foot-ctlseqs - Man Page

terminal control sequences supported by foot

Description

This document describes all the control sequences supported by foot.

Control characters
Sequences beginning with ESC
Csi - Control Sequence Introducer
- SGR
- Indexed and RGB colors (256-color palette and 24-bit colors)
- Private modes
- Window manipulation
- Other
Osc - Operating System Command
DCS - Device Control String

Control characters

Sequence	Name	Description
\a	BEL	Depends on what bell in foot.ini(5) is set to.
\b	BS	Backspace; move the cursor left one step. Wrap if bw is enabled.
\t	HT	Horizontal tab; move the cursor to the next tab stop.
\n	LF	Line feed; move the cursor down one step, or scroll content up if at the bottom line.
\v	VT	Vertical tab; identical to LF.
\f	FF	Form feed; identical to LF.
\r	CR	Carriage ret; move the cursor to the leftmost column.
\x0E	SO	Shift out; select the G1 character set.
\x0F	SI	Shift in; select the G0 character set.

Sequences beginning with ESC

Note: this table excludes sequences where ESC is part of a 7-bit equivalent to 8-bit C1 controls.

Sequence	Name	Origin	Description
\E 7	DECSC	VT100	Save cursor position.
\E 8	DECRC	VT100	Restore cursor position.
\E c	RIS	VT100	Reset terminal to initial state.
\E D	IND	VT100	Line feed; move the cursor down one step, or scroll content up if at the bottom margin.
\E E	NEL	VT100	Next line; move the cursor down one step, and to the first column. Content is scrolled up if at the bottom line.
\E H	HTS	VT100	Set one horizontal tab stop at the current position.
\E M	RI	VT100	Reverse index; move the cursor up one step, or scroll content down if at the top margin.
\E N	SS2	VT220	Single shift select of G2 character set (affects next character only).
\E O	SS3	VT220	Single shift select of G3 character set (affects next character only).
\E =	DECKPAM	VT100	Switch keypad to application mode.
\E >	DECKPNM	VT100	Switch keypad to numeric mode.
\E ( C	SCS	VT100	Designate G0 character set. Supported values for C are: 0 (DEC Special Character and Line Drawing Set), and B (USASCII).
\E ) C	SCS	VT100	Designate G1 character set. Same supported values for C as in G0.
\E * C	SCS	VT220	Designate G2 character set. Same supported values for C as in G0.
\E + C	SCS	VT220	Designate G3 character set. Same supported values for C as in G0.

All sequences begin with \E[, sometimes abbreviated "CSI". Spaces are used in the sequence strings to make them easier to read, but are not actually part of the string (i.e. \E[ 1 m is really \E[1m).

SGR

All SGR sequences are in the form \E[ N m, where N is a decimal number - the parameter. Multiple parameters can be combined in a single CSI sequence by separating them with semicolons: \E[ 1;2;3 m.

Parameter	Description
0	Reset all attributes
1	Bold
2	Dim
3	Italic
4	Underline, including styled underlines
5	Blink
7	Reverse video; swap foreground and background colors
8	Conceal; text is not visible, but is copiable
9	Crossed-out/strike
21	Double underline
22	Disable bold and dim
23	Disable italic
24	Disable underline
25	Disable blink
27	Disable reverse video
28	Disable conceal
29	Disable crossed-out
30-37	Select foreground color (using regularN in foot.ini(5))
38	Select foreground color, see "indexed and RGB colors" below
39	Use the default foreground color (foreground in foot.ini(5))
40-47	Select background color (using regularN in foot.ini(5))
48	Select background color, see "indexed and RGB colors" below
49	Use the default background color (background in foot.ini(5))
58	Select underline color, see "indexed and RGB colors" below
59	Use the default underline color
90-97	Select foreground color (using brightN in foot.ini(5))
100-107	Select background color (using brightN in foot.ini(5))

Indexed and RGB colors (256-color palette and 24-bit colors)

Foot supports both the new sub-parameter based variants, and the older parameter based variants for setting foreground and background colors.

