control character
nounEtymology From control + character.
1
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A character which does not have a direct visual appearance as a glyph, but rather causes some other action to occur, such as a transition to a new line.
- The tab, carriage return, and line feed are all control characters.
- To display raw control characters in text, but try to keep the screen appearance, use less with the -R option. This displays raw control characters, but any disparities that may be caused by the control characters on the screen are controlled, whenever possible.2004, Michael Stutz, The Linux Cookbook: Tips and Techniques for Everyday Use, 2nd edition, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 215:
- Hyponyms
- bell character, carriage return, delete character, line feed, null character, tab