How can I clear the terminal screen in Go?
Don't use command execution for this. It's overkill, and not guaranteed to work, and it's not secure.
I created a small cross-platform package. So it works on Windows, Linux, OS X, etc.
Install it like this:
go get github.com/inancgumus/screen
Then you can use it like so:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
"github.com/inancgumus/screen"
)
func main() {
// Clears the screen
screen.Clear()
for {
// Moves the cursor to the top left corner of the screen
screen.MoveTopLeft()
fmt.Println(time.Now())
time.Sleep(time.Second)
}
}
Note: Running a command to clear the screen is not a secure way. Check the other answers here as well.
You have to define a clear method for every different OS, like this. When the user's os is unsupported it panics
package main
import (
"fmt"
"os"
"os/exec"
"runtime"
"time"
)
var clear map[string]func() //create a map for storing clear funcs
func init() {
clear = make(map[string]func()) //Initialize it
clear["linux"] = func() {
cmd := exec.Command("clear") //Linux example, its tested
cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
cmd.Run()
}
clear["windows"] = func() {
cmd := exec.Command("cmd", "/c", "cls") //Windows example, its tested
cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
cmd.Run()
}
}
func CallClear() {
value, ok := clear[runtime.GOOS] //runtime.GOOS -> linux, windows, darwin etc.
if ok { //if we defined a clear func for that platform:
value() //we execute it
} else { //unsupported platform
panic("Your platform is unsupported! I can't clear terminal screen :(")
}
}
func main() {
fmt.Println("I will clean the screen in 2 seconds!")
time.Sleep(2 * time.Second)
CallClear()
fmt.Println("I'm alone...")
}
(the command execution is from @merosss' answer)
Use goterm
package main
import (
tm "github.com/buger/goterm"
"time"
)
func main() {
tm.Clear() // Clear current screen
for {
// By moving cursor to top-left position we ensure that console output
// will be overwritten each time, instead of adding new.
tm.MoveCursor(1, 1)
tm.Println("Current Time:", time.Now().Format(time.RFC1123))
tm.Flush() // Call it every time at the end of rendering
time.Sleep(time.Second)
}
}
You could do it with ANSI escape codes:
fmt.Print("\033[H\033[2J")
But you should know that there is no bulletproof cross-platform solution for such task. You should check platform (Windows / UNIX) and use cls
/ clear
or escape codes.