Clearing the Terminal Screen with `wipeclean` (with examples)

The wipeclean command is a useful tool for clearing the terminal screen using an animated wiper. It provides a visually appealing way to clean up the cluttered terminal and start with a fresh, empty screen. In this article, we will explore different use cases of the wipeclean command and provide code examples to illustrate each use case.

Clear the Terminal Screen

The most basic use case of the wipeclean command is to clear the terminal screen. This can be achieved by simply executing the command wipeclean in the terminal.

wipeclean

Motivation: Clearing the terminal screen can be useful in various scenarios, such as after running a lengthy command or when the terminal output becomes cluttered with unnecessary information. It provides a clean slate to start working on the next task.

Example Output: After executing the wipeclean command, the terminal screen is cleared, and an animated wiper sweeps across the screen, leaving behind an empty and refreshed terminal.

Set the Animation Speed

The wipeclean command allows you to customize the speed of the animated wiper. By default, it runs at a speed of 150 frames per second. However, you can adjust this speed according to your preference using the --speed argument.

wipeclean --speed 200

Motivation: Sometimes, the default animation speed might be too slow or too fast for your liking. In such cases, being able to control the speed of the animated wiper can enhance your overall terminal experience and make it more enjoyable.

Explanation: The --speed argument is used to specify the desired animation speed in frames per second. In the example above, we set the speed to 200 frames per second.

Example Output: After executing the wipeclean --speed 200 command, the terminal screen is cleared, and the animated wiper now sweeps across the screen at a faster speed compared to the default speed.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored different use cases of the wipeclean command and provided code examples to illustrate each use case. We learned how to clear the terminal screen using wipeclean and how to adjust the animation speed using the --speed argument. By utilizing these features, you can effectively manage and maintain a clean and organized terminal environment.