feat: Add Windows support via ConPTY#6
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deblasis
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Mar 23, 2026
| functional terminal built on the libghostty C API in a | ||
| [single C file](https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostling/blob/main/main.c). | ||
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| The example uses Raylib for windowing and rendering. It is single-threaded |
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Removed the threading detail because with windows technically this is an incorrect statement since we have two threads. Happy to revert as needed
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Lets wait for ghostty-org/ghostty#11756 and then I'll ask if you can rebase this and clean it up, since I think that'll maybe improve some of this. |
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Mar 24, 2026
# What PR #11756 added IMPORTED_IMPLIB pointing to the .lib import library, but the import library is not listed in the OUTPUT directive of the `add_custom_command` that runs zig build. The file is produced as a side-effect of the build. This works with the Visual Studio generator (which is lenient about undeclared outputs) but fails with Ninja: ninja: error: 'zig-out/lib/ghostty-vt.lib', needed by 'ghostling', missing and no known rule to make it The fix adds "${ZIG_OUT_DIR}/lib/${GHOSTTY_VT_IMPLIB}" to the OUTPUT list. No behavioral change. The file was already being built, Ninja just needs to know about it. ## but_why.gif I am cleaning up ghostty-org/ghostling#6 and I realise that in order to get rid of the CMake workarounds we had before #11756, this change is necessary. # POC I set up a branch pointing at my fork with a POC and it builds, this is the cleaned up CMakeList https://github.com/deblasis/winghostling/blob/test/cmake-implib-no-workaround/CMakeLists.txt
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Add Windows platform support to ghostling using the ConPTY API for pseudo-terminal emulation. The implementation lives entirely in main.c alongside the existing Unix code, gated by #ifdef _WIN32. Key changes: - ConPTY-based pty spawning with shell auto-detection (pwsh > powershell > cmd) - Threaded pipe reader for ConPTY output (PeekNamedPipe is unreliable) - --shell <path> flag for explicit shell selection on all platforms - GUI subsystem build to prevent console window on Windows - Windows CI job on windows-latest - Bump ghostty to include import-lib OUTPUT fix (ghostty-org/ghostty#11794) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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The #ifdef _WIN32 blocks in main() could be consolidated behind a unified Pty struct with platform-specific implementations (eg: pty_drain(), pty_reap(), pty_resize()), eliminating all conditionals from main(). I kept inline #ifdef blocks to match the existing style in the codebase, but happy to refactor if you'd prefer that approach. Anything else, fire away. |
mitchellh
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Mar 24, 2026
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Not bad. I agree the ifdefs are pretty ugly. I'll have to think about it. I put a couple simple requests otherwise.
main.c
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| @@ -1,6 +1,55 @@ | |||
| // --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |||
| // Platform-independent headers | |||
| // --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |||
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We don't need this at the top.
main.c
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| int main(void) | ||
| int main(int argc, char *argv[]) | ||
| { | ||
| // Parse --shell <path> flag for explicit shell selection. |
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let's just change this to argv[1] (no parsing).
Remove section banner comment at top of main.c. Replace --shell flag parsing with plain argv[1]. Update README to match new usage. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Awesome! Done and done and tested. |
# Conflicts: # CMakeLists.txt
Resolve conflicts by integrating: - New ghostty GIT_TAG with updated API - ghostty_terminal_resize now takes cell_width/cell_height - pty_spawn now takes cell dimensions for pixel-size winsize - Keep Windows-specific ConPTY code paths 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
- Change EffectsContext.pty_fd to PtyHandle for Windows compatibility - Fix effects_ctx initialization for both platforms - Use platform-specific pty handle in effects context 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
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Adds Windows support using the ConPTY API for terminal emulation.
All behind #ifdef _WIN32 in main.c, Unix codepath unchanged.
Tested on Win, Mac and Linux