What's the difference between \x1b[g and \x1b[3g?

\x1b[g (parameter omitted, same as \x1b[0g) clears the tab stop *at the current cursor column only* — every other stop in the terminal stays put. \x1b[3g clears *all* tab stops site-wide. There is no middle ground: ECMA-48 §8.3.154 defines exactly two scopes via parameter 0 and 3; other values are reserved and most terminals ignore them. Practical impact: \x1b[g after CUP-positioning at column 9 deletes only the column-9 stop, leaving 17 / 25 / 33 / ... intact and HT still advancing as expected. \x1b[3g wipes the slate, after which HT (\t) becomes inert until you lay new stops via HTS (\x1bH, see esc-hts).

How do I restore the default 8-column tab grid after \x1b[3g?

Three options, in increasing blast-radius. (1) Re-emit HTS at each desired column: CUP to column 9, \x1bH; CUP to column 17, \x1bH; repeat to the terminal width. This is the only surgical option — leaves all other DEC state untouched. (2) DECSTR soft reset (\x1b[!p, see decstr-soft-reset) — restores tab stops along with cursor visibility, origin mode, autowrap, and most DEC private modes; safe between TUI sessions but resets more than you may want. (3) RIS hard reset (\x1bc, see ris-reset) — also clears scrollback and SGR state; usually too aggressive for inside an application. Note that screen clears (\x1b[2J), form-feed (\x0c), and SGR 0 do NOT restore tab stops — this is the most common authoring trap with TBC.

TBC — Tab Clear (CSI g)

Clear one or all tab stops, changing where HT and CBT land.

Byte forms

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

\\x1b[\x1b[g (clear current) \x1b[3g (clear all)

\\033[\033[g / \033[3g

\\e[\e[g / \e[3g

ESC [ESC [ Ps g

hex1b 5b <Ps> 67

Description

ECMA-48 §8.3.154 — Tabulation Clear (TBC). Final byte g (0x67). The parameter controls scope: 0 (default, also when omitted) clears the tab stop *at the current column* only; 3 clears *all* tab stops in the entire terminal. Byte sequences \x1b[g (clear-here) and \x1b[3g (clear-all). Pair with HTS (\x1bH, see esc-hts) which sets a tab stop at the current column — TBC is the matching "clear" half. Default tab stops sit every 8 columns (cols 9, 17, 25, …); every freshly-opened terminal starts with that grid, and \x1b[3g is the primitive that wipes the slate clean before HTS lays down a custom layout that matches your forms / tables / column-aligned output.

Portability — universal across xterm, iTerm2, kitty, alacritty, wezterm, gnome-terminal, Konsole, Ghostty, Linux console, Windows Terminal, ConPTY 1809+. Pre-ConPTY cmd.exe ignored TBC. The most common authoring surprise: once you've issued \x1b[3g, HT (\t, 0x09) does *nothing* — there are no tab stops to advance to, so the cursor stays put and tools that emit \t for layout (column, pr, expand, Makefile recipe output, many heredoc-formatted strings) silently produce broken / left-aligned output until new stops are set. The defensive pattern is to always pair \x1b[3g with a sequence of HTS emissions before returning control to the user; never leave the terminal in a "tab stops wiped, none set" state, which is a particularly nasty form of state-leak after a crashed TUI. terminfo capability tbc exists but is rarely populated by terminal entries; programs typically emit the bytes directly.

The wipe is persistent across normal screen operations — SGR 0, screen clears (\x1b[2J), Ctrl+L form-feed (\x0c), and even a fresh prompt do NOT restore the default 8-column grid. Only DECSTR (\x1b[!p, see decstr-soft-reset), RIS (\x1bc, see ris-reset), or another TBC + HTS sequence will undo it. tmux normalises tab stops to the default 8-column grid on its inner pseudo-terminal, so TBC issued inside a tmux pane is intercepted at the multiplexer boundary rather than forwarded to the outer terminal — same behaviour as HTS, and the same pair of caveats applies (tmux-aware code should re-emit the desired tab layout when reattaching to a session). GNU screen behaves the same way. Related: esc-hts (HTS — the matching "set tab stop here" half), csi-cbt (CBT — \x1b[<N>Z retreats backward by N stops, the symmetric counterpart to CHT), c0-controls (the C0 table including HT \x09 — the literal tab character whose behaviour TBC controls).

Spec citation: ECMA-48 §8.3.154 (TBC)

Parameters

0	clear tab stop at current column
3	clear ALL tab stops

Examples

bash

printf '\033[3g'      # clear all tab stops\nprintf '\033H'        # set a tab stop here (HTS, ESC H)

python

import sys; sys.stdout.write('\x1b[3g')

fmt.Print("\x1b[3g")

javascript

process.stdout.write('\x1b[3g')

printf("\x1b[3g");

Used in

Real-world tools that emit this sequence — anchors the bytes to commands you've already used.

