MS DOS Command: ANSI.SYS

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys. The ANSI.SYS device driver supports ANSI terminal emulation of escape sequences to control your system's screen and keyboard. An ANSI escape sequence is a sequence of ASCII characters, the first two of which are the escape character (1Bh) and the left-bracket character (5Bh). The character or characters following the escape and left-bracket characters specify an alphanumeric code that controls a keyboard or display function. ANSI escape sequences distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters; for example,"A" and "a" have completely different meanings.

This device driver must be loaded by a DEVICE or DEVICEHIGH command in your CONFIG.SYS file.

Note:   In this topic letters in syntax and ANSI escape sequences indicate text must be typed exactly as it appears.

Syntax

DEVICE=[drive:][path]ANSI.SYS [/X] [/K] [/R]

Parameters

[drive:][path]

Specifies the location of the ANSI.SYS file.

Switches

/X	Remaps extended keys independently on 101-key keyboards.
/K	Causes ANSI.SYS to treat a 101-key keyboard like an 84-key keyboard. This is equivalent to the command SWITCHES=/K. If you usually use the SWITCHES=/K command, you will need to use the /K switch with ANSI.SYS.
/R	Adjusts line scrolling to improve readability when ANSI.SYS is used with screen-reading programs (which make computers more accessible to people with disabilities).

Parameters used in ANSI escape sequences

Pn	Numeric parameter. Specifies a decimal number.
Ps	Selective parameter. Specifies a decimal number that you use to select a function. You can specify more than one function by separating the parameters with semicolons.
PL	Line parameter. Specifies a decimal number that represents one of the lines on your display or on another device.
Pc	Column parameter. Specifies a decimal number that represents one of the olumns on your screen or on another device.

ANSI escape sequences for cursor movement, graphics, and keyboard settings

In the following list of ANSI escape sequences, the abbreviation ESC represents the ASCII escape character 27 (1Bh), which appears at the beginning of each escape sequence.

