DECTCEM ?25 — Show/hide cursor

Byte forms

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

Description

DEC Text Cursor Enable Mode. Useful for progress bars and TUIs to avoid the blinking caret on top of redrawn text. Always restore (`?25h`) on exit, including in panic / signal handlers — a stuck `?25l` will hide the user's prompt cursor until the next `tput cnorm` / terminal reset.

Spec citation: xterm-ctlseqs (DECTCEM)

Examples

printf '\033[?25l'; sleep 2; printf '\033[?25h'

import sys; sys.stdout.write('\x1b[?25l')

fmt.Print("\x1b[?25l")

process.stdout.write('\x1b[?25l')

printf("\x1b[?25l");

Terminal support

xterm

yes

Linux console (fbcon)

yes

macOS Terminal.app

yes

iTerm2

yes

Windows Terminal

yes

cmd.exe / ConPTY

yes

kitty

yes

alacritty

yes

WezTerm

yes

Ghostty

yes

GNOME Terminal

yes

Konsole

yes

tmux

no

GNU screen

no

Related sequences

• DECSET 1049 — Alternate screen buffer
• CUU / CUD / CUF / CUB — Move cursor
• DECSC / DECRC — Save and restore cursor
• DECSCUSR — Cursor shape
• DECSET ?12 — Cursor blink

In the family cookbook

↗DEC cookbook · 1. The `?` prefix — DECSET vs SM