Intentional deviation from Ghostty 1.3.1 (upstream data-loss bugs, see
docs/rewrite/DEVIANT_FIXES.md and docs/rewrite/notes/final-Z17.md):
- Zig 0.15's File.writer writes positionally (pwrite) at each writer's
own offset, starting at 0, while the file is seekable. When stdout is
a regular file, two writers (e.g. +show-face) overwrite each other and
any existing content, and File.Writer.end truncates. ZigWriter always
appends at the current end and end() only flushes.
- Writers that are never flushed lose their buffered output in Zig, e.g.
+list-themes' stderr buffer, so "No themes found..." is never printed.
ZigWriter flushes on drop.
Zig's buffering and flush order (and thus pipe/tty interleaving) is kept
unchanged; only the data loss is not replicated.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-cli zig_writer
(regular_file_output_is_complete_and_appended,
unflushed_buffer_is_flushed_on_drop)
- ghostty +list-themes with a missing resources dir prints the message
The first basename port followed Zig 0.16's ComponentIterator-based
implementation (the system std); Ghostty 1.3.1 builds with 0.15.2. The
theme-name check now ports 0.15.2's basenamePosix/basenameWindows: a ':'
at byte 1 ends the drive designator for any first byte, so '1:theme'
yields 'theme'. Tests use the 0.15.2 cases.
Resolves the 4 P3 items in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv13-codex.md
(final-Z16.md):
- async-backend now takes effect like Ghostty: ghostty_os::xev ports
libxev's backend detection (io_uring, then epoll); global init detects
and logs it, the GTK startup applies the config with Zig's messages,
and +version reports the real backend. The termio IO loop runs on a
new reactor with epoll, io_uring (io-uring crate) and poll(2) (kept
for macOS, where libxev uses kqueue). The 21 exec integration tests
run under every backend; io_uring was exercised here.
- auto-update-channel defaults to the build's release channel.
- Windows error names: sharing violation -> AccessDenied, plus
ERROR_FILE_EXISTS -> PathAlreadyExists and virus errors ->
AntivirusInterference, mirroring std.os.windows.OpenFile's NTSTATUS
mapping in Zig 0.15.2 (verified against its source by the
orchestrator).
- Exact ports of std.fs.path.basenameWindows/basenamePosix for theme
name validation (drive, UNC and device roots).
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast (3555 passed, exit 0)
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
- +show-config --default --docs vs /usr/bin/ghostty (only the
build-specific gtk-opengl-debug line differs)
Resolves the 3 P3 items in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv12-codex.md
(final-Z15.md):
- Sprite strokes: tiny-skia is replaced by a port of z2d 0.10's stroke
plotter (sprite/stroke.rs) plus z2d's arc segmentation and truncating
integer compositing, feeding the ported 4x4 multisample rasterizer.
All 36 reference sprite sheets now match Ghostty's byte for byte (test
tolerance 0), and `just visual-parity` with a production build shows
0 differing pixels (max delta 0) against the installed Ghostty 1.3.1
for the test page (block and bar cursor) and the tabs+splits scenario,
terminal area and chrome alike. tiny-skia dependency removed.
- zig_error maps errno values per target via libc (Linux, Darwin/BSD)
and Win32 codes the way Zig std does on Windows.
- theme=. / theme=.. report "it is a directory" via a port of
std.fs.path.basename, matching Ghostty.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast (3498 passed, exit 0)
- cargo build --profile production && just visual-parity
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Resolves the 3 remaining gaps in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv11-codex.md
(final-Z14.md):
- ghostty-bench validates every occurrence of enum options in order
(Args::take_enum; empty value resets) like cli/args.zig, so
`--mode=bad --mode=noop` fails as in Zig.
- Theme paths with an interior NUL open the prefix like Zig's C-string
path handling (verified against /usr/bin/ghostty).
- Filesystem diagnostics print Zig's error names (error.FileNotFound,
NotDir, AccessDenied, IsDir, NameTooLong, SymLinkLoop, ...) via a
shared ghostty_os::zig_error mapping used by theme/path/config-file/
file_load/edit-config/list-themes; messages match the oracle.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Adds scripts/visual-parity.sh (`just visual-parity`): launches the
installed Ghostty 1.3.1 and the Rust build in an isolated headless
nested weston (GL renderer, Mesa forced, weston-screenshooter via
--debug), with identical isolated config, a deterministic test page
(ASCII, ligatures, all SGR styles and underline kinds, 16/256/truecolor,
box/block/braille/powerline/nerd icons, CJK, emoji, wide chars,
cursor) and a tabs+splits scenario driven through Xwayland, then diffs
the captures (terminal area and chrome separately, heatmaps).
Fixes found by comparing against the original:
- A pane stayed blank after a nested split: the GTK render path called
draw_frame(false) where Ghostty uses drawFrame(true) (a re-realized
GLArea has a new swap chain that nothing else redraws).
