clear Command

Purpose

Clears the terminal screen.

Syntax

clear

Description

The clear command clears your screen, if possible. The clear command first checks the TERM environment variable for the terminal type. Next, the /usr/share/lib/terminfo directory, which contains terminal definition files, is checked to determine how to clear the screen. If the TERM environment variable is not set, the clear command exits without taking any action.

Examples

To clear your screen, enter:

clear

Files

Item Description
/usr/share/lib/terminfo Contains terminal information database.