Indexed colors:

\E[ 38 : 5 : idx m
\E[ 38 ; 5 ; idx m

RGB colors:

\E[ 38 : 2 : cs : r : g : b m
\E[ 38 : 2 : r : g : b m
\E[ 38 ; 2 ; r ; g ; b m

The first variant is the "correct" one (and foot also recognizes, but ignores, the optional tolerance parameters).

The second one is allowed since many programs "forget" the color space ID, cs.

The sub-parameter based variants are preferred, and are what foot's terminfo(5) entry uses.

Private Modes

There are several Boolean-like "modes" that affect certain aspects of the terminal's behavior. These modes can be manipulated with the following 4 escape sequences:

Sequence	Name	Description
\E[ ? Pm h	DECSET	Enable private mode
\E[ ? Pm l	DECRST	Disable private mode
\E[ ? Pm s	XTSAVE	Save private mode
\E[ ? Pm r	XTRESTORE	Restore private mode

The Pm parameter in the above sequences denotes a numerical ID that corresponds to one of the following modes:

Parameter	Origin	Description
1	VT100	Cursor keys mode (DECCKM)
5	VT100	Reverse video (DECSCNM)
6	VT100	Origin mode (DECOM)
7	VT100	Auto-wrap mode (DECAWM)
12	AT&T 610	Cursor blink
25	VT220	Cursor visibility (DECTCEM)
45	xterm	Reverse-wraparound mode
47	xterm	Same as 1047 (see below)
66	VT320	Numeric keypad mode (DECNKM); same as DECKPAM/DECKPNM when enabled/disabled
1000	xterm	Send mouse x/y on button press/release
1001	xterm	Use hilite mouse tracking
1002	xterm	Use cell motion mouse tracking
1003	xterm	Use all motion mouse tracking
1004	xterm	Send FocusIn/FocusOut events
1006	xterm	SGR mouse mode
1007	xterm	Alternate scroll mode
1015	urxvt	urxvt mouse mode
1016	xterm	SGR-Pixels mouse mode
1034	xterm	8-bit Meta mode
1035	xterm	Num Lock modifier (see xterm numLock option)
1036	xterm	Send ESC when Meta modifies a key (see xterm metaSendsEscape option)
1042	xterm	Perform action for BEL character (see bell in foot.ini(5))
1047	xterm	Use alternate screen buffer
1048	xterm	Save/restore cursor (DECSET=save, DECRST=restore)
1049	xterm	Equivalent to 1048 and 1047 combined
1070	xterm	Use private color registers for each sixel
2004	xterm	Wrap pasted text with start/end delimiters (bracketed paste mode)
2026	terminal-wg	Application synchronized updates mode
2027	contour	Grapheme cluster processing
2031	contour	Request color theme updates
2033	rockorager	Request terminal visibility reports. Enabling this mode immediately reports the current visibility as CSI ? 999 ; 1\|2 n, where 1 means potentially visible and 2 means not visible. Further reports are sent whenever the visibility changes.
2048	TODO	In-band window resize notifications
8452	xterm	Position cursor to the right of sixels, instead of on the next line
737769	foot	Input Method Editor (IME) mode

Window manipulation

Foot implements a sub-set of XTerm's (originally dtterm's) window manipulation sequences. The generic format is:

\E[ Ps ; Ps ; Ps t

Parameter 1	Parameter 2	Description
11	-	Report if window is iconified. Foot always reports 1 - not iconified.
13	-	Report window position. Foot always reports (0,0), due to Wayland limitations.
13	2	Report text area position. Foot always reports (0,0) due to Wayland limitations.
14	-	Report text area size, in pixels. Foot reports the grid size, excluding the margins.
14	2	Report window size, in pixels. Foot reports the grid size plus the margins.
15	-	Report the screen size, in pixels.
16	-	Report the cell size, in pixels.
18	-	Report text area size, in characters.
19	-	Report screen size, in characters.
20	-	Report icon label.
22	-	Push window title+icon.
22	1	Push window icon.
22	2	Push window title.
23	-	Pop window title+icon.
23	1	Pop window icon.
23	2	Pop window title.

