Features›Reset

Reset

Terminal reset operations: SGR attribute reset, full terminal reset (RIS), and programmatic reset. Reset behavior determines how reliably an application can return the terminal to a known state. Differences in what RIS resets (cursor position, modes, scroll regions, character sets) can cause subtle bugs. Reset operations are how applications recover from unknown terminal state. When you run reset after a garbled terminal, it sends RIS (Reset Initial State) — clearing cursor position, modes, scroll regions, character sets, and colors back to defaults.

5 features in this category

Analysis2026-04-06

The Reset category covers 5 features. Top performers (100%): Ghostty, Kitty, iTerm2, Terminal.app, Alacritty and 5 more. Common gaps: DECALN screen alignment (ESC # 8) (2 terminals fail), Soft reset (DECSTR) (1 terminal fails).

Terminal Applications

Feature	iTerm2	Ghostty	VS Code	Warp	Cursor	Terminal.app
DECALN screen alignment (ESC # 8)	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗
Backend reset() method	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Full reset (RIS)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
SGR reset clears attributes	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Soft reset (DECSTR)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Headless Backends

Parser correctness tested via Termless. A ✓ means the parser accepts the sequence, not that it renders correctly.

Feature	vterm	xterm.js	Kitty	Alacritty	WezTerm	vt100.js
DECALN screen alignment (ESC # 8)	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗
Backend reset() method	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Full reset (RIS)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
SGR reset clears attributes	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Soft reset (DECSTR)	✓	✓	~	~	~	✗

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