- Sprite glyph antialiasing now ports z2d's default 4x4 multisample
rasterizer instead of tiny-skia's analytic coverage (pixels differing
from Ghostty's reference sprite sheets: 5.76% -> 1.20%, none off by
more than 96 levels); the sheet test tolerance is tightened to 0.1%.
Result vs Ghostty 1.3.1: test page 0.020% of pixels differ (196 px at
curly-underline ends and diagonal box strokes, max delta 86 levels);
tabs+splits and headerbar/tab bar are bit-identical. Details in
docs/rewrite/notes/visual-parity-VP.md.
Test Plan:
- just visual-parity (needs weston, weston-screenshooter, xdotool)
- cargo test -p ghostty-font (sprite sheet comparison)
Adds tools/difftest: a Zig driver built against a copy of Ghostty
1.3.1's own src/terminal (Zig 0.15.2, set up under target/ by
tools/difftest/setup.sh) and a Rust twin on ghostty-terminal, both
printing a canonical dump of every scrollback/active row (cells,
graphemes, styles, hyperlinks, row flags), cursor, modes, regions,
tabstops and colors. A seeded generator produces escape-heavy streams
(UTF-8/wide/combining/emoji, C0, CSI with edge params, SGR, modes, ESC,
OSC, DCS, margins, insert/delete); `just difftest` runs it with Zig
assertions on (ReleaseSafe vs debug Rust) and off (ReleaseFast vs
production Rust), with minimizers and a triage script.
Divergences found and fixed in Rust (each with a regression test):
- ill-formed UTF-8 decoding follows the SIMD path a default Ghostty
build uses (not Zig's scalar fallback)
- PageList::erase_rows keeps Zig's row-flag behavior on regrow
- grapheme move on wrap with left/right margins uses the original cell
Upstream bugs found and deliberately NOT replicated (per the project
rule): a stale cell pointer after page growth in Terminal.zig:482/539
that drops a grapheme, plus several Zig assertion failures/segfaults;
documented with minimized repros in docs/rewrite/notes/difftest-DF.md.
Final run: 390k cases across many geometries, 0 divergences (Zig-abort
cases, ~0.1-0.5%, are not compared).
Test Plan:
- just difftest 20000 "1 2 3"
- cargo test -p ghostty-terminal (regression tests)
Resolves the 8 gaps in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv10-codex.md
(final-Z13.md):
- P1 memory safety: the C key-table action (and hovered-link/open-URL
payloads) could advertise a length larger than the NUL-truncated
allocation. A counted_bytes helper now passes the full bytes plus a
trailing NUL with len == byte count, like Zig's backing slices; all
C pointer+len structs were audited and tested to read exactly len.
- ghostty-bench args follow cli/args.zig (ordered duplicates, empty
value resets, first bad value errors, parseBool spellings); the C
benchmark tokenizer uses the ArgIteratorGeneral port.
- OSC 7 derived titles, desktop notifications and OSC 8 hover links
forward raw bytes to the runtime; GTK converts only for display.
- C diagnostic getter exports original bytes; escaped surrogates report
Utf8CannotEncodeSurrogateHalf; config float formatters print `nan`.
- Config::finalize_for(AppRuntime): GTK-only finalization (gtk-single-
instance=detect) and termio's cgroup hooks apply only to the GTK
runtime, so libghostty keeps `detect` like Zig.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast (exit 0)
- cargo test -p ghostty-lib --features test-platform
- just check-wasm (macOS/Windows clippy re-run after the concurrent
terminal changes land)
Rust's str::parse accepts and rejects different inputs than Zig's
std.fmt.parseInt/parseFloat (underscores, base prefixes, signs). The
config layer already used the Zig ports; now the protocol parsers do
too (call site -> Zig reference -> status in final-Z12.md):
- zig_fmt moves into the leaf crate ghostty-zigfmt (ghostty-vt cannot
depend on ghostty-os); ghostty-os re-exports it unchanged.
- ghostty-vt: kitty graphics keys, kitty text sizing, OSC 4/5/10-19
color indices, hex color components and intensities, OSC 9 sleep and
progress, OSC 133 exit codes, OSC 3008 fields, kitty color palette.
- ghostty-terminal: tmux layout, format variables and pane tabs.
- ghostty-os: URI ports and %XX decoding; ghostty-bench CLI arguments.
Expected values were cross-checked against the real Zig toolchain.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Resolves the 6 differential gap groups in docs/rewrite/notes/review-
rv9-codex.md (details in final-Z11.md):
- ghostty_os::zig_fmt ports std.fmt.parseInt/parseUnsigned/parseFloat
(underscores, 0x/0o/0b prefixes, hex floats, inf/nan) with the Zig std
tests and replaces every int/float parse in config, keybind
parameters, ssh-cache and desktop detection.
- Interior NUL no longer panics in font names and ends C strings like
Zig's backing bytes (fontconfig, C config getters, title actions,
clipboard callback, relative paths, config-file, shaders, background
image, GTK CSS).
- GTK new-window arguments are trimmed of ASCII whitespace only.
