How to reinitialize a terminal window instead of closing it and starting a new one?

If you mean reloading your .bashrc configuration then:

source ~/.bashrc

For less typing, you can replace source with a dot: . ~/.bashrc

Some Addition i found in the manpage from the reset/tset command

tset reset terminal intialization

command: reset

Tset initializes terminals. Tset first determines the type of terminal that you are using. This determination is done as follows, using the first terminal type found.

an advantage seems to be, that it's independent from the used shell. also works with fish here.

So to reinitialize any terminal just do-

$ tset

OR

$ reset

An additional option to the exec bash is that if you changed your .profile (or .bash_profile), you can do

$ exec bash --login

That will read your profile again as well. It wouldn't hurt to add the -i option as well to explicitly tell bash that this is an interactive shell, but it can normally figure that out for itself.

You have to replace the running application/shell with a new instance. E.g. if you are using bash as your preferred shell type the following line in your command line ($ is the placeholder for the beginning of your command line):

> $ exec bash

The running application/shell is replaced by new instance of bash like starting from scratch. All your previous modification are gone.

Remark: Do not forget that your terminal application may be reprogrammed. You have to reset your terminal application manually.

Use exec sudo --login --user $USER.

If you also want the previously entered commands to disapper (full reset of the terminal), combine it with reset as reset; exec sudo --login --user $USER.

To keep the current working directory as well, use the following function:

reinit(){
  reset
  exec sudo --login --user "$USER" /bin/sh -c "cd '$PWD'; exec '$SHELL' -l"
}

There are many answers around the web but most don't actually work. Easy way to test is to set export SOMEVAR=42 then execute the supposedly resetting command and do echo $SOMEVAR. If it's 42, the environment was not reset.

There is also exec -c bash -l or exec env -i bash -l, but these are broken, somehow the $HOME variable is not set after this.

your shell is an executable you can call. So if you're using bash you can call bash and if you're using something else like zsh you can just enter zsh

Use the terminal's functions clear or screen.