how to clear terminal in vs code

To clear the terminal in Visual Studio Code (VS Code), you have several options:

• Use the built-in "Terminal: Clear" command:
  1. Open the Command Palette with Ctrl + Shift + P.
  2. Type "Terminal: Clear" and select it to clear the active terminal.
  3. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to this command by going to File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts, searching for workbench.action.terminal.clear, and setting a preferred shortcut like Ctrl + L or Ctrl + Alt + L

• Keyboard shortcuts:
  • By default, Ctrl + L scrolls to the bottom but does not clear the scrollback buffer in some VS Code versions.
  • You may need to manually bind Ctrl + K or another shortcut to the clear terminal command as described above

• Clear command inside the terminal:
  • Typing clear (on Linux/macOS) or cls (on Windows) and pressing Enter will clear the visible terminal content but may not clear the scrollback buffer

• Using the terminal menu:
  • Click the three-dot menu icon in the terminal panel and select "Clear Terminal" to clear the terminal output

• Kill and reopen the terminal:
  • If clearing does not fully reset the terminal (some output may reappear), you can kill the terminal instance by clicking the trash can icon next to the terminal tab or selecting "Kill Terminal" from the terminal menu, then open a new terminal instance. This fully resets the terminal session

In summary, the most straightforward way is to use the "Terminal: Clear" command from the Command Palette or assign a convenient keyboard shortcut to it for quick clearing of the terminal in VS Code

. If you want a full reset, killing the terminal and reopening it is the surest method