Clear screen in shell

Question

Just a quick question:
How do you clear the screen in shell? I've seen ways like:

import os
os.system('cls')

This just opens the windows cmd, clears the screen and closes but I want the shell window to be cleared
(PS: I don't know this helps, but I'm using version 3.3.2 of Python)
Thank you :)

Answer 1

For OS X, you can use subprocess module and call 'cls' from shell:

import subprocess as sp
sp.call('cls',shell=True)

To prevent '0' from showing on top of the window, replace the 2nd line with:

tmp = sp.call('cls',shell=True)

For linux, you must replace cls command with clear

tmp = sp.call('clear',shell=True)

Answer 2

What about the shortcut CTRL+L?

It works for all shells e.g. Python, Bash, MySQL, MATLAB, etc.

Answer 3

import os

os.system('cls')  # For Windows
os.system('clear')  # For Linux/OS X

Answer 4

The sort of thing that you are looking for is to be found in the curses module.

i.e.

import curses  # Get the module
stdscr = curses.initscr()  # initialise it
stdscr.clear()  # Clear the screen

Important Note

The important thing to remember is before any exit, you need to reset the terminal to a normal mode, this can be done with the following lines:

curses.nocbreak()
stdscr.keypad(0)
curses.echo()
curses.endwin()

If you don't you will get all sort of strange behaviour. To ensure that this is always done I would suggest using the atexit module, something like:

import atexit

@atexit.register
def goodbye():
    """ Reset terminal from curses mode on exit """
    curses.nocbreak()
    if stdscr:
        stdscr.keypad(0)
    curses.echo()
    curses.endwin()

Will probably do nicely.

Answer 5

Here are some options that you can use on Windows

First option:

import os
cls = lambda: os.system('cls')

>>> cls()

Second option:

cls = lambda: print('\n' * 100)

>>> cls()

Third option if you are in Python REPL window:

Ctrl+L

Answer 6

In addition to being an all-around great CLI library, click also provides a platform-agnostic clear() function:

import click
click.clear()

Answer 7

using windows 10 and pyhton3.5 i have tested many codes and nothing helped me more than this:

First define a simple function, this funtion will print 50 newlines;(the number 50 will depend on how many lines you can see on your screen, so you can change this number)

def cls(): print ("\n" * 50)

then just call it as many times as you want or need

cls()

Answer 8

This function works in any OS (Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows)
Python 2 and Python 3

import platform    # For getting the operating system name
import subprocess  # For executing a shell command

def clear_screen():
    """
    Clears the terminal screen.
    """

    # Clear command as function of OS
    command = "cls" if platform.system().lower()=="windows" else "clear"

    # Action
    return subprocess.call(command) == 0

In windows the command is cls, in unix-like systems the command is clear.
platform.system() returns the platform name. Ex. 'Darwin' for macOS.
subprocess.call() performs a system call. Ex. subprocess.call(['ls','-l'])

Answer 9

An easier way to clear a screen while in python is to use Ctrl + L though it works for the shell as well as other programs.

Answer 10

If you are using linux terminal to access python, then cntrl+l is the best solution to clear screen

Answer 11

Command+K works fine in OSX to clear screen.

Shift+Command+K to clear only the scrollback buffer.

Answer 12

import curses
stdscr = curses.initscr()
stdscr.clear()

Answer 13

Subprocess allows you to call "cls" for Shell.

import subprocess
cls = subprocess.call('cls',shell=True)

That's as simple as I can make it. Hope it works for you!

Answer 14

1. you can Use Window Or Linux Os

   import os
   os.system('cls')
   os.system('clear')
   

2. you can use subprocess module

   import subprocess as sp
   x=sp.call('cls',shell=True)
   

Answer 15

os.system('cls') works fine when I open them. It opens in cmd style.

Answer 16

I am using a class that just uses one of the above methods behind the scenes... I noticed it works on Windows and Linux... I like using it though because it's easier to type clear() instead of system('clear') or os.system('clear')

pip3 install clear-screen

from clear_screen import clear

and then when you want to clear the shell:

clear()