| From: Giles Orr via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | I'd like to be able to get the current x,y (or row, column) position | of the cursor in a terminal. This is for a Bash or ZSH prompt, and my | intention is to calculate how far across the terminal we've printed | and then decide if we should wrap the prompt from one to two lines. | | There's a terminal escape sequence to do this: | | echo -e '\033[6n' TL;DR: I suspect you need a ? after the ESC [. Among other things, there is probably clashes of levels of abstraction here. This is querying your terminal / terminal emulator. Every one is free to support different encodings. ANSI 3.67 (from my faulty memory) is the relevant of standard, I would think (it cost money so I never got a copy). It looks as if ECMA-48 is similar and available: <http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-48,%202nd%20Edition,%20August%201979.pdf> ESC [ is a 7-bit sequence that stands for the eight-bit code CSI (Control Sequence Introducer). That's why you see that a lot. There is a grammar to these commands A characters is eight bits (or actually, 7 bits). The "column" of a character is the most significant hex digit (if 7 bits, the column is only 3 bits). The row is the least significant hex digit. control sequence: CSI parameters intermediates function # a parameter is typically empty or a sequence of digits parameter: | parameter digit # list separated by ; parameters: parameter | parameters ; parameter intermediate: character from column 2 intermediates: | intermediates intermediate function: character from column 4, 5, 6, or 7, excluding 7/15 If the CSI is followed by ?, I think that is some extension that isn't part of the standard. (Anything from column 3 that isn't a digit, :, or : is an extension). What you want ought use CPR (CURSOR POSITION REPORT). This seems to be row 2 column 5 in table 2. I think that that means (char) (2 + 5*16) which is R What you have is function n (column 6 row 15) which should be DAQ (Define Area Qualification). With the parameter 6, it means "fill with ZEROs". Just what this function does is pretty unclear to me. SO: maybe you are using an xterm control sequence. <https://xfree86.org/4.7.0/ctlseqs.html> CSI ? Ps n, where P is 6, means Report Cursor Position (CPR). Note the ? (which you didn't have). This is a DEC extension. I hope the standard form would work. Without the ?, it looks like a Set Scrolling Region (a DEC thing). I have to stop here due to a higher priority interrupt.