clear — Clear the screen of all previous output

Format

clear

Description

The clear command clears the screen of all output and places the cursor at the top of the screen.

Localization

clear uses the following localization environment variables:
  • LANG
  • LC_ALL
  • LC_CTYPE
  • LC_MESSAGES
  • NLSPATH

See Localization for more information.

Environment variables

clear uses the following environment variables:
TERM
Contains the current terminal type.
TERMINFO
Contains the terminal information database, if different than the default.

Exit values

0
Successfully cleared the screen according to the current terminal's characteristics.
1
The terminal definition does not define a "clear" capability.
2
Syntax error.
3
The terminal definition specified by TERM is invalid.
4
Invalid terminfo capability.

Related information

tput