Editing End-of-Transmission character (section)

{{Short description|Transmission control character}}
{{Refimprove|date=August 2008}}

In [[telecommunications]], an '''End-of-Transmission character''' ('''EOT''') is a [[transmission (telecommunications)|transmission]] [[control character]]. Its intended use is to indicate the conclusion of a transmission that may have included one or more texts and any associated [[message]] headings.<ref name=1037c1996>{{cite web |url=http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-014/_2015.htm |title=end-of-transmission character (EOT) |work=[[Federal Standard 1037C]] |year=1996 |access-date=2009-03-15 |archive-date=2020-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123192539/https://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-014/_2015.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

An EOT is often used to initiate other functions, such as releasing circuits, disconnecting terminals, or placing receive terminals in a [[standby (electricity)|standby]] condition.<ref name=1037c1996/> Its most common use today is to cause a Unix [[computer terminal|terminal]] driver to signal [[end of file]] and thus exit programs that are awaiting input.

In [[ASCII]] and [[Unicode]], the character is encoded at {{unichar|0004|END OF TRANSMISSION}}. It can be referred to as {{keypress|Ctrl|D}}, {{mono|^D}} in [[caret notation]]. Unicode provides the character {{unichar|2404|SYMBOL FOR END OF TRANSMISSION|html=}} for when EOT needs to be displayed graphically.<ref>{{cite web| title = Control Pictures| url = https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2400.pdf| access-date = 2013-04-06| archive-date = 2019-01-18| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190118072841/http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2400.pdf| url-status = live}}</ref> In addition, {{unichar|2301|ELECTRIC ARROW}} can also be used as a graphic representation of EOT; it is defined in Unicode as "symbol for End of Transmission".<ref>{{cite web
| title = Miscellaneous Technical
| url = https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2300.pdf
| access-date = 2013-04-07
| archive-date = 2019-12-30
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191230040331/http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2300.pdf
| url-status = live
}}</ref>