- Command tokenization uses a port of std.process.ArgIteratorGeneral
(incl. CR/LF separators) with its std tests.
- UTF-8 validation happens where Zig's field parsers do it, so error
kinds match (metric modifiers, quick-terminal size, link, ...).
A scripted differential run of 202 fields x ~220 hostile/valid values
against /usr/bin/ghostty (+validate-config and +show-config: exit code,
stdout, stderr) now has zero mismatches besides build-specific defaults
(theme resources path, auto-update-channel, gtk-opengl-debug); it also
surfaced and fixed background-blur failure state, NaN formatting and
NaN/-0 finalize clamps. Regression tests: ghostty-config/tests/
zig_parity.rs.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast (3456 passed, exit 0)
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Zig parses config values (cli/args.zig, Config.zig field parsers,
config/string.zig) from raw byte slices, and each field type decides
whether it requires UTF-8 (InvalidValue otherwise) or stores bytes. The
port escape-encoded raw bytes into Strings at the line reader and let
fields parse the escaped text, so fields could observe encoding
artifacts; successive audits kept finding such leaks (RV5-RV8).
Field parsers now receive the original bytes: text fields validate UTF-8
where Zig does, byte/path fields store bytes (EncodedOs/OsString). This
resolves all 9 RV8 findings (docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv8-codex.md),
each with a regression test: Windows path conversion fails with
BadPathName instead of substituting U+FFFD; Windows process launch uses
strict UTF-8 like Zig's Command; the WTF-8 decoder accepts paired-
surrogate encodings like Zig; literal U+FDD0 Unicode key triggers;
selection-word-chars and clipboard-codepoint-map reject invalid UTF-8;
font style / codepoint-map family names use original bytes; C title
actions forward bytes; D-Bus new-window/Flatpak conversions match Zig.
Design, sweep and validation: docs/rewrite/notes/final-bytes-refactor.md.
Also moves the bundled iTerm2-Color-Schemes license out of
resources/themes/ so +list-themes no longer lists it as a theme
(output is now byte-identical to Ghostty 1.3.1).
Done by Codex (gpt-6-astra), reviewed and verified by the orchestrator.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast (3428 passed, exit 0)
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
- +show-config --default --docs, +list-keybinds, +list-actions --docs,
+list-themes --plain compared with /usr/bin/ghostty
Zig's KeyEvent.utf8 and the embedded API's key/preedit text are byte
slices passed through to key encoding and the pty; the port converted
them lossily to UTF-8.
- KeyEvent.utf8 is &[u8] end to end (ghostty-input encoder, core,
ghostty-lib C API, libghostty-vt key events, GTK callers). Where Zig
validates with Utf8View (alternates, modify-other-keys, ctrl CSI-u,
associated text, binding unicode lookup) invalid text takes the same
"no UTF-8" fallback.
- Invalid preedit UTF-8 behaves like Zig's `try Utf8View.init`: the
prior preedit is cleared and marked dirty, the callback returns an
error (logged by the C API) and no preedit is set.
- The inspector key widget shows invalid key text lossily, display only.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast (3407 passed)
- cargo test -p ghostty-lib --features test-platform (C-API key text
0xff 0xfe reaches the pty unchanged)
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Resolves the 9 gap groups in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv7-codex.md and
audits every string-typed config field against its consumers
(field -> consumers -> decode status table in final-Z9.md):
- Windows EnvMap keys use a port of Zig's nls.zig uppercase table
(upcaseW); Windows locale init follows Zig's chain (setlocale +
_putenv_s); malformed WTF-8 now fails process launch conversions like
Zig instead of substituting U+FFFD; kitty file paths convert WTF-8.
- bash --rcfile/--init-file, configured TERM and inherited GTK LANG
keep their original bytes.
- C API clipboard completion and ghostty_surface_binding_action take
bytes; complete_clipboard_request is byte-typed through the core.
- text:/csi:/esc: bindings, enquiry-response, input = path:, embedded
initial_input, search needles, titles, link regexes, clipboard
codepoint map, command palette text and GTK font/namespace values
decode the escape encoding before use.
Remaining by design: D-Bus a{ss} values and +new-window arguments are
UTF-8 by D-Bus type. C API key/preedit text follows separately.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Resolves the 7 gap groups in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv6-codex.md
(final-Z8.md):
- crash (macOS): request_abort_dump returns false on mach_msg receive
timeout/error so the signal-path fallback runs; EXC_SOFT_SIGNAL keeps
the signal number in the minidump exception info.
- Default SHELL read as an OS string and stored in encoded command form.
- macOS executable search works on raw PATH bytes; the default path is
used only when PATH is unset.
- Windows: config env overrides are decoded; EnvMap compares keys as
WTF-16 units with per-unit Unicode simple uppercasing (no lossy
conversion, distinct lone-surrogate keys stay distinct).
- +show-config writes original bytes for encoded OS data, so export +
reload round-trips; UTF-8 configs are byte-identical as before.
- Zig's ensureLocale chain lives in ghostty-os for all Unix targets and
is used by both the GTK app and the C API init.
