Terminal manipulation in Python

A seemingly oft-asked question is how to clear the console/terminal/screen in Python. This is really a subset of a larger question: how does one control and query the terminal from Python?

The basic steps are:

  1. Initialise curses 
import curses
curses.setupterm()
  1. Query a capability 
# Escape sequence used to clear the terminal
clear = curses.tigetstr('clear')
# Number of colours terminal supports
colours = curses.tigetnum('colors')
# Number of columns
columns = curses.tigetnum('cols')
# Number of lines
lines = curses.tigetnum('lines')
  1. Use a capability 
# Clear the screen
import sys
sys.stdout.write(clear)

PS. Ideally, you'd check to see if the capability queries return None.