IL — Insert Line (CSI Pn L)

Open N blank lines at the cursor row and push subsequent lines down within the scrolling region — vim's 'O' command primitive.

Byte forms

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

\\x1b[\x1b[PnL

\\033[\033[PnL

\\e[\e[PnL

ESC [ESC [ Pn L

hex1b 5b <Pn> 4c

Description

Insert Line. Final byte `L` (0x4c) inserts `Pn` blank lines at the cursor row (default 1); every subsequent line inside the active scrolling region (DECSTBM, default = full screen) is pushed downward by `Pn`, and the `Pn` lines that would fall below the bottom margin are discarded. Cells in the freshly-inserted blank lines carry the current SGR background. The cursor moves to column 1 of its row (ECMA-48 says column unchanged, but most modern terminals follow the xterm convention of resetting to column 1 because that's what every TUI app expects). Used by `vim`'s `O` command (open line above), `tmux`'s pane re-layout, and any `less`-style scroll-up-by-N. Counterpart is DL (`\x1b[Pn M`). Terminfo cap: `il1` (Pn=1) or `il` (parameterised).

Spec citation: ECMA-48 §8.3.67 (IL)

Examples

bash

# Set scroll region rows 1..5, position cursor at row 3, insert 2 blank lines.\nprintf '\033[1;5r\033[3;1H\033[2L'

python

import sys; sys.stdout.write('\x1b[2L')   # insert 2 lines at cursor row

fmt.Print("\x1b[2L")

javascript

process.stdout.write('\x1b[2L')

printf("\x1b[2L");

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