Other

Parameter	Name	Origin	Description
\E[ Ps c	DA	VT100	Send primary device attributes. Foot responds with "I'm a VT220 with sixel and ANSI color support".
\E[ Ps A	CUU	VT100	Cursor up - move cursor up Ps times.
\E[ Ps B	CUD	VT100	Cursor down - move cursor down Ps times.
\E[ Ps C	CUF	VT100	Cursor forward - move cursor to the right Ps times.
\E[ Ps D	CUB	VT100	Cursor backward - move cursor to the left Ps times.
\E[ Ps g	TBC	VT100	Tab clear. Ps=0 -> clear current column. Ps=3 -> clear all.
\E[ Ps ; Ps f	HVP	VT100	Horizontal and vertical position - move cursor to row ; column.
\E[ Ps ; Ps H	CUP	VT100	Cursor position - move cursor to row ; column.
\E[ Ps J	ED	VT100	Erase in display. Ps=0 -> below cursor. Ps=1 -> above
\E[ Ps K	EL	VT100	Erase in line. Ps=0 -> right of cursor. Ps=1 -> left of cursor. Ps=2 -> all.
\E[ Pm h	SM	VT100	Set mode. Pm=4 -> enable IRM (Insertion Replacement Mode). All other values of Pm are unsupported.
\E[ Pm l	RM	VT100	Reset mode. Pm=4 -> disable IRM (Insertion Replacement Mode). All other values of Pm are unsupported.
\E[ Ps n	DSR	VT100	Device status report. Ps=5 -> device status. Ps=6 -> cursor position.
\E[ Ps L	IL	VT220	Insert Ps lines.
\E[ Ps M	DL	VT220	Delete Ps lines.
\E[ Ps P	DCH	VT220	Delete Ps characters.
\E[ Ps @	ICH	VT220	Insert Ps blank characters.
\E[ Ps X	ECH	VT220	Erase Ps characters.
\E[ > c	DA2	VT220	Send secondary device attributes. Foot responds with "I'm a VT220 and here's my version number".
\E[ ! p	DECSTR	VT220	Soft terminal reset.
\E[ ? Ps $ p	DECRQM	VT320	Request status of DEC private mode. The Ps parameter corresponds to one of the values mentioned in the "Private Modes" section above (as set with DECSET/DECRST).
\E[ Ps $ p	DECRQM	VT320	Request status of ECMA-48/ANSI mode. See the descriptions for SM/RM above for recognized Ps values.
\E[ Pt ; Pl ; Pb ; Pr ; Pm $ r	DECCARA	VT400	Change attributes in rectangular area. Pt, Pl, Pb and Pr denotes the rectangle, Pm denotes the SGR attributes.
\E[ Pt ; Pl ; Pb ; Pr ; Pm $ t	DECRARA	VT400	Invert attributes in rectangular area. Pt, Pl, Pb and Pr denotes the rectangle, Pm denotes the SGR attributes.
\E[ Pt ; Pl ; Pb ; Pr ; Pp ; Pt ; Pl ; Pp $ v	DECCRA	VT400	Copy rectangular area. Pt, Pl, Pb and Pr denotes the rectangle, Pt and Pl denotes the target location.
\E[ Pc ; Pt ; Pl ; Pb ; Pr $ x	DECFRA	VT420	Fill rectangular area. Pc is the character to use, Pt, Pl, Pb and Pr denotes the rectangle.
\E[ Pt ; Pl ; Pb ; Pr $ z	DECERA	VT400	Erase rectangular area. Pt, Pl, Pb and Pr denotes the rectangle.
\E[ Ps T	SD	VT420	Scroll down Ps lines.
\E[ s	SCOSC	SCO, VT510	Save cursor position.
\E[ u	SCORC	SCO, VT510	Restore cursor position.