Also makes the quick-terminal GTK replay test independent of compositor
focus: GTK's is-active is read-only, so when niri actually focuses the
layer surface the simulated focus-out cannot drive autohide and that
assertion is skipped (the production logic is unchanged and matches Zig).
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (3390 passed, incl. tests/gtk_replay.rs)
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
Escaped config strings (ghostty_os::osbytes) kept reaching OS
boundaries undecoded, and decoding was occasionally applied to plain
text. The root cause was that both were plain `String`s. Now:
- `EncodedOs` is a newtype (no Display/AsRef<Path>) that decodes only
via to_os/to_path/to_bytes/to_wide; plain text enters via
from_plain_text. OS helpers (env, home, xdg, passwd, resources dir,
path expansion), config::Path, WorkingDirectory, theme/file_load/edit
paths, terminal pwd, OpenUrl/Pwd actions and termio cwd use it, so the
compiler forces decoding at every boundary. os::open takes &OsStr.
Config output is unchanged.
Fixes all rows of docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv5-codex.md (final-Z7.md):
screen-file copy; regex/OSC 8 URLs no longer decoded (regression);
lossless Windows WTF-8/WTF-16 for args, env and CreateProcessW; Windows
resources dir/TERMINFO; color OSC request lists and X11 color lookup no
longer allocate globally (C zero-allocation test extended); macOS Mach
handler resumes all threads before KERN_FAILURE (hang regression) and
SIGABRT minidumps go through the exception thread; plus open-config,
background images, crash dir, ssh cache, exe dir/PATH, fontconfig
filenames, file links, kitty TMPDIR, .hushlogin and benchmark paths.
The typing also surfaced and fixed gtk-custom-css, bell audio, bash
HISTFILE, OSC 52 writes and the C config getters.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (3376 passed)
- just check-macos (both), just check-windows, just check-wasm
- diff <(ghostty-rs +show-config --default --docs) \
<(ghostty +show-config --default --docs)
Ghostty links sentry-native with the breakpad backend on every platform
(SharedDeps.zig), so it writes minidumps on macOS and Windows as well.
- macOS: a Mach exception port handler thread (structured like
Breakpad's exception_handler) catches EXC_BAD_ACCESS/BAD_INSTRUCTION/
ARITHMETIC/BREAKPOINT, suspends other threads, reads the crashed
thread state and writes a minidump via minidump-writer as the
event.minidump attachment, then restores the previous ports so the
BSD signal and default termination follow. The signal path remains
the fallback (and handles SIGABRT); a watchdog alarm bounds dumping.
- Windows: SetUnhandledExceptionFilter hands off to a pre-started dump
thread using minidump-writer's dump_crash_context.
- The screen-file open action decodes the escaped path to raw OS bytes
(also for the C action passed to embedders).
macOS/Windows code is compile-checked (clippy -D warnings) only; the
shared Mach message decoding and minidump attachment logic have Linux
unit tests. Platform matrix in docs/rewrite/notes/crash-CR.md.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (3348 passed)
- just check-macos; just check-macos x86_64-apple-darwin; just check-windows
Resolves the 13 rows still partial in docs/rewrite/notes/review-rv4-
codex.md (details in final-Z5.md):
- Escaped config strings are decoded to raw bytes at every OS boundary:
Flatpak cwd/argv to D-Bus, screen-file paths, the default config
template, GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR/TERMINFO/shell integration/
bindtextdomain consumers, custom shader loading, list-themes hyperlinks.
- osbytes escapes literal U+FDD0 on non-Unix too (bijective everywhere);
the GTK paste dialog only decodes text that was actually encoded.
- shadertoy: whole-array uses of iChannelTime rebuild a plain float[4]
from the std140-padded members (naga-validated, MSL offsets checked).
- libghostty-vt: the OSC parser holds caller-allocated storage inline
and command payloads borrow from it, so ghostty_osc_end performs no
global allocations (verified from Rust and C).
- crash: aarch64 Linux minidump context fixed; macOS fatal signals record
siginfo, registers and a fault-safe stack walk.
- tripwire: selectionString map allocation-failure cleanup test ported.
- libghostty-vt emits the versioned soname libghostty-vt.so.0 at build
time (no patchelf needed at install).
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (3342 passed)
- just check-macos; just check-macos x86_64-apple-darwin;
just check-windows; just check-wasm
- cargo check --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu -p ghostty-crash
Zig treats paths, arguments and environment values as byte slices; the
port converted them lossily in many places. Now (final-Z1.md):
- argv, env (incl. present non-UTF-8 values), HOME, PATH lookup,
passwd, resources dir, TMPDIR, cgroup, config path canonicalization,
+validate-config, +list-themes and Zig-string escapes (\xFF) keep raw
bytes. String-based config values carry bytes via ghostty_os::osbytes,
a bijective escape (noncharacter U+FDD0 + byte) that leaves all valid
UTF-8 - including Nerd Font private-use icons - unchanged.
