DECSTR — Soft terminal reset

Reset DEC private modes and SGR to defaults WITHOUT clearing the screen or scrollback.

Byte forms

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

\\x1b[\x1b[!p

\\033[\033[!p

\\e[\e[!p

ESC [ESC [ ! p

hex1b 5b 21 70

Description

DEC Soft Terminal Reset. Standard CSI with an intermediate `!` (0x21) before the final `p` (0x70). Restores: SGR (colour + attributes), auto-wrap (`?7`), insert/replace mode, scrolling region (DECSTBM), keyboard mode, character sets. Does NOT clear the screen, the scrollback, or the alt-screen state — making it the safe recovery path when a TUI crashed without restoring its SGR / auto-wrap / cursor state but you still want to keep your scrollback. Compare RIS (`\x1bc`) which is the hard reset and wipes scrollback.

Spec citation: xterm-ctlseqs (DECSTR, CSI ! p)

Examples

bash

printf '\033[!p'   # soft reset; scrollback preserved

python

import sys; sys.stdout.write('\x1b[!p')

fmt.Print("\x1b[!p")

javascript

process.stdout.write('\x1b[!p')

printf("\x1b[!p");

Terminal support

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

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

Related sequences

In the family cookbook

ESC cookbook · 1. Hard reset vs. soft reset — `\x1bc` (RIS) and `\x1b[!p` (DECSTR)