\E[ Ps SP q	DECSCUSR	VT510	Set cursor style. In foot, Ps=0 means "use style from foot.ini".
\E[ = Ps c	DA3	VT510	Send tertiary device attributes. Foot responds with "FOOT", in hexadecimal.
\E[ Pm d	VPA	ECMA-48	Line position absolute - move cursor to line Pm.
\E[ Pm e	VPR	ECMA-48	Line position relative - move cursor down Pm lines.
\E[ Pm a	HPR	ECMA-48	Character position relative - move cursor to the right Pm times.
\E[ Ps E	CNL	ECMA-48	Cursor next line - move the cursor down Ps times.
\E[ Ps F	CPL	ECMA-48	Cursor preceding line - move the cursor up Ps times.
\E[ Pm `	HPA	ECMA-48	Character position absolute - move cursor to column Pm.
\E[ Ps G	CHA	ECMA-48	Cursor character absolute - move cursor to column Ps. cursor. Ps=2 -> all. Ps=3 -> saved lines.
\E[ Ps S	SU	ECMA-48	Scroll up Ps lines.
\E[ Ps I	CHT	ECMA-48	Cursor forward tabulation Ps tab stops.
\E[ Ps Z	CBT	ECMA-48	Cursor backward tabulation Ps tab stops.
\E[ Ps b	REP	ECMA-48	Repeat the preceding printable character Ps times.
\E[ ? Pi ; Pa ; Pv S	XTSMGRAPHICS	xterm	Set or request sixel attributes.
\E[ > Ps q	XTVERSION	xterm	Ps=0 -> report terminal name and version, in the form \EP>\|foot(version)\E\.
\E[ > 4 ; Pv m	XTMODKEYS	xterm	Set level of the modifyOtherKeys property to Pv. Note that foot only supports level 1 and 2, where level 1 is the default setting.
\E[ ? Pp m	XTQMODKEYS	xterm	Query key modifier options
\E[ > 4 n	<unnamed>	xterm	Resets the modifyOtherKeys property to level 1. Note that in foot, this sequence does not completely disable modifyOtherKeys, since foot only supports level 1 and level 2 (and not level 0).
\E[ ? u	<unnamed>	kitty	Query current values of the Kitty keyboard flags.
\E[ > flags u	<unnamed>	kitty	Push a new entry, flags, to the Kitty keyboard stack.
\E[ < number u	<unnamed>	kitty	Pop number of entries from the Kitty keyboard stack.
\E[ = flags ; mode u	<unnamed>	kitty	Update current Kitty keyboard flags, according to mode.
\E[ # P	XTPUSHCOLORS	xterm	Push current color palette onto stack
\E[ # Q	XTPOPCOLORS	xterm	Pop color palette from stack
\E[ # R	XTREPORTCOLORS	xterm	Report the current entry on the palette stack, and the number of palettes stored on the stack.
\E[ ? 996 n	Query the current (color) theme mode	contour	The current color theme mode (light or dark) is reported as CSI ? 997 ; 1\|2 n, where 1 means dark and 2 light. By convention, the primary theme in foot is considered dark, and the alternative theme light.
\E[ ? 998 n	Query terminal visibility	rockorager	The current terminal visibility is reported as CSI ? 999 ; 1\|2 n, where 1 means potentially visible and 2 means not visible. This does not enable private mode 2033.