- os/file rlimit fallbacks exist on all targets.
- i18n locale canonicalization is an exact port of libintl's tables
(e.g. pa-Guru -> pa_IN).
- New ghostty-build-info crate is the single source of version, channel,
commit and build mode for all consumers.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-os -p ghostty-config -p ghostty-cli
(incl. randomized osbytes round-trip property tests)
Closes the remaining artifact rows of the final audit
(docs/rewrite/notes/final-Z4.md):
- webgen: config.mdx, actions.mdx, commands.mdx (byte-identical to
Zig's webgen output once its missing stdout flush is added)
- `just install-lib`: libghostty (+ ghostty.h, modulemap) and
libghostty-vt with versioned symlinks, headers and libghostty-vt.pc
- scripts/xcframework.sh: per-arch builds, lipo and
xcodebuild -create-xcframework for GhosttyKit (dry-run verified only)
- `just install` builds --profile production so the installed app id is
com.mitchellh.ghostty; other profiles install the -debug id/name
- `just update-translations`: xgettext/msgmerge pipeline; extracted
msgids equal upstream's .pot (found and fixed an untranslated string
in the child-exited banner)
- `just dist` / `distcheck`: versioned source tarball with VERSION and a
prebuilt GTK resource bundle
- Windows: icon, version resource and DPI/common-controls manifest
embedded via embed-resource, GUI subsystem
Test Plan:
- just install-lib /tmp/p release all && pkg-config --cflags \
--libs /tmp/p/share/pkgconfig/libghostty-vt.pc
- just distcheck
Closes the remaining library rows of the final completeness audit
(docs/rewrite/notes/final-Z3.md):
- libghostty-vt: OSC parser storage goes through the caller-supplied C
allocator via a ByteStorage abstraction; ghostty_osc_new reports
GHOSTTY_OUT_OF_MEMORY and failed grows invalidate the OSC like Zig.
Tested with a counting/failing/limiting C allocator.
- shadertoy: sampler parameter rewriting is keyed by full signature so
overloads work; the Metal uniform block keeps std140 strides for
iChannelTime[4] (MSL offsets checked against the upload layout).
- tripwire.zig ported (named trip points, hit counts, verification) and
used to port the previously skipped allocation-failure tests that have
a fallible Rust path; the rest are documented.
- crash: fatal signals capture siginfo + registers and a forked helper
writes a minidump (minidump-writer) as an envelope attachment, like
sentry-native/Breakpad; tests parse it with the minidump crate.
- kitty LoadingImage::debug_dump (debug builds) and the Darwin
Instruments signpost around benchmark runs.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-vt-capi --test c_allocator
- cargo test -p ghostty-crash --test minidump
Ports apprt/embedded.zig, main_c.zig and config/CApi.zig + c_get.zig as
crates/ghostty-lib (cdylib/staticlib/rlib `libghostty`), exporting every
function of the unchanged include/ghostty.h - the ABI Ghostty's Swift
macOS/iOS app links against. The embedded runtime implements the
runtime traits over the host's C callbacks, so the real core drives it.
- ghostty-core selects the renderer per target: Metal on Apple (surface
NSView/UIView via RtSurface::platform_view), OpenGL elsewhere.
- ghostty_config_get follows Zig's c_get rules via a CValue type (143
supported keys, checked against the Zig field types).
- The inspector C API is complete; its Metal backend replaces ImGui's
Metal renderer and has not run.
Verification: generated C ABI probe (sizeof/alignof/offsetof of every
struct/union, 755 enum values, every function linked, nm exports, headers
byte-identical to upstream); a C host on Linux covering init, CLI
actions, config, app, keys, focus and color scheme; an opt-in
test-platform feature creating real surfaces on Linux with headless EGL
and a pty (13 tests). Apple targets are clippy-clean but not run; the
Swift app has not been built against it.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-lib (and --features test-platform)
- cargo clippy --target aarch64-apple-darwin -p ghostty-lib (cross env
in docs/rewrite/notes/macos-M1.md)
- apprt-gtk: Ghostty's runtime+build-time version gating (at_least)
with cargo features adw_1_3/adw_1_4/adw_1_5/gtk_4_16 (default on) and
the fallbacks for older libraries: MessageDialog (adw < 1.5),
clipboard dialog without SwitchRow, pre-Banner debug warning and
child-exited widgets, the old about dialog, GTK 4.16 CSS error source
bytes. The minimum stays GTK 4.14 / libadwaita 1.5 (Ghostty's floor).
The root build links with -z lazy so version-gated symbols don't keep
older libraries from loading.
- ghostty-helpgen (port of helpgen.zig) generates CLI action help and
keybinding action docs from doc comments at build time, replacing the
checked-in help/*.txt; +help and +list-actions --docs stay
byte-identical to Ghostty 1.3.1.
- ghostty-bench: libc wcwidth mode and separate simd/table and
uucode/table code paths like Zig.
