DL — Delete Line (CSI Pn M)

Remove N lines starting at the cursor row and pull subsequent lines up within the scrolling region — vim's 'dd' command primitive.

Byte forms

Every common string-literal form so you can paste-and-search either direction.

\\x1b[\x1b[PnM

\\033[\033[PnM

\\e[\e[PnM

ESC [ESC [ Pn M

hex1b 5b <Pn> 4d

Description

Delete Line. Final byte `M` (0x4d) removes `Pn` lines starting at the cursor row (default 1); every line below them inside the active scrolling region (DECSTBM) is pulled upward by `Pn`, and `Pn` fresh blank lines appear at the bottom of the region with the current SGR background. Cursor moves to column 1 of its row (same xterm-vs-spec column-reset behaviour as IL). DL is the primitive `vim`'s `dd` command emits, what `less` uses to scroll a line at the top off-screen, and what `tmux`'s pane resize relies on. Counterpart is IL (`\x1b[Pn L`); used together with `\x1b[T;Br` (DECSTBM) you get atomic small-region scrolls without redrawing the whole screen. Terminfo cap: `dl1` (Pn=1) or `dl` (parameterised).

Spec citation: ECMA-48 §8.3.32 (DL)

Examples

bash

# Set scroll region rows 1..5, position cursor at row 2, delete 1 line.\nprintf '\033[1;5r\033[2;1H\033[1M'

python

import sys; sys.stdout.write('\x1b[1M')

fmt.Print("\x1b[1M")

javascript

process.stdout.write('\x1b[1M')

printf("\x1b[1M");

Terminal support

xterm: yes
Linux console (fbcon): yes
macOS Terminal.app: yes
iTerm2: yes
Windows Terminal: yes
cmd.exe / ConPTY: partial
kitty: yes
alacritty: yes
WezTerm: yes
Ghostty: yes
GNOME Terminal: yes
Konsole: yes
tmux: no
GNU screen: no

xterm	Linux console (fbcon)	macOS Terminal.app	iTerm2	Windows Terminal	cmd.exe / ConPTY	kitty	alacritty	WezTerm	Ghostty	GNOME Terminal	Konsole	tmux	GNU screen
yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	partial	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no

Related sequences

In the family cookbook

CSI cookbook · 6. Insert / delete / cursor shape — IL / DL / ICH / DCH / ECH + DECSCUSR