OSC 16 Tektronix Background Color
Set and query the color of the background of xterm's Tektronix 4014 window.
OSC 16 ; Pt ST
OSC 16 ; Pt ST sets the color of the background of xterm’s Tektronix 4014 window, and OSC 16 ; ? ST asks what it is. OSC 116 puts it back as it started. It is one of xterm’s dynamic colors, and works as OSC 10 explains: Pt is any color X11 can parse, and a further ; in the same sequence moves on to color 17.
The Tektronix colors belong to xterm’s second window, which emulates a Tektronix 4014 graphics terminal and is opened from a menu or with CSI ? 38 h. They can be set and asked for whether or not that window is showing.
A default xterm starts it as the text background (charproc.c), so in the terminal the cases run in, set up as a default xterm, it is reported as rgb:ffff/ffff/ffff.
libghostty-vt has no such color, and ignores OSC 16 and OSC 116, so the cases that ask are known differences.
Support
| Terminal | Version | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| VT220 | manual, 2nd ed., 1984 | No | OSC is not among the controls it recognizes (§4.2) |
| VT510 | manual, 1st ed., 1993 | No | ignores an OSC string (chapter 4) |
| xterm | patch 412, xterm-411a | Yes | |
| libghostty-vt | 0f171f6 | No | ignored |
| Konsole | 26.11.70, a24c3d71 | No | not in its source |
| kitty | 0.49.1, run in a VM | No | fails the case that shows it working |
| foot | 1.28.0, run in a VM | No | fails the case that shows it working |
| pyte | 0.8.2, run as a library | No | fails the case that shows it working |
| xterm.js headless | 6.0.0, run as a library | No | fails the case that shows it working |
| alacritty_terminal | 0.26.0, run as a library | No | fails the case that shows it working |
| ConEmu | build 230724, its documentation | No | not in its ANSI escape codes |
| rxvt-unicode | 9.31, run in a VM | No | fails the case that shows it working |
| VTE | 0.84.1, run as a library | No | fails the case that shows it working |
Validation
OSC16-1: Ask for it
\e]16;?\a
|____|
reply \e]16;rgb:ffff/ffff/ffff\a
OSC16-2: Change it
\e]16;#0080ff\a
\e]16;?\a
|____|
reply \e]16;rgb:0000/8080/ffff\a