- ghostty-cli: Windows branches of edit-config, list-colors,
list-keybinds and boo; ssh-cache DiskCache flock locking (no-op on
Windows, as in Zig) with an exclusivity test.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace
- diff <(cargo run -q -- +list-actions --docs) \
<(ghostty +list-actions --docs)
Ports the macOS-specific Zig code behind cfg(target_os = "macos"):
- renderer: a GraphicsApi trait with generic::Renderer<G>; Metal backend
(all renderer/metal/* files, shaders.metal verbatim, runtime library
compile, IOSurface layer, CVDisplayLink), shadertoy -> MSL via naga;
OpenGL remains the backend elsewhere.
- font: CoreText face, shaper and discovery with build.rs backend
selection (coretext default; coretext-freetype / coretext-harfbuzz /
coretext-noshape features), no fontconfig/freetype/harfbuzz on Apple.
- input: KeymapDarwin via UCKeyTranslate, option-as-alt, mac keycodes.
- os: macos, mach, cf_release_thread, NSProcessInfo args and macOS
branches; config: macOS defaults, keybinds, Application Support paths.
- termio/core: login(1) wrapping, openpty/execvpe, Darwin child exit
handling, os_log logging.
Compile-checked for aarch64/x86_64-apple-darwin (clippy -D warnings
clean) using the cross setup in docs/rewrite/notes/macos-M1.md; cannot
run here. The embedded runtime/C API (embedded.zig) is the next step.
Also includes the cross-platform integration edits shared by the crash,
verification, Windows and macOS work (Cargo target-gating, thread
crash-context hooks, apprt-gtk surface/IME refactor, termio/os cfg
gates), a cfg fix so ghostty-config builds on wasm32, and an allow for
the intentional recursion in the crash overflow test.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (3224 passed)
- cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
- cargo check --target aarch64-apple-darwin -p ghostty-renderer (with
the documented cross env)
Ports the Windows branches of the Zig code behind cfg(windows):
ConPTY pty (CreatePseudoConsole, pipes, resize), CreateProcessW with the
pseudo-console attribute list, env blocks and command-line quoting, a
pipe read thread with CancelIoEx and a WaitForMultipleObjects IO loop,
plus os helpers (home dir, env, paths, temp dirs, hostname, XDG via
LOCALAPPDATA) and config/input/terminal/crash Windows branches.
Compile-checked with `cargo check --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu` for
vt, unicode, datastruct, input, os, config, terminal and termio (setup
in docs/rewrite/notes/windows-WIN.md); cannot run here.
Platform-independent pieces (quoting with a CommandLineToArgvW
round-trip, env block encoding) have unit tests.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-termio windows_args
- cargo check --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu -p ghostty-termio
Exercises the runtime paths that had never run (details in
docs/rewrite/notes/verification-VR.md):
- IME: replay steps drive the surface's real GtkIMContext handlers with
a real preedit + attributes; preedit renders under the cursor and
commits reach the pty, incl. dead-key and compose orderings.
- Paste and OSC 52 read/write confirmation dialogs: allow, deny and
remember flows.
- Quick terminal on niri via wlr-layer-shell: positions, sizes, toggle
and autohide. Fixes a real bug: link order could put libwayland-client
ahead of libgtk4-layer-shell, silently disabling the quick terminal;
apprt-gtk now loads libwayland-client via wayland-sys dlopen.
- Flatpak host commands against a zbus mock of
org.freedesktop.Flatpak.Development under dbus-run-session: spawn,
exit status, cwd/env/fd forwarding and SIGHUP on stop, both directly
and through termio Exec (flatpak-info path seam added).
- Horizontal-scroll tab switching thresholds and reset.
tests/gtk_replay.rs runs the real binary against the session display
(skips without one).
Test Plan:
- cargo test --test gtk_replay (needs a Wayland/X11 display)
- cargo test -p ghostty-os --test flatpak_mock; -p ghostty-termio
--test flatpak_exec
Ports ZIG/src/crash/* as crates/ghostty-crash. Like Ghostty (which uses
sentry-native only to write local files), crashes are written as Sentry
envelopes (<uuid>.ghosttycrash) to $XDG_STATE_HOME/ghostty/crash:
- envelope parse/serialize (all Zig tests ported)
- panic hook plus SIGSEGV/SIGBUS/SIGILL/SIGFPE/SIGABRT handlers on an
alternate stack; the signal path is allocation-free and re-raises with
the default action so exit status and core dumps are unchanged
- thread-local crash context (main/renderer/io/read thread, surface
dimensions) set from the corresponding threads
- `sentry` cargo feature on the root binary, off by default like
upstream's -Dsentry; +crash-report lists exactly what is written
Deviation: attachments always carry "type":"attachment" (Zig's
in-memory attachments omit it and become unparseable).
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-crash (19)
- cargo test --test crash (child panics, SIGSEGV, stack overflow and
abort each produce a valid envelope listed by +crash-report)
Ghostty's wasm code talks to JavaScript through the zig-js library
(mitchellh/zig-js, pinned in build.zig.zon). The first port invented its
own import ABI because the dependency wasn't available; now:
- ghostty-os/src/wasm/js.rs is a Rust port of zig-js's Zig side (Ref,
Value, Object get/set/call/new, global, runtime, string) using its
"zig-js" import module, function names and NaN-boxed value refs.
