The escape character

ESC=¢

An escape sequence produces an EBCDIC version of the ASCII control sequence. (For example, the z/OS UNIX <EscChar-D> corresponds to the ASCII <Ctrl-D>.) If you do not use a Control function key to enter escape sequences, you will need to use an escape character. When you type an escape character followed by a second character and press Enter, the second character is converted into a different character before it is passed to the shell.

The default escape character depends on the character conversion table specified with the CONVERT keyword. For more information, see the OMVS command description in z/OS UNIX System Services Command Reference.

There can be up to eight escape characters defined and displayed on the screen; you can use any one of them as an escape character. For example, three are displayed here:

ESC=¢`%

In this topic, the notation EscChar coupled with another letter (for example, <EscChar-D>) indicates an escape sequence.

For more information about escape sequences, see Typing escape sequences in the shell, which follows.