How to completely erase the console output in windows? - node.js

Question

I'm trying to erase the windows console programmatically from a NodeJS script. Not just slide the console output out of view...I want to actually clear it.
I'm writing a tool similar to TypeScript's tsc command, where it will watch a folder and incrementally compile the project. As such, on every file change, I rerun the compiler, and output any errors that are found (one line each). I would like to totally erase the console output so that users are not confused by old error messages as they scroll up the console.
When you run tsc --watch in a directory, TypeScript does exactly what I want. tsc actually erases the entire console output.
I've tried all of the following things:
process.stdout.write("\x1Bc");
process.stdout.write('\033c')
var clear = require('cli-clear'); clear();
I tried all of the escape codes from this post.
process.stdout.write("\u001b[2J\u001b[0;0H");
All of these either:
Printed an unknown char to the console
Slid the console down, equivalent to cls, which is NOT what I want.
How do I actually clear the screen and remove ALL of the output? I'm open to using a node module, piping outupt, spawning new cmds, hacks, etc, as long as it gets the job done.
Here's a sample node.js script to test out the issue.
for (var i = 0; i < 15; i++) {
console.log(i + ' --- ' + i);
}
//clear the console output here somehow

Answer 1

Adapted from a previous answer. You will need a C compiler (tested with mingw/gcc)
#include <windows.h>
int main(void){
HANDLE hStdout;
CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbiInfo;
COORD destinationPoint;
SMALL_RECT sourceArea;
CHAR_INFO Fill;
// Get console handle
hStdout = CreateFile( "CONOUT$", GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, FILE_SHARE_WRITE, 0, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, 0 );
// Retrieve console information
if (GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hStdout, &csbiInfo)) {
// Select all the console buffer as source
sourceArea.Top = 0;
sourceArea.Left = 0;
sourceArea.Bottom = csbiInfo.dwSize.Y - 1;
sourceArea.Right = csbiInfo.dwSize.X - 1;
// Select a place out of the console to move the buffer
destinationPoint.X = 0;
destinationPoint.Y = 0 - csbiInfo.dwSize.Y;
// Configure fill character and attributes
Fill.Char.AsciiChar = ' ';
Fill.Attributes = csbiInfo.wAttributes;
// Move all the information out of the console buffer and init the buffer
ScrollConsoleScreenBuffer( hStdout, &sourceArea, NULL, destinationPoint, &Fill);
// Position the cursor
destinationPoint.X = 0;
destinationPoint.Y = 0;
SetConsoleCursorPosition( hStdout, destinationPoint );
}
return 0;
}
Compiled as clearConsole.exe (or whatever you want), it can be used from node as
const { spawn } = require('child_process');
spawn('clearConsole.exe');