Why bother with a clear Linux terminal? After a couple of failed test runs and a long scrolling log tail, it’s hard to see what actually changed between commands.
A quick, clear-screen moment in Linux gives you instant contrast — one glance, and you know what came from the last run.
This is just as handy in your local console as it is in the terminal inside your is*hosting account.
Below are four practical methods to clear a Linux terminal (including the Linux clear and reset commands) and the situations where each one is the best fit.
Method 1: The clear Command
The most obvious way to get a clear Linux terminal is the clear command. It comes with all common shells (Bash, Zsh, Fish) on almost every distribution.
Type:
clear
And press Enter.
The screen looks fresh, but the terminal hasn’t forgotten anything. The Linux clear command just moves the current contents up by one full screen.
In most terminal emulators, you can still scroll up and read the entire previous output. Some modern terminals let you configure clear to wipe the scrollback area as well, but that’s not the default.
Method 2: The Keyboard Shortcut (Ctrl+L)
The Ctrl+L shortcut does the same thing as clear.
It moves the current output above the visible area, giving you a clear terminal Linux view while keeping the scrollback intact. You can still scroll up and read everything that came before.
Many developers automatically press Ctrl+L between test runs or log viewing to visually separate output blocks. It’s fast, doesn’t start a new process, and works in almost any terminal.
Method 3: The reset Command
The reset command completely reinitializes the terminal. It clears the screen, restores modes, and redraws the interface. Reach for it when you see weird characters, broken text formatting, or a program leaves your prompt in an unreadable state.
Type:
reset
Unlike clear or Ctrl+L (which only affects what’s visible), the Linux reset command asks the emulator to re-create its rendering context. That’s why it may take a second or two.
If that feels slow, use the terminfo-backed variant:
tput reset
After the reset finishes, the terminal looks like a fresh window, but your shell session and environment variables remain intact. This is the right fix when a simple Linux clear command doesn’t help, and you need to reset the display without killing your session.
Heads-up: The Linux reset command can interrupt a program currently running in the terminal. Don’t run it in the middle of long-running tasks such as compilation or backups.
Method 4. Clearing the Scroll Buffer
The previous methods remove old output from the visible area, but don’t always destroy it. What if you need to clear everything, including the scroll history, without doing a full reset?
Clearing the scrollback buffer is useful when:
- You don’t want anyone to scroll up and see old commands or output.
- You’re running benchmarks and want to be sure you’re only looking at fresh data.
- You’re going to capture logs and want to start with a completely empty window.
Clearing the scrollback buffer usually requires a separate command or key combination.
GUI Terminal Shortcuts
Many graphical terminal emulators have a hotkey or menu item to clear the Linux terminal completely.
KDE Konsole uses Ctrl+Shift+K by default, which clears the scrollback buffer.
GNOME Terminal has a “Reset and Clear” menu action that does the same. You can also assign a hotkey to it.
reset && clear
You can combine several commands to clear both the terminal and the screen. For example:
reset && clear
In many cases, a single reset is enough to clear both the screen and the scrollback buffer.
ANSI Escape Sequence
A more surgical way to clear the scrollback is to use an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) escape sequence:
printf ‘\033c’
This sends a Reset to Initial State (RIS) sequence to the terminal, which is equivalent to the reset command.
Using printf (or echo -e “\033c”) allows you to reset and clear the terminal in Linux from scripts or aliases. For example, you could add this to your profile:
alias cls=‘printf “\033c”’
Then the cls command will clear the terminal, including the scrollback.
If you do this inside a screen or terminal multiplexer (tmux) session, the external terminal emulator may ignore the sequence. In this case, printf ‘\033c’ will still clear the visible area and correct the formatting inside the pane, but the multiplexer’s own history buffer will remain unchanged.
When clear Doesn’t Work
Sometimes you run the clear command (or hit Ctrl+L), and nothing happens, or the screen clears in a weird way. Common reasons include:
Overridden Alias or Function
On some systems or in user configs, clear may be aliased or replaced by a function. For example:
alias clear='cls'
If cls isn’t defined, clear breaks.
Check what clear really is:
alias clear
type clear
If it’s overridden, bypass the alias with a leading backslash:
\clear
That should clear the terminal normally.
Terminal Multiplexers (tmux and GNU Screen)
Multiplexers like tmux and GNU Screen handle clearing differently.
Inside tmux, previous output often remains above because tmux keeps its own scrollback buffer, and its default $TERM can prevent clear from touching that history.
In tmux, explicitly drop pane history. With the default prefix, press Ctrl+B, then type :clear-history and press Enter.
You can speed this up by binding a key in ~/.tmux.conf:
bind C-k clear-history
GNU Screen behaves similarly, with its own history buffer.
Non-Standard $TERM Terminal Type
The terminal relies on the $TERM environment variable to know how to clear the screen. If $TERM is set incorrectly, cle may not work as expected.
If you’re in tmux or GNU Screen and the terminal is misconfigured, clear may behave strangely. A quick way to check is to set a safe value and try again:
export TERM=xterm-256color
clear
If everything works after that, add the correct export TERM=... line to your login scripts.
In more complex cases, try:
tput reset
This command uses terminfo directly to reset the screen. After tput reset, the terminal usually returns to normal, and clear works as expected again.
Practice: is*hosting Terminal
Let’s see a real-life example. Suppose you’re managing a VPS via is*hosting and have opened the built-in terminal. When is it most reasonable to clear the Linux terminal?
After Quick System Checks
You run a series of short status commands (disk, memory, processes). After a couple of checks, the screen fills up.
Hit Ctrl+L to clear the terminal in Linux instantly without losing scrollback, then run the next set of commands. This rhythm keeps outputs separated and easy to compare.
For example, view the memory through:
free -h
Then clear the terminal and check the disks:
df -h
Each result appears on a clean screen, making it much easier to read.
Between Update and Upgrade
When installing software via the web terminal, run sudo apt-get update (a lot of output) and then sudo apt-get upgrade (even more output).
Clear the terminal between these commands, so the output of each command starts at the top of the screen. This keeps the results separate and easier to scroll through.
After a big installation, do a deeper refresh:
reset && clear
If you want to minimize on-screen leftovers (for example, after typing something sensitive), send the RIS escape sequence: printf '\033c'. In many graphical user interface (GUI) or web terminals, there’s also a Clear Scrollback action in the menu that does the same thing.
Isolating Metrics and Logs
When monitoring server metrics or reviewing logs, it helps to clear the scrollback first. This way, the output you see is only what matters now, without leftovers from earlier commands.
For example, before running top or htop in a web terminal, you can execute:
printf '\033c'
This resets the terminal. Then run top to ensure that only current data is displayed on the screen.
Conclusion
Working with a clear terminal in Linux pays off quickly if you use it all day.
In most cases, a quick clear or a tap on Ctrl+L is all you need. Reach for deeper cleanup, like a full scrollback wipe, only when the terminal gets weird or when you need a truly fresh console.
Next time your screen is full of output, try one of these methods — or try them now on a Linux VPS in the built-in terminal of your is*hosting account.
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