Osc

All OSC sequences begin with \E], sometimes abbreviated OSC.

Sequence	Origin	Description
\E] 0 ; Pt \E\	xterm	Set window icon and title to Pt.
\E] 1 ; Pt \E\	xterm	Set window icon to Pt.
\E] 2 ; Pt \E\	xterm	Set window title to Pt
\E] 4 ; c ; spec \E\	xterm	Change color number c to spec, where spec is a color in XParseColor format. foot only supports RGB colors; either rgb:<red>/<green>/<blue>, or the legacy format (#rgb).
\E] 7 ; Uri \E\	iTerm2	Update the terminal's current working directory. Newly spawned terminals will launch in this directory. Uri must be in the format file://<hostname>/<path>. hostname must refer to your local host.
\E] 8 ; id=ID ; Uri \E\	VTE+iTerm2	Hyperlink (a.k.a HTML-like anchors). id=ID is optional; if assigned, all URIs with the same ID will be treated as a single hyperlink. An empty URI closes the hyperlink.
\E] 9 ; msg \E\	iTerm2	Desktop notification, uses notify in foot.ini(5).
\E] 10 ; spec \E\	xterm	Change the default foreground color to spec, a color in XParseColor format.
\E] 11 ; spec \E\	xterm	Change the default background color to spec, a color in XParseColor format. Foot implements URxvt's transparency extension; e.g. spec=[75]#ff00ff or spec=rgba:ff/00/ff/bf (pink with 75% alpha).
\E] 12 ; spec \E\	xterm	Change cursor color to spec, a color in XParseColor format.
\E] 17 ; spec \E\	xterm	Change selection background color to spec, a color in XParseColor format.
\E] 19 ; spec \E\	xterm	Change selection foreground color to spec, a color in XParseColor format.
\E] 22 ; xcursor-pointer-name \E\	xterm	Sets the xcursor pointer. An empty name, or an invalid name resets it.
\E] 52 ; Pc ; ? \E\	xterm	Send clipboard data. Pc can be either c, s or p. c uses the clipboard as source, and s and p uses the primary selection. The response is \E] 52 ; Pc ; <base64-encoded data> E\, where Pc denotes the source used.
\E] 52 ; Pc ; Pd \E\	xterm	Copy Pd (base64 encoded text) to the clipboard. Pc denotes the target: c targets the clipboard and s and p the primary selection.
\E] 66 ; params ; text \E\	kitty	Text sizing protocol (only 'w', width, supported)
\E] 99 ; params ; payload \E\	kitty	Desktop notification; uses desktop-notifications.command in foot.ini(5).
\E] 104 ; c \E\	xterm	Reset color number c (multiple semicolon separated c values may be provided), or all colors (excluding the default foreground/background colors) if c is omitted.
\E] 110 \E\	xterm	Reset default foreground color
\E] 111 \E\	xterm	Reset default background color
\E] 112 \E\	xterm	Reset cursor color
\E] 117 \E\	xterm	Reset selection background color
\E] 119 \E\	xterm	Reset selection foreground color
\E] 133 ; A \E\	FinalTerm	Mark start of shell prompt
\E] 133 ; C \E\	FinalTerm	Mark start of command output
\E] 133 ; D \E\	FinalTerm	Mark end of command output
\E] 176 ; app-id \E\	foot	Set app ID. app-id is optional; if assigned, the terminal window App ID will be set to the value. An empty App ID resets the value to the default.
\E] 555 \E\	foot	Flash the entire terminal (foot extension)
\E] 777;notify;title;msg \E\	urxvt	Desktop notification, uses desktop-notifications.command in foot.ini(5).

DCS

All DCS sequences begin with \EP (sometimes abbreviated DCS), and are terminated by \E\ (ST).

Sequence	Description
\EP q <sixel data> \E\	Emit a sixel image at the current cursor position
\EP $ q <query> \E\	Request selection or setting (DECRQSS). Implemented queries: DECSTBM, SGR and DECSCUSR.
\EP = C s \E\	Begin (C=1) or end (C=2) application synchronized updates. This sequence is supported for compatibility reasons, but it's recommended to use private mode 2026 (see above) instead.
\EP + q <hex encoded capability name> \E\	Query builtin terminfo database (XTGETTCAP)

Footnote

Foot does not support 8-bit control characters ("C1").

Info

2026-09-02