How to Clear the PHP CLI Screen in Windows: A Simple Method Similar to 'cls' Command

Question

When PHP script run from command line (windows) , how can clear the console screen from script .

for example :

while(true){
    // sleep for 10 seconds , then clear the console
    sleep(10);

    // below command execute to clear the console windows
    **COMMAND**
}

This is marked as a duplicate of a question that is not the same. The linked question asks how to clear a line and this question asks how to clear the screen. Those are NOT the same thing. — Lee Blake, Dec 06 '18 at 02:04
Agreed this should not have been closed, and I have voted to reopen. — Erick Robertson, Feb 22 '20 at 23:23

score 58 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '16 at 08:12

58

If you did not have any luck with the solutions above, consider the following

echo chr(27).chr(91).'H'.chr(27).chr(91).'J';   //^[H^[J

Hope it will help.

Source : http://pank.org/blog/2011/02/php-clear-terminal-screen.html

answered Jun 16 '16 at 08:12

M. Chris

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This seems way more performant than `system('clear')`. Is it also cross-platform? What are the drawbacks? – dnl-blkv Mar 16 '17 at 22:01
doesnt work on windows – Steven Martin Dec 31 '17 at 21:27
1

Worked on Windows 10... I'm guessing this will work ever since the cmd prompt start supporting ansi escape chars. – Christian Oct 13 '18 at 15:11
12

Also, by the way, this can be shortened to: `echo "\e[H\e[J";` (in plain PHP) – Christian Oct 13 '18 at 15:14
@StevenMartin really? works fine for me on Windows 7 x64 SP1 – hanshenrik Oct 22 '18 at 12:16
This does not work for me on Win7 Home 64bit – Lee Blake Dec 06 '18 at 02:05
1

confirmed still working windows 10 – dewd Jan 12 '19 at 17:54
I was surprised to see that this also works remotely with curl even... – briskola Jul 19 '23 at 11:08
June 2023 -- works on windows 10 for me, this is cool! – Andy Aug 01 '23 at 23:43

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 04 '15 at 06:17

19

For Windows users :

system('cls');

For Linux users :

system('clear');

edited Jun 04 '15 at 06:17

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answered Mar 22 '15 at 10:15

OlivierLarue

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Seems, that `clear` works only [in Powershell](http://superuser.com/questions/585238/clear-windows-command-prompt-screen-using-keyboard-shortcuts#comment1122664_585241). When executing your PHP script in pure Windows command-line, you should still use `cls`. – trejder May 07 '15 at 12:52
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system("cls") will put a chr(12) on your screen ("form feed" character) but won't clear it. – dkellner Aug 07 '15 at 08:26
8

Does not work on windows. – Black Apr 18 '16 at 09:05
3

why is this an accepted answer, it does not work on Windows anymore?! – Steven Martin Dec 31 '17 at 21:25
1

So there's no solution for Windows users? system('cls') will not work, why this answer is marked as accepted? – Power Engineering May 01 '18 at 18:48
1

system("cls"); does not work for me on Windows 7 x64 SP1 – hanshenrik Oct 22 '18 at 12:15

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 07 '15 at 13:03

Found a solution, that works in both cmd and GitBash. However, this is the ugliest implementation of clearing console-screen I can think of. Pity, that there isn't any working alternative.

The "magic" is to... poke console with fifty new-lines, like that:

public function clearStdin()
{
    for ($i = 0; $i < 50; $i++) echo "\r\n";
}

This is a modified (fixed?) version of this non-working (for me) post from 2006.

Lost F. · Answer 4 · 2015-05-07T13:28:48.987

0

You can do this by using:

ncurses_clear();

Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ncurses-clear.php

Edit: As trejder says this solution is only for supported platforms, it seems windows is not one of them.

edited May 07 '15 at 13:28

answered Jun 20 '14 at 12:50

Lost F.

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OP asks for a **Windows**-based soluton! `ncurses` library [is **NOT** available](http://php.net/manual/en/intro.ncurses.php) for Windows platform in PHP. – trejder May 07 '15 at 12:46

How to Clear the PHP CLI Screen in Windows: A Simple Method Similar to 'cls' Command

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