- web_canvas face and the atlas debug canvas make the same JS calls as
Ghostty's Zig code.
- zig-js's unmodified JS host (+ LICENSE) is vendored under
crates/ghostty-wasm/js/zig-js and drives the node test.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-wasm (node >= 24; asserts zig-js imports and no
leaked host values)
- RenderState stores styles sparsely (per-cell u16 style ids plus one
Style per distinct run) and skips plain cells with a single mask test
(Cell::is_plain). screen-clone render: 11.5 ms -> 4.1 ms (Zig 4.7).
row::never_extend_bg now takes a style accessor instead of a slice.
- Parser::next_with(byte, |action| ..) hands actions to a closure
instead of moving a 64-byte action array out; Parser::next remains a
wrapper over the same core (equivalence test added).
terminal-parser SGR: 538 ms -> 231 ms (Zig 354).
All Ghostty benchmarks are now at or below Zig's time; table in
docs/rewrite/notes/perf-P1.md (the parser benchmark uses next_with with
a discarding closure, which like Zig's `_ = actions` lets the optimizer
skip unused work).
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace
- ghostty-bench +screen-clone --mode=render / +terminal-parser
Ports main_wasm.zig as crates/ghostty-wasm (cdylib exporting the Zig
names: atlas_*, face_*, deferred_face_*, shaper_*, config_*), the
web_canvas font face and shaper (backend selected on wasm32), os/wasm
(logging, target, JS interop) and config/Wasm.zig.
C-library dependencies (freetype, harfbuzz, fontconfig, onig, gettext,
D-Bus, rustix) are target-gated. Like Zig's wasm build, link regex
search (StringMap::search_iterator) is unavailable without Oniguruma;
Collection/SharedGrid/harfbuzz are compiled out on wasm32. ghostty-os
switches from forbid to deny unsafe_code for the JS import blocks.
The JS import ABI is currently a documented handle-based interface with
a reference host (js/ghostty_host.js); aligning it with zig-js's exact
import names follows separately.
Test Plan:
- cargo build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown -p ghostty-font \
-p ghostty-config -p ghostty-terminal -p ghostty-vt -p ghostty-wasm
- cargo test -p ghostty-wasm (node runs the module against a fake canvas)
Ports ZIG/src/lib_vt.zig and terminal/c/* as crates/ghostty-vt-capi
(cdylib + staticlib + rlib, soname libghostty-vt.so) implementing the
unchanged include/ghostty/vt.h + vt/*.h ABI: OSC parser, SGR parser,
key events and key encoding, paste safety, colors, result codes - all
38 native symbols, plus the ghostty_wasm_* helpers on wasm32.
Verification:
- tests/abi.rs generates a C probe from the headers, compiled with cc,
that checks sizeof/alignof/offsetof of every struct/union, every
enumerator and #define against Rust, and links every declared symbol;
nm -D exports equal the declared functions.
- Ghostty's example/c-vt* programs compile unchanged against the Rust
library (shared and static) and produce the expected output.
- The wasm32 build runs Ghostty's wasm-key-encode/wasm-sgr example
scripts unmodified under node (upstream's wasm-sgr tag table is stale
vs sgr.h; a regenerated copy checks full output).
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-vt-capi (22 unit + 2 ABI + 5 C + 3 wasm tests)
The GTK mouse handlers now delegate to *_impl methods taking button and
modifier state, so the real controllers and the debug input replay share
one code path. The replay hook gained mouse-move/press/release, click,
drag, scroll, resize, clipboard-set/dump, windows-dump and
window-screenshot steps (replayed presses bypass the focus-transfer
first-click rule since the replay window isn't compositor-focused).
Verified in the real app on Wayland (docs/rewrite/notes/verification-
V3.md): nvim (colors, status line, cursor shapes, alt-screen restore),
htop (rendering, mouse-click column sorting), less (alternate scroll),
tmux (splits, status bar), drag/double/triple-click selection into
PRIMARY, clipboard copy, context menu, scrollback and reflow on resize,
CJK/emoji/ZWJ/nerd-font widths, kitty graphics images and the unsafe
paste confirmation dialog. No product bugs were found.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-apprt-gtk (incl. parse_mouse_steps)
Addresses the partial ports listed in
docs/rewrite/notes/review-completeness-codex.md (details in
docs/rewrite/notes/gaps-X2.md):
- Flatpak: the exit watcher no longer consumes the host command; a
shared FlatpakSignalHandle lets closing a surface still SIGHUP the
host process group.
- Child environment is byte-preserving end to end (ghostty_os::EnvMap
of OsStrings) and Snap paths are filtered like filterSnapPaths.
- argv handling no longer panics on non-UTF-8 arguments.
- URI percent-decoding keeps raw bytes; OSC 7 pwd is passed through
without lossy conversion.
