x1bc' tell bash to clear, and bash gives back a response to xterm.js. I believe this is why you're seeing the prompt again. You can call term.write('\x1bc') to clear only the front end (xterm.js).

[fabiospampinato]

What if I don't have access to the xterm instance?

I basically want to clear the terminal when my CLI app starts, how am I supposed to do that if it gets launched from xterm?

[Tyriar]

@fabiospampinato it looks like clear command on Linux sends '\x1b[H\x1b[2J'

That translates into:

• Move cursor to (1,1) (CUP)
• Erase all in display (ED)

See http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html for more info

[fabiospampinato]

That works, thank you!