Clearing the Screen (Perl Cookbook, 2nd Edition)

15.3. Clearing the Screen

15.3.1. Problem

15.3.2. Solution

Use the Term::Cap module to send the appropriate character sequence. Use POSIX:: Termios to get the output speed of the terminal (or guess 9600 bps). Use eval to trap any exceptions that arise using POSIX::Termios.

use Term::Cap;

$OSPEED = 9600;
eval {
    require POSIX;
    my $termios = POSIX::Termios->new( );
    $termios->getattr;
    $OSPEED = $termios->getospeed;
};

$terminal = Term::Cap->Tgetent({OSPEED=>$OSPEED});
$terminal->Tputs('cl', 1, STDOUT);

Or, just run the clear command:

system("clear");

15.3.3. Discussion

If you clear the screen a lot, cache the return value from the termcap or clear command:

$clear = $terminal->Tputs('cl');
$clear = `clear`;

Then you can clear the screen a hundred times without running clear a hundred times:

print $clear;

15.3.4. See Also

Your system's clear(1) and termcap(5) manpages (if you have them); the documentation for the standard module Term::Cap module, also in Chapter 32 of Programming Perl; the documentation for the Term::Lib module from CPAN