Ghostty can be built with -Dfont-backend=freetype, which uses FreeType
without any font discovery. The Rust port only had fontconfig+freetype
(default on Linux) and the CoreText variants. The new cargo feature
`font-backend-freetype` on ghostty-font (forwarded by ghostty-cli and
the root crate; non-Apple, non-wasm targets) behaves like Zig's mode:
font-family discovery, fallback search and codepoint-map overrides are
skipped (embedded fonts only); +list-fonts and +show-face print Zig's
"built without a font discovery mechanism" message and exit 1; +version
reports `.freetype`. The default backend is unchanged.
Also registers the Rust-only benchmark tooling extensions (--time,
--handler=full, ghostty-synthetic +sgr) in DEVIANT_FIXES.md.
Note: `--all-features` now selects this backend for the workspace.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-font --features font-backend-freetype (198)
- cargo build --features font-backend-freetype && ghostty +list-fonts
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)
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)
- 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)
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
Cleanup pass over items collected in docs/rewrite/INTEGRATION_TODO.md:
- OSC 133 printf-q / percent decoders live once in
ghostty_vt::string_encoding; ghostty-os re-exports them.
- CursorStyle and clipboard codepoint map entries have one definition
(ghostty-terminal); ghostty-config now depends on ghostty-terminal.
- ActionKey::docs() trailing blank lines fixed at the source; cli's
workaround removed (+list-actions --docs still byte-identical).
- x11_color exposes names in original case; cli no longer re-parses
rgb.txt.
- One cgroup scope wait loop (ghostty_os::cgroup::wait_for_scope).
- Flatpak passwd lookup implemented in ghostty-os via a local pty.
- +version shows the rustc version captured at build time.
Resources: dev builds find <workspace>/resources automatically (keeping
Ghostty's sentinel-file detection and GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR);
scripts/gen-terminfo.sh (just terminfo) regenerates the compiled
terminfo; `just install [PREFIX]` installs binary, share/ghostty,
terminfo, desktop/D-Bus/systemd/metainfo files and icons.
Test Plan:
- cargo test for vt, os, config, input, cli
- diff `+list-keybinds`, `+list-actions --docs`, `+show-config --default`
against /usr/bin/ghostty
This is the integration step that turns the ported crates into a working
terminal: `cargo run` now opens a GTK window running the user's shell.
ghostty-core ports App.zig, Surface.zig (split into keyboard, mouse,
binding, clipboard and config submodules), surface_mouse.zig and
global.zig, and implements the runtime traits. perform_binding_action
handles every binding action.
Cross-crate integration:
- The core<->runtime traits (CoreApp, CoreSurface, RtApp, RtSurface,
Waker) move from apprt-gtk into ghostty_apprt::runtime_api so the core
stays runtime-agnostic; Scrollbar/RendererHealth stand-ins are replaced
by the real terminal/renderer types.
- termio now uses ghostty_renderer::state::{State, SharedState}; the
renderer calls kitty_update; image-storage-limit is applied at init
and on config change.
- The search thread locks the terminal through a TerminalLock trait so
it can share the render state mutex; termio's Wakeup gained a hook to
wake the renderer thread.
- apprt-gtk: GL proc addresses are resolved through libepoxy's
epoxy_glFoo pointer variables (plain glFoo symbols resolved to null),
default DPI fixed to 96, libadwaita version read without GTK init so
--version works headless.
The root binary dispatches +actions to ghostty-cli (list-fonts,
show-face and new-window are now wired) and otherwise runs the GTK app
with the real core.
Verified at runtime on Wayland and X11: shell prompt and colored output
render, child exit closes the window cleanly. Not yet verified: keyboard
and mouse input, clipboard, IME, tabs and splits (no key injection was
possible in this environment). GHOSTTY_DEBUG_SCREENSHOT=<png> dumps the
renderer's last frame for headless checks.
Test Plan:
- cargo test --workspace (2890 passed)
- cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
- GSETTINGS_BACKEND=memory GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR=/usr/share/ghostty \
cargo run
Ports ZIG/src/cli into ghostty-cli: action detection/dispatch with
per-action --help, and the actions help, version, list-actions,
list-colors, list-keybinds, list-themes (plain listing plus an
interactive ratatui browser mirroring Ghostty's libvaxis UI),
show-config, validate-config, edit-config, crash-report (listing),
ssh-cache and boo (235 embedded frames).
Verified byte-for-byte against the installed Ghostty 1.3.1 for stdout,
stderr and exit codes of most actions, incl. tty output in a pty at
widths 20-200. Known differences: +list-colors --plain prints all 782
colors (Ghostty truncates at 617 because it never flushes), +version
has placeholder build info until build_info::set is wired up.
Deferred: list-fonts, show-face (need font discovery integration) and
new-window (needs GTK IPC); they return NotYetAvailable for now.
Test Plan:
- cargo test -p ghostty-cli (86 tests)
- cargo run -p ghostty-cli --example cli -- +list-keybinds --plain
and diff against `ghostty +list-keybinds --plain`
ddidderr