wire / terminal-dec-private-mode /
2004
DECSET 2004 — Bracketed paste mode
CSI ? 2004 h enables bracketed paste: when the user pastes, the terminal wraps the pasted text in ESC [ 2 0 0 ~ ... ESC [ 2 0 1 ~ so the application can tell pasted text from typed keystrokes and avoid executing it. CSI ? 2004 l disables it.
terminal-dec-private-mode kind control-sequence status de-facto verification verified tier B terminal-escape@1
aka: bracketed paste · bracketed paste mode · DECSET 2004 · ?2004h / ?2004l · paste guard
frame
DEC-private-mode introducer: \x1b[? ESC [ ? (0x1B 0x5B 0x3F)
terminator (none): ST · BEL
parameters / subcommands
| id | name | bytes (ST) | meaning |
|---|
| set | Enable (DECSET) | \x1b[?2004h | CSI ? 2004 h turns on bracketed paste. While enabled, when the user pastes, the terminal sends ESC [ 200~ before and ESC [ 201~ after the pasted bytes. |
| reset | Disable (DECRST) | \x1b[?2004l | CSI ? 2004 l turns off bracketed paste; pasted text is then delivered as raw keystrokes with no wrappers. |
| paste-begin | Paste-begin marker (terminal -> app) | \x1b[200~ | When bracketed paste is enabled, the terminal sends this BEFORE pasted content. The application reads it and treats subsequent bytes as literal data, not commands. |
| paste-end | Paste-end marker (terminal -> app) | \x1b[201~ | The terminal sends this AFTER pasted content, signalling the end of the literal paste region. |
gotchas
- ?2004h enables the MODE; the actual wrappers (ESC [ 200~ / ESC [ 201~) are sent by the TERMINAL to the application around real pastes — your program enables the mode, then reads and strips the wrappers.
- Security purpose: bracketed paste prevents a pasted blob that contains a newline from auto-executing in the shell, and prevents pasted ANSI/control bytes from being interpreted as commands. Do NOT interpret bytes between 200~ and 201~ as control sequences.
- Terminals do not strip control characters inside the paste; the application must decide how to handle embedded ESC/newlines within the bracketed region.
- Re-enable the mode after running a child program that may have reset it (e.g. a TUI that did its own raw-mode setup), or paste detection silently stops working.
- Reset the mode (?2004l) when your program exits, so the next program/shell isn't left with an unexpected paste mode state.
provenance
per-fact attribution:
- #summary — https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html xterm ctlseqs: Ps = 2 0 0 4 -> Set bracketed paste mode. When enabled, pasted text is bracketed with control sequences ESC [ 2 0 0 ~ (start) and ESC [ 2 0 1 ~ (end) so the application can distinguish it from typed input.
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