Scroll region (DECSTBM)

Category: scrollback · Tags: DEC Private Modes, VT100 · Specification ↗

DECSTBM (Set Top and Bottom Margins) defines a scroll region — a subset of rows where scrolling operations take effect. The sequence is ESC [ top ; bottom r, where top and bottom are 1-based row numbers. ESC [ r resets to the full screen. Scroll regions are fundamental to TUI applications. A terminal multiplexer like tmux uses them to scroll one pane without affecting others. Editors use them to scroll the document area while keeping status bars fixed. When content scrolls within the region, lines outside the region remain untouched. Virtually every full-screen terminal application depends on DECSTBM. Universally supported since the VT100.

Supported by 6 of 6 backends (100%)

Support Matrix

Backend	Version	Support	Notes
Alacritty	0.26.0	✓ yes
Ghostty	1.3.1	✓ yes
Kitty	0.40.0	✓ yes
vt100	0.1.0	✓ yes
WezTerm	0.1.0-fork.5	✓ yes
xterm.js	5.5.0	✓ yes

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