- Keybinding comparison/hashing uses full Unicode case folding from a
table generated from CaseFolding.txt (Unicode 17.0.0).
- Link regexes set Oniguruma's whole-search retry limit through the new
minimal ghostty-onig crate (one SAFETY-commented FFI call).
- OSC 9 NUL-capacity check ordering matches Zig.
- Wayland registry binds/clears globals advertised after startup.
- Custom shaders may pass sampler2D to helper functions (naga adapter).
- +list-themes preview renders OSC 8 links, styled underlines and
follows color-scheme reports.
Also includes the inspector's integration edits in shared files
(renderer state hook, termio VT recording, core/apprt-gtk wiring), X1's
config/input/cli additions for completion generation, and a fix for a
race in the termio backpressure test (it wrote before `stty raw`
applied, so the cooked line discipline dropped bytes past MAX_CANON).
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace
- cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
Ports ZIG/src/inspector (the Dear ImGui terminal inspector) as the
ghostty-inspector crate using dear-imgui-rs + dear-imgui-glow (imgui-rs
lacks a safe docking API): screen, modes, keyboard events, terminal IO
/ VT sequence log with filtering, cell inspector with picking, page
list, renderer and size/font info, with Ghostty's docking layout. The
crate denies unsafe except a single dock.rs module wrapping DockBuilder.
GTK: imgui_widget, inspector_widget and inspector_window classes with
their blueprints replace the former no-op; ctrl+shift+i toggles the
inspector window.
Core: activate/deactivate hooks, key event and mouse recording, and VT
stream recording in termio while an inspector is active, as in Zig;
overlay features reach the renderer through an InspectorHook on the
render state. The debug input replay hook gained inspector-screenshot/
click/scroll steps used to verify all tabs in the real app.
Deviations: font size scales with the display scale instead of Zig's
fixed 16*2; pop-out dock splits apply one frame later; DCS/APC
descriptions are approximated.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-inspector (15 incl. headless full-UI draw)
- cargo test -p ghostty-core --test e2e_inspector (4)
Ports Ghostty's build-data helpers (main_build_data.zig, src/extra/*,
build/mdgen) as the ghostty-build-data binary: bash/zsh/fish
completions, Vim syntax/ftdetect/ftplugin/compiler, Sublime syntax (also
used by bat), terminfo source and ghostty(1)/ghostty(5) markdown. With
the version set to the installed 1.3.1-arch2, all generated files are
byte-identical to the installed Ghostty's.
- `just docs` renders man pages and HTML with pandoc.
- po/: Ghostty's 29 translation catalogs; `just locales` compiles them
into the com.mitchellh.ghostty gettext domain.
- `just install PREFIX FLATPAK SYSTEM_PACKAGE` installs everything incl.
terminfo text/termcap outputs and mirrors GhosttyResources.zig install
modes (Flatpak D-Bus template without systemd; lib/systemd/user for
system packages).
- Build metadata (version, tip/stable channel, commit, build mode) is
derived at build time like build_config.zig; GTK/libadwaita
compile-time versions come from pkg-config instead of constants.
Test Plan:
- cargo run -p ghostty-build-data -- +bash | diff - \
/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/ghostty (same for zsh/fish/vim)
- just install /tmp/prefix
Adds crates/ghostty-core/tests/e2e_*.rs: 81 tests that drive the real
core Surface, termio, pty and child processes through a fake runtime
(recording apprt actions, in-memory clipboard) with a headless renderer
(ghostty-renderer/src/headless.rs). They cover keys (legacy, DECCKM,
kitty, modifyOtherKeys), keybinding actions and sequences, mouse
selection/reporting/scrolling/links, clipboard incl. OSC 52 and paste
safety, resize, focus, titles/pwd/bell/notifications/progress, child
exit, and IME preedit.
Fixes for issues found by the tests and by the Codex audit
(docs/rewrite/notes/review-core-codex.md, all 9 items):
- replacing a selection with copy-on-select panicked (stale tracked
handles); global new_window no longer inherits a parent; the child
environment uses the runtime's env wholesale so GTK's removals stick;
Flatpak host resources path; locale recovery (ensureLocale) in
apprt-gtk before GTK init and for CLI actions; failed screen-file
opens propagate errors; OSC 52 base64 rules, CSI/ESC binding length
limits and GHOSTTY_LOG parsing match Zig.
- Also includes V2's termio cleanups (tmux viewer wiring in the stream
handler, Pty slave semantics docs, shared cgroup wait loop).
apprt-gtk gains a debug input replay hook (GHOSTTY_DEBUG_INPUT_SCRIPT)
exercising the real GTK key path. With it, the real app was verified on
Wayland: typing and output, new tab, splits, select-all/copy/paste and
font size all work (docs/rewrite/notes/verification-V1.md). Not yet
exercised at GTK level: mouse, real IM-context IME, clipboard dialogs.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (2983 passed)
- cargo test -p ghostty-core --tests (81 e2e tests)
ddidderr