DECRQTSR / DECRSTS — Request / Restore Terminal State Report

Save (CSI Ps$u → DCS reply) and restore (DCS Ps$p…ST) the whole DEC terminal state — the terminal-wide complement to dcs-decrsps' presentation-state-only scope.

Byte forms

Every common string-literal form so you can paste-and-search either direction.

\\x1b[\x1b[Ps$u request \x1bP<Ps>$p<body>\x1b\\ restore

\\033[\033[Ps$u request \033P<Ps>$p<body>\033\\ restore

\\e[\e[Ps$u request \eP<Ps>$p<body>\e\\ restore

ESC [ESC [ <Ps> $ u / ESC P <Ps> $ p <body> ESC \\

hex1b 5b … 24 75 / 1b 50 <Ps> 24 70 <body> 1b 5c

Description

DECRQTSR (*Request Terminal State Report*, \x1b[<Ps>$u) and its inverse DECRSTS (*Restore Terminal State*, \x1bP<Ps>$p<body>\x1b\\) bracket the DEC mechanism for snapshotting an *entire terminal*'s mutable state into an opaque blob and faithfully restoring it later. They are the terminal-wide counterpart to dcs-decrsps / dcs-decrqss, which only carry the *presentation* slice (cursor, SGR, charset, origin, tab stops).

Request — \x1b[<Ps>$u. Ps=1 (the only universally-supported value) selects DEC terminal-state. Some VT-series docs reserve Ps=2 for color-table state, but no shipping emulator implements Ps=2 distinctly from Ps=1 — treat 1 as the only portable selector.

Reply (DECTSR) — \x1bP<Ps>$s<body>\x1b\\. The $s intermediate-final distinguishes the DECTSR reply from the DECRSTS *restore* shape ($p) and from DECRPSS ($r). The <body> is opaque to the host — it's a serialised DEC-private snapshot of: tab stops, character set state (G0/G1/G2/G3 designators + GL/GR + UPSS), all mode states (DECCKM / DECANM / DECCOLM / DECSCLM / DECSCNM / DECOM / DECAWM / DECARM / DECTCEM / DECNRCM / DECSCA / DECNKM / DECSCUSR / DECSDM / DECSLRM), printer state, keyboard-mode state, current SGR pen, cursor position + save stack, and protected-area state. Hosts must not parse the body — semantics are reserved to the originating terminal.

Restore — \x1bP<Ps>$p<body>\x1b\\. Pass the same <body> back verbatim. The terminal validates that <Ps> matches the saved blob's <Ps> (cross-Ps restore is rejected silently with \x1bP0$r\x1b\\ on emulators that reply, or simple no-op otherwise). Cross-terminal restore (saving on xterm, restoring on Konsole) is not portable — the body format is DEC-implementation-defined and each emulator has its own encoding.

Round-trip pattern (TUI takeover + restore): ``` startup: write '\x1b[1$u' # DECRQTSR Ps=1 read DCS until ST # reply '\x1bP1$s<body>\x1b\\' save body exit: write '\x1bP1$p' + body + '\x1b\\' ``` The modern reality: most TUIs use alt-screen (\x1b[?1049h/l) + DECSC/DECRC for cursor/SGR. DECRQTSR/DECRSTS is the terminal-wide option only when alt-screen is unavailable (some BBS / serial-multiplexer paths) or when you need to round-trip modes that DECSTR doesn't touch (NRCS, UPSS, DECSCA).

Edge cases - Reply uses \x1b\\ (ST as ESC + backslash) by default; xterm in 8-bit C1 mode (decscl-compat-level) uses single-byte \x9c — be prepared to terminate on either. - Body bytes can include \x1b followed by anything except \\ (DEC encodes embedded controls via DECDLD-style hex escapes); a naive 'split on ESC' parser will mis-frame — read until ST seen at packet boundary, not first ESC. - Some emulators (Linux console) reply with an empty body — restore is a silent no-op. - DECSTR (soft reset) does not clear an in-flight DECTSR snapshot held by the host, only the live terminal state.

