oven-sh/bun

Make console.clear output a control sequence that clears the terminal

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#8,036 opened on Jan 7, 2024

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 (3 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (90,348 stars) (4,486 forks)batch import
enhancementgood first issueweb-api

Description

What is the problem this feature would solve?

Hi, I am using bun --hot . and it clears the console just fine when used like this, but in my case I am doing nohup bun --hot . & tail -f nohup.out so that I can still listen to the Bun output but have the process keep on running when I close my terminal. This workflow is for a personal project where I am both the developer and the sole user of the web app and this is how I ensure I don't take the app down when I close my editor. By default it always runs and when I happen to be working on it, I get to see the output for troubleshooting. The problem is the default console clearing logic stops working when I do this and even explicitly calling console.clear() doesn't work.

What is the feature you are proposing to solve the problem?

console.log('\x1B[2J\x1B[H');

This clears the whole screen and homes the cursor. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#CSI_(Control_Sequence_Introducer)_sequences.

What alternatives have you considered?

This is super low priority so the alternative is to not bother doing this. I do not see a downside to this though. Maybe it is not a good idea to print control sequences to file and I just don't know? In any case, I would like to see this done if it is easy and there is no downside and I'll be equally happy to see it rejected if there is a reason it doesn't make sense.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascriptrustshell
Domain
clideveloper experience
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
under 1 hour
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Rust programmingANSI escape codesBun's source code structure
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75
Research direction
The fix involves modifying the console.clear implementation in Bun's source code to output the ANSI escape sequence '\x1B[2J\x1B[H' instead of using platform specific clearing logic. Look for the console implementation in the src/ directory, likely in js/ or built in modules. Ensure that when stdout is not a terminal (e.g., redirected to a file), the sequence is still output as it is harmless. Consider writing tests to verify the output.