An escape sequence produces an EBCDIC version of the ASCII control sequence. (For example, the z/OS UNIX <EscChar-D> corresponds to the ASCII <Ctrl-D>.) You can use escape sequences to type:

• Portable characters not included on your keyboard; see Escape sequences for a 3270 keyboard for these sequences.
• Control characters that are normally available on ASCII workstations, but not EBCDIC ones; see Escape sequences for a 3270 keyboard for these sequences.

In this topic, the notation EscChar coupled with another letter (for example, <EscChar-D>) indicates an escape sequence, corresponding to an ASCII control sequence. You can type an escape sequence in either of these ways:

• Type a letter on the command line and press the Control function key if you have one defined. The Control function key treats the character on the command line as if it were preceded by an escape character, and it does not append a <newline> character.

  For example, to exit the shell, you type d on the command line and press the Control function key.

  To use a Control function key, you must customize the OMVS command with a key setting for that function.

• Type an escape character sequence, beginning with one of the escape characters. After you type the two characters in sequence and press <Enter>, the system translates the two characters into a third character. For information on how to customize your keyboard for typing an escape sequence, see Keyboard remapping.