Coverage — xterm = full (reference; body length ~100-200 bytes typical). mlterm = full. WezTerm = partial (replies with a minimal body, restore accepts but only restores SGR + cursor + tabs — the modes DECSTR would reset get re-applied, the rest silently dropped). Konsole + gnome-terminal = partial (reply lacks UPSS / DECSCA fields, restore likewise truncated). Kitty + iTerm2 + Alacritty + Ghostty + Windows Terminal + cmd / ConPTY + macOS Terminal + Linux console = no-op (no reply at all — prefer alt-screen + cursor-save-restore + dcs-decrqss for round-trip on these).

Spec citation: DEC VT510 RM (DECRQTSR / DECTSR / DECRSTS) / xterm-ctlseqs (CSI Ps $ u)

Parameters

Ps = 1	DEC terminal state. The only universally-supported value.
Ps = 2	Reserved (color tables in some specs); no shipping emulator distinguishes from Ps=1.
Reply $s vs Restore $p	DCS intermediate-final `$s` = report (terminal → host); `$p` = restore (host → terminal). Don't swap.
<body>	Opaque DEC-private serialisation. Round-trip verbatim. Format varies per emulator — not cross-terminal portable.

Examples

bash

# Capture full terminal state, then restore on exit (xterm).\nprintf '\\033[1$u'\nIFS= read -rs -d '\\\\' -t 0.2 snapshot </dev/tty 2>/dev/null\n# ... session runs, mutates modes ...\n# Restore: re-emit the body in DECRSTS shape.\nbody=\"${snapshot#*\\\$s}\"\nbody=\"${body%\\\\}\"\nprintf '\\033P1$p%s\\033\\\\' \"$body\"

python

import sys, re\n# Save snapshot, then later push it back.\nsys.stdout.write('\\x1b[1$u'); sys.stdout.flush()\nreply = sys.stdin.buffer.read1(4096)\nm = re.search(rb'\\x1bP1\\$s(.*?)\\x1b\\\\', reply, re.DOTALL)\nbody = m.group(1) if m else b''\n# ... TUI session ...\nsys.stdout.flush()\nsys.stdout.buffer.write(b'\\x1bP1$p' + body + b'\\x1b\\\\')

// Skeleton: probe, read until ST, persist body for the duration of the run.\nfmt.Print(\"\\x1b[1$u\")\nvar buf [4096]byte\nn, _ := os.Stdin.Read(buf[:])\n// Match \\x1bP1$s<body>\\x1b\\\\.\nbody := extractDECTSR(buf[:n])\n// ...\nfmt.Printf(\"\\x1bP1$p%s\\x1b\\\\\", body)

javascript

// Snapshot at startup, restore on exit handler.\nprocess.stdout.write('\\x1b[1$u');\nlet snapshot = '';\nprocess.stdin.once('data', (buf) => {\n  const m = /\\x1bP1\\$s(.*?)\\x1b\\\\/s.exec(buf.toString('binary'));\n  if (m) snapshot = m[1];\n});\nprocess.on('exit', () => {\n  if (snapshot) process.stdout.write('\\x1bP1$p' + snapshot + '\\x1b\\\\');\n});

/* Skeleton: snapshot at TUI entry, restore at exit. */\nfputs(\"\\x1b[1$u\", stdout); fflush(stdout);\n/* read until ST seen at packet boundary, store body bytes opaquely. */\n/* on exit: fputs(\"\\x1bP1$p\", stdout); fwrite(body, 1, body_len, stdout); fputs(\"\\x1b\\\\\", stdout); */

Terminal support

xterm: yes
Linux console (fbcon): no
macOS Terminal.app: no
iTerm2: no
Windows Terminal: no
cmd.exe / ConPTY: no
kitty: no
alacritty: no
WezTerm: partial
Ghostty: no
GNOME Terminal: partial
Konsole: partial
tmux: yes
GNU screen: yes

xterm	Linux console (fbcon)	macOS Terminal.app	iTerm2	Windows Terminal	cmd.exe / ConPTY	kitty	alacritty	WezTerm	Ghostty	GNOME Terminal	Konsole	tmux	GNU screen
yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	partial	no	partial	partial	yes	yes

Related sequences

In the family cookbook

DCS cookbook · 3. Asking the terminal questions — DECRQSS, terminfo cap, DECRQTSR, DECRQUPSS, cursor-style