CUP — Cursor Position

Sequence	CSI <row> ; <col> H (or f)
Bytes	0x1B 0x5B <row> 0x3B <col> 0x48
Category	CSI
Mnemonic	CUP
Otty support	✓ Implemented

Description

Moves the cursor to the given absolute position. Row and column are 1-indexed — CSI 1 ; 1 H is the top-left cell.

Defaults: omitted parameters are treated as 1. So CSI H moves to home (1, 1).

If a scrolling region is active (DECSTBM), positions are bounded inside that region when DECOM (origin mode) is set; otherwise they're absolute to the viewport.

Aliases

• CSI <r>;<c> H — canonical
• CSI <r>;<c> f — HVP (Horizontal and Vertical Position). Identical behaviour in modern terminals.

Example

# Move to row 5, column 10
printf '\e[5;10H'

# Move to home (top-left)
printf '\e[H'

# Repaint a status bar at the bottom of a 24-row screen
printf '\e[24;1H[ ready ]'

Related

• CSI <n> A/B/C/D — relative cursor movement (CUU/CUD/CUF/CUB)
• CSI <n> G — Cursor Horizontal Absolute (column only)
• CSI <n> d — Vertical Position Absolute (row only)
• ESC 7 / ESC 8 — save / restore cursor (full state, not just position)

Notes

• Out-of-range positions clamp to the viewport edge.
• The cursor reports its position via CSI 6 n (DSR) → CSI <row>;<col> R.