The status command lists handlers, those created by trace, when, and stop. status lists the given handler. If the handler is disabled, its hid is printed inside square brackets [ ] instead of parentheses ( ).
status [-s] -h hid
The output of status can be redirected to a file. Nominally, the format is unchanged during redirection. You can use the -s flag to produce output that allows a handler to be reinstated using the source command. If the -h option is used, hidden handlers are also listed.
The original technique of redirecting handlers using status and sourcing the file was a way to compensate for the lack of handler enabling and disabling functionality.