vim / neovim `:set tabstop=N`Changing `tabstop` mid-buffer triggers a `\x1b[3g` (TBC mode 3 — clear all tab stops) followed by HTS (`\x1bH`) at each new stop column — visible in `:redir @a` capture during `:set tabstop=4` then `:set tabstop=8`
GNU coreutils `expand` / `unexpand`Implementations that write to a real TTY (vs piped output) emit TBC to reset stops before the conversion to keep `expand --tabs=4 file` deterministic across terminal default-tab-stops (some VTs default to every 8, others every 10)
ed(1) `T` command (set tab)BSD ed and FreeBSD ed implement the historic `T` command by emitting `\x1b[g` (TBC mode 0 — clear stop at current column) followed by repositioning — preserved for POSIX.1-2024 compatibility, rarely invoked in modern shells
terminfo `tbc` capability (clear_all_tabs)The `tbc` cap is hardcoded as `\E[3g` in `xterm-256color`, `linux`, `screen-256color` and ~280 other terminfo entries — `tput tbc` resolves to the same bytes, used by initscripts and `tset` to normalise tab stops at login
Emacs `tab-width` buffer-local recalcWhen a buffer-local `tab-width` changes via `set-variable RET tab-width RET`, the redisplay engine emits TBC + HTS pairs to align the new stops — the same pattern is used by `M-x untabify` after region conversion to ensure further tab presses align

Frequently asked

Short answers to the questions developers actually search for this sequence.

What's the difference between \x1b[g and \x1b[3g?: \x1b[g (parameter omitted, same as \x1b[0g) clears the tab stop *at the current cursor column only* — every other stop in the terminal stays put. \x1b[3g clears *all* tab stops site-wide. There is no middle ground: ECMA-48 §8.3.154 defines exactly two scopes via parameter 0 and 3; other values are reserved and most terminals ignore them. Practical impact: \x1b[g after CUP-positioning at column 9 deletes only the column-9 stop, leaving 17 / 25 / 33 / ... intact and HT still advancing as expected. \x1b[3g wipes the slate, after which HT (\t) becomes inert until you lay new stops via HTS (\x1bH, see esc-hts).
How do I restore the default 8-column tab grid after \x1b[3g?: Three options, in increasing blast-radius. (1) Re-emit HTS at each desired column: CUP to column 9, \x1bH; CUP to column 17, \x1bH; repeat to the terminal width. This is the only surgical option — leaves all other DEC state untouched. (2) DECSTR soft reset (\x1b[!p, see decstr-soft-reset) — restores tab stops along with cursor visibility, origin mode, autowrap, and most DEC private modes; safe between TUI sessions but resets more than you may want. (3) RIS hard reset (\x1bc, see ris-reset) — also clears scrollback and SGR state; usually too aggressive for inside an application. Note that screen clears (\x1b[2J), form-feed (\x0c), and SGR 0 do NOT restore tab stops — this is the most common authoring trap with TBC.

Common typos / look-alikes

Wrong forms developers commonly paste from Stack Overflow that look right but aren't — with the canonical correction inline.

\x1b[3g to clear the tab stops 'just for this row'\x1b[3g clears ALL tab stops globally — to clear only current column use \x1b[g (TBC mode 0, default)
TBC \x1b[<n>g has only two meaningful modes per ECMA-48: 0 (default) clears tab at CURRENT column only, 3 clears ALL tab stops globally. There is no per-row scope — tab stops are a terminal-wide column-vector property, not row-state. Programmers wanting 'clear stops for this UI element' often emit \x1b[3g, blow away the user's entire tab grid, then return without restoring — leaving readline, vim, printf '%t', and every shell helper that relies on default 8-col tabs in a broken state. If you need locality, save the existing layout first (terminfo doesn't expose tab-stop query — you literally cannot save it portably), do your work, then re-emit a CUP+HTS loop to rebuild the default 8-col grid.
\x1b[1g or \x1b[2g thinking they're intermediate scopesECMA-48 only defines \x1b[0g (current column) and \x1b[3g (all) — 1 and 2 are reserved, behaviour is undefined
Some implementations treat \x1b[1g/\x1b[2g as synonyms for \x1b[0g, some as no-ops, some as errors that drop the sequence — xterm decTabClear treats them as parse errors and discards. There is no defined 'clear stops in line', 'clear in region', or 'clear right of cursor' mode. The misconception comes from analogies with ED \x1b[<n>J (which has 0=below, 1=above, 2=all, 3=scrollback — a real numbered scope ladder). TBC simply doesn't have that. Stick to 0 and 3 and verify in the support matrix.
emit \x1b[3g then assume default 8-col tabs come back automaticallyafter \x1b[3g you must MANUALLY re-establish tab stops with \x1b[1G followed by HTS \x1bH at each desired column
\x1b[3g removes ALL tab stops; the terminal does NOT auto-restore the default 8-col grid on any operation short of RIS \x1bc (full reset) or DECSTR \x1b[!p (soft reset, which on most terminals restores the default tab grid). The canonical restore loop is: \x1b[H (CUP to home) then a count-and-emit loop — for col in 9 17 25 33 41 49 57 65 73; do printf '\x1b[%dG\x1bH' "$col"; done for an 80-col terminal at default 8-col spacing. After restoration, printf '%t'/\t/CHT all work again as expected. If you can avoid \x1b[3g, do so — the no-restore-needed pattern is much safer.

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: yes
GNU screen: yes

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	yes	yes

Related sequences

In the family cookbook

ESC cookbook · 2. Tab stops — `\x1bH` (HTS) sets, `\x1b[g` (TBC) clears