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Difference Between the clear Command in Linux and Mac

I've been writing a series of posts about CSI Sequences, but we rarely use CSI Sequences directly. However, there is a CSI Sequence that we use unknowingly. It's the clear command that clears the screen.

The clear command basically uses two types of CSI sequences. One is CSI H(Cursor Position, a.k.a CUP); it moves the cursor to the beginning of the screen. The cursor is at the top-left corner after the command ends, thanks to CUP. The second CSI Sequence is CSI 2 J(Erase in Display, a.k.a. ED), which is used to clear the entire screen. Linux and Mac use these two sequences; they behave the same way up to this point. However, Linux's clear and Mac's differ in their subsequent actions.

In a nutshell, Linux's clear clears the scrollback buffer, while Mac's does not. Linux's one prints CSI 3 J after the two sequences. CSI 3 J is an extension of the Escape Sequence introduced by xterm that removes lines stored in the scrollback buffer. Since being named E3 by the Red Hat community in 2011, terminal emulators usually call it the E3 extension. Mac's clear does not print this sequence, leaving the scrollback buffer untouched.

This difference is not as old as one might think. Originally, most terminal emulators did not understand xterm extensions, including the E3 extension. Naturally, the clear command used in Linux also did not use E3, so the scrollback buffer was not cleared. However, as time passed, xterm extensions gradually spread to other terminal emulators, and the E3 extension began to be implemented. From 2007's PuTTY, 2011's Red Hat, 2014's Gnome Terminal, and iTerm2, various terminal emulators started to support CSI 3 J, and today, most terminals support the E3 extension.

Another issue arose as most terminal emulators began to support the E3 extension. The question was how to define the behavior of the clear command. Opinions were divided between two groups of people. One group wanted the clear command to only clear the visible display, insisting that deleting the scrollback buffer is the task of the reset command, which literally resets the terminal. The other group believed that the scrolling area is also part of the screen, clear should delete the scrollback buffer as well. The latter won in the Linux community. Eventually, E3 was added to the clear command, and those who disliked this decision had to use the clear command with a -x option like clear -x.

However, this change has not yet been propagated to the Mac community. Therefore, Mac uses the program implemented before E3 was added. There isn't even an option to choose. It seems that there is no discussion related to this issue. So, if you want Linux-like clear behavior on Mac, you need to create an alias like alias clear='printf "\033[H\033[2J\033[3J"'. Conversely, if you want the original behavior on Linux, you must set an alias like alias clear=clear -x or alias clear='printf "\033[H\033[2J"'.

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