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DSR/CPR

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Standard

DSR (Device Status Report) and CPR (Active Position Report) are CSI sequences used to query the terminal's status and cursor position.

Syntax​

CSI Ps n       DSR — Device Status Report (request)
CSI Pn ; Pn R  CPR — Active Position Report (response)
Formal syntax
(* Status query *)
DSR-status   = 0x1b, "[", "5", "n" ;

(* Cursor position query *)
DSR-position = 0x1b, "[", "6", "n" ;

(* Cursor position response *)
CPR          = 0x1b, "[", Pn, ";", Pn, "R" ;
Pn           = digit, { digit } ;
digit        = "0" | "1" | "2" | "3" | "4"
           | "5" | "6" | "7" | "8" | "9" ;

Parameters (Request)​

ValueDescription
5Request device status
6Request cursor position (CPR)

Response​

DSR 5 (Status Report):

The terminal responds with CSI 0 n to indicate "ready, no malfunction detected." Per ECMA-48 §8.3.35, other status codes (1-4) indicate busy or malfunction states, but modern terminals always report status 0.

DSR 6 (Cursor Position Report):

The terminal responds with CSI Pr ; Pc R where Pr is the current row and Pc is the current column. Positions are 1-based. If DECOM (origin mode) is set, the reported row is relative to the top margin.

Description​

Per ECMA-48 §8.3.35, DSR is used either to report the status of the sending device or to request a status report from the receiving device. Parameter value 5 requests a general status report; parameter value 6 requests an Active Position Report (CPR).

Per ECMA-48 §8.3.14, CPR reports the active position as row and column numbers. The response is sent from terminal to host on the input stream.

DSR/CPR is one of the most fundamental query/response sequences and has been supported since the original VT100. Applications use it for terminal capability detection, screen size measurement, and synchronization.

Examples​

# Query device status (response: ESC [ 0 n)
printf '\e[5n'

# Query cursor position (response: ESC [ Pr ; Pc R)
printf '\e[6n'

# Read the CPR response
printf '\e[6n'; read -sdR response; echo "$response"

Specifications​

SpecificationSection
VT510 Reference—
ECMA-48§8.3.35 (DSR), §8.3.14 (CPR)

Terminal support​

TerminalSupportVersionNotes
Terminal Emulators
Alacritty✓YesCSI 5n and CSI 6n supported
Bobcat✓0.9.0Supported via TerminalCtrl library
contour✓v0.1.0
foot✓YesImplemented at csi.c:1429-1448, supports both DSR (CSI 5n) and CPR (CSI 6n)
Ghostty✓v1.0.0DSR 5n and CPR 6n supported
iTerm2✓YesDevice status report (DSR) and cursor position report (CPR) fully implemented via VT100CSI_DSR token. Handles CSI 5n (status) and CSI 6n (cursor position).
Kitty✓YesSupports DSR 5 (device status) and DSR 6 (cursor position)
Konsole✓YesCSI 5n reports device status (ready), CSI 6n reports cursor position via CSI r ; c R
mintty✓YesImplemented at src/termout.c:3535-3541. Supports both DSR 5n (status) and 6n (cursor position report).
mlterm✓YesCSI 5n and CSI 6n supported since early versions
PuTTY✓0.43DSR (CSI 5n and CSI 6n) implemented at terminal.c:4516-4527
Rio✓v0.0.3
rxvt-unicode✓1.2
st✓0.5DSR 5n (OK) added in 0.9.1, DSR 6n (CPR) in 0.5
terminology✓v0.1.0Supports DSR 5n (status) and 6n (cursor position report)
VT100✓Yes
VTE✓YesSupports DSR parameter 5 (operating status) and 6 (cursor position report)
WezTerm✓YesDSR (CSI 5n) and CPR (CSI 6n) both supported
Windows Terminal✓YesSupports DSR 5n (operating status) and DSR 6n (cursor position report)
xterm✓YesVT100 feature, supported since earliest versions
xterm.js✓2.3.0
Multiplexers
cy✓v0.1.0DSR responds with CSI 0n, CPR responds with cursor position
GNU Screen✓v.4.2.0CSI 5n and CSI 6n implemented at src/ansi.c:1036-1039
tmux✓1.3Both DSR 5n (status) and DSR 6n (cursor position) supported
tuios✓v0.0.15
Zellij✓v0.12.0Supports both DSR (CSI 5n) status report and CPR (CSI 6n) cursor position report

See also​