Terminal Escape Token Visible Literalizer

Description

Literalize ASCII controls in terminal text to visible backslash-x hexadecimal spellings, preserving printable Unicode; output is diagnostic text, not a terminal sanitizer for other protocols.

Terminal escape sequences can encode cursor commands, text styles and other controls inside ordinary text. SGR changes selected graphic attributes; CSI and OSC tokens have different framing. These tools operate on explicit strings and records, with a deliberately limited parser or style model rather than an emulated screen.^[1]

Literalize ASCII controls in terminal text to visible backslash-x hexadecimal spellings, preserving printable Unicode; output is diagnostic text, not a terminal sanitizer for other protocols.

When to use this tool

Use this tool to literalize ASCII controls in terminal text to visible backslash-x hexadecimal spellings, preserving printable Unicode; output is diagnostic text, not a terminal sanitizer for other protocols.

How to use the tool and how it works

Enter text using the field definitions below.
Run the operation. Correct input errors before interpreting an output.
Read result.visible. Use the ordering, boundary rules and absence conditions described below.

Replace each C0 or DEL code unit with visible backslash-x hexadecimal text while leaving all other characters unchanged.^[2]

Input field	Meaning and units	Accepted input
text	Source text or visible text, including actual escape characters where the operation inspects them.	Text, at most 8,192 UTF-16 code units; the operation’s grammar also applies.

Output field	Interpretation
result	Object containing the named fields below.
result.visible	Text with C0 and DEL represented as visible backslash-x hex escapes.

json

{
  "input": {
    "text": "a\u001b[31m"
  },
  "output": {
    "result": {
      "visible": "a\\x1b[31m"
    }
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

This is a literalizer for those code units, not a complete Unicode display or terminal sanitizer.
Source spans use zero-based UTF-16 offsets with exclusive ends; byte totals, where returned, use UTF-8. Escape tokens are represented as JSON escapes in the example and are not executed by this description.
Every declared top-level input field is required and unexpected fields are rejected. Ordinary strings are limited to 8,192 UTF-16 code units and lists to 128 entries, with tighter operation-specific bounds where stated. JSON text has bounded nesting and node counts.
Numeric outputs must be finite and no larger in absolute magnitude than the safe-integer limit; operations returning exact large integers use decimal text. Positions are zero-based and spans end exclusively unless the operation explicitly states a different convention.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use token inspection for source offsets and style replay for the supported attributes. A real terminal emulator is needed to determine screen contents, terminal-specific rendering or device behavior.

References

ECMA-48: Control Functions for Coded Character Sets — Ecma International
Tool behavior and example: Terminal Escape Token Visible Literalizer — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Terminal Escape Token Incomplete Tail Finder
Find the first incomplete ESC/CSI/OSC lexical token tail under the documented seven-bit scanner; no terminal emulation or UTF-8 byte-stream decoding.
Terminal CSI Erase Mode Token Parser
Parse complete CSI erase-display/erase-line tokens with modes 0–2 or display-only mode 3; returns lexical evidence without terminal effects.