ESC[PL;PcH	Cursor Position: Moves the cursor to the specified position (coordinates). If you do not specify a position, the cursor moves to the home position--the upper-left corner of the screen (line 0, column 0). This escape sequence works the same way as the following Cursor Position escape sequence.
ESC[PL;Pcf	Cursor Position: Works the same way as the preceding Cursor Position escape sequence.
ESC[PnA	Cursor Up: Moves the cursor up by the specified number of lines without changing columns. If the cursor is already on the top line, ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[PnB	Cursor Down: Moves the cursor down by the specified number of lines without changing columns. If the cursor is already on the bottom line, ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[PnC	Cursor Forward: Moves the cursor forward by the specified number of columns without changing lines. If the cursor is already in the rightmost column, ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[PnD	Cursor Backward: Moves the cursor back by the specified number of columns without changing lines. If the cursor is already in the leftmost column, ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[s	Save Cursor Position: Saves the current cursor position. You can move the cursor to the saved cursor position by using the Restore Cursor Position sequence.
ESC[u	Restore Cursor Position: Returns the cursor to the position stored by the Save Cursor Position sequence.
ESC[2J	Erase Display: Clears the screen and moves the cursor to the home position (line 0, column 0).
ESC[K	Erase Line: Clears all characters from the cursor position to the end of the line (including the character at the cursor position).
ESC[Ps;...;Psm	Set Graphics Mode: Calls the graphics functions specified by the following values. These specified functions remain active until the next occurrence of this escape sequence. Graphics mode changes the colors and attributes of text (such as bold and underline) displayed on the screen. Text attributes 0 All attributes off 1 Bold on 4 Underscore (on monochrome display adapter only) 5 Blink on 7 Reverse video on 8 Concealed on Foreground colors 30 Black 31 Red 32 Green 33 Yellow 34 Blue 35 Magenta 36 Cyan 37 White Background colors 40 Black 42 Green 43 Yellow 44 Blue 45 Magenta 46 Cyan 47 White Parameters 30 through 47 meet the ISO 6429 standard.
ESC[=psh	Set Mode: Changes the screen width or type to the mode specified by one of the following values: 0 40 x 148 x 25 monochrome (text) 1 40 x 148 x 25 color (text) 2 80 x 148 x 25 monochrome (text) 3 80 x 148 x 25 color (text) 4 320 x 148 x 200 4-color (graphics) 5 320 x 148 x 200 monochrome (graphics) 6 640 x 148 x 200 monochrome (graphics) 7 Enables line wrapping 13 320 x 148 x 200 color (graphics) 14 640 x 148 x 200 color (16-color graphics) 15 640 x 148 x 350 monochrome (2-color graphics) 16 640 x 148 x 350 color (16-color graphics) 17 640 x 148 x 480 monochrome (2-color graphics) 18 640 x 148 x 480 color (16-color graphics) 19 320 x 148 x 200 color (256-color graphics)
ESC[=Psl	Reset Mode: Resets the mode by using the same values that Set Modeuses, except for 7, which disables line wrapping. The last character in this escape sequence is a lowercase L.
ESC[code;string;...p	Set Keyboard Strings: Redefines a keyboard key to a specified string. The parameters for this escape sequence are defined as follows: *** Code is one or more of the values listed in the following table. These values represent keyboard keys and key combinations. When using these values in a command, you must type the semicolons shown in this table in addition to the semicolons required by the escape sequence. The codes in parentheses are not available on some keyboards. ANSI.SYS will not interpret the codes in parentheses for those keyboards unless you specify the /X switch in the DEVICE command for ANSI.SYS. *** String is either the ASCII code for a single character or a string contained in quotation marks. For example, both 65 and "A" can be used to represent an uppercase A. IMPORTANT: Some of the values in the following table are not valid for all computers. Check your computer's documentation for values that are different. Key Code SHIFT +code CTRL +code ALT +code F1 0;59 0;84 0;94 0;104 F2 0;60 0;85 0;95 0;105 F3 0;61 0;86 0;96 0;106 F4 0;62 0;87 0;97 0;107 F5 0;63 0;88 0;98 0;108 F6 0;64 0;89 0;99 0;109 F7 0;65 0;90 0;100 0;110 F8 0;66 0;91 0;101 0;111 F9 0;67 0;92 0;102 0;112 F10 0;68 0;93 0;103 0;113 F11 0;133 0;135 0;137 0;139 F12 0;134 0;136 0;138 0;140 HOME (num keypad) 0;71 55 0;119 -- UP ARROW (num keypad) 0;72 56 (0;141) -- PAGE UP (num keypad) 0;73 57 0;132 -- LEFT ARROW (num keypad) 0;75 52 0;115 -- RIGHT ARROW (num keypad) 0;77 54 0;116 -- END (num keypad) 0;79 49 0;117 -- DOWN ARROW (num keypad) 0;80 50 (0;145) -- PAGE DOWN (num keypad) 0;81 51 0;118 -- INSERT (num keypad) 0;82 48 (0;146) -- DELETE (num keypad) 0;83 46 (0;147) -- HOME (224;71) (224;71) (224;119) (224;151) UP ARROW (224;72) (224;72) (224;141) (224;152) PAGE UP (224;73) (224;73) (224;132) (224;153) LEFT ARROW (224;75) (224;75) (224;115) (224;155) RIGHT ARROW (224;77) (224;77) (224;116) (224;157) END (224;79) (224;79) (224;117) (224;159) DOWN ARROW (224;80) (224;80) (224;145) (224;154) PAGE DOWN (224;81) (224;81) (224;118) (224;161) INSERT (224;82) (224;82) (224;146) (224;162) DELETE (224;83) (224;83) (224;147) (224;163) PRINT SCREEN -- -- 0;114 - PAUSE/BREAK -- -- 0;0 -- BACKSPACE 8 8 127 (0) ENTER 13 -- 10 (0 TAB 9 0;15 (0;148) (0;165) NULL 0;3 -- -- -- A 97 65 1 0;30 B 98 66 2 0;48 C 99 66 3 0;46 D 100 68 4 0;32 E 101 69 5 0;18 F 102 70 6 0;33 G 103 71 7 0;34 H 104 72 8 0;35 I 105 73 9 0;23 J 106 74 10 0;36 K 107 75 11 0;37 L 108 76 12 0;38 M 109 77 13 0;50 N 110 78 14 0;49 O 111 79 15 0;24 P 112 80 16 0;25 Q 113 81 17 0;16 R 114 82 18 0;19 S 115 83 19 0;31 T 116 84 20 0;20 U 117 85 21 0;22 V 118 86 22 0;47 W 119 87 23 0;17 X 120 88 24 0;45 Y 121 89 25 0;21 Z 122 90 26 0;44 1 49 33 -- 0;120 2 50 64 0 0;121 3 51 35 -- 0;122 4 52 36 -- 0;123 5 53 37 -- 0;124 6 54 94 30 0;125 7 55 38 -- 0;126 8 56 42 -- 0;126 9 57 40 -- 0;127 0 48 41 -- 0;129 - 45 95 31 0;130 = 61 43 --- 0;131 [ 91 123 27 0;26 ] 93 125 29 0;27 92 124 28 0;43 ; 59 58 -- 0;39 ' 39 34 -- 0;40 , 44 60 -- 0;51 . 46 62 -- 0;52 / 47 63 -- 0;53 ` 96 126 -- (0;41) ENTER (keypad) 13 -- 10 (0;166) / (keypad) 47 47 (0;142) (0;74) * (keypad) 42 (0;144) (0;78) -- - (keypad) 45 45 (0;149) (0;164) + (keypad) 43 43 (0;150) (0;55) 5 (keypad) (0;76) 53 (0;143) --

Remarks

Remapping extended keys

If you have a keyboard with 101 keys, you may want to use the /X switch to remap certain extended keys. For example, there are two HOME keys on keyboards with 101 keys: One on the numeric keypad and the other in the block of cursor-control keys. Unless you specify the /X switch, the two HOME keys are the same to MS-DOS.

Ignoring extended keys

If you have a program that does not correctly interpret input from an enhanced keyboard, use the /K switch with ANSI.SYS. Your enhanced keyboard will then use conventional keyboard functions.

Using both the /X switch and the /K switch

You cannot specify ANSI.SYS with both the /X switch and the /K switch.

Examples

To exchange the backslash and question-mark keys by using literal strings, type the following escape sequence:

ESC["\";"?"pESC["?";"\"p

To exchange the backslash and question-mark keys by using each key's ASCII value, type the following escape sequence:

ESC[92;63pESC[63;92p

To restore the backslash and question-mark keys to their original meanings, type the following escape sequence:

ESC[92;92pESC[63;63p

To specify that MS-DOS display a directory listing when you press the F2 key, type the following at the command prompt:

prompt $e[0;60;"dir";13p

To specify a black screen background color and a high-intensity screen foreground color, type the following at the command prompt:

prompt $e[1;32;40m$p$g