Reloading config crashes Ghostty / turns off fullscreen

[lutalli]

Issue Description

Hi,

I noticed that reloading the config will crash Ghostty (unless Ghostty is run from a terminal). Not every time, but for every other application session. And in those sessions where it won't crash, if Ghostty is in fullscreen, it will be put into maximized mode. Very strange behavior.

Expected Behavior

Reloading the config should neither crash Ghostty nor turn off fullscreen mode.

Actual Behavior

For one session, reloading the config will crash Ghostty. I shall call this an A-session.

After re-opening Ghostty, it won't crash, no matter how many times I reload. However, it will bring Ghostty into maximized mode if it's currently in fullscreen. I shall call this a B-session.

After re-opening it for another time, it will be again an A-session, meaning that reloading the config will cause a crash again. The pattern then repeats itself.

Exception: When running Ghostty from a terminal, it will never crash. Nevertheless, fullscreen mode will still be turned off by the action. i.e. always a B-session.

Happens even with a completely empty config.

Reproduction Steps

Open Ghostty.

• If it is ran from a terminal, things will always behave like a B-session.
• Otherwise, it might be an A-session or a B-session. If it's A, next time it will be B. If it's B, next time it will be A.

When it's an A-session:

1. Reload the config (by either pressing ctrl+shift+, or clicking on the menu).
2. Ghostty will crash (it will quit).
3. Re-open Ghostty (not from a terminal).
4. It will turn into a B-session.

When it's a B-session:

1. Reload the config (by either pressing ctrl+shift+, or clicking on the menu).
2. Ghostty will not crash, but if it's in fullscreen mode, fullscreen will be turned off and it will be put into maximized.
3. Close and re-open Ghostty (not from a terminal).
4. It will turn into an A-session.

Ghostty Logs

Since A-sessions will not occur when Ghostty is ran from a terminal, I can't spot logs for them.

For B-sessions, if Ghostty is ran from a terminal, I don't see anything being logged in the terminal that runs Ghostty when reloading the config mysteriously turns off fullscreen.

ghostty +crash-report shows "No crash reports".

Ghostty Version

Ghostty 1.1.3

Version
  - version: 1.1.3
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version: 0.13.0
  - build mode : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime: apprt.Runtime.gtk
  - font engine: font.main.Backend.fontconfig_freetype
  - renderer   : renderer.OpenGL
  - libxev     : main.Backend.io_uring
  - desktop env: other
  - GTK version:
    build      : 4.14.2
    runtime    : 4.14.5
  - libadwaita : enabled
    build      : 1.5.0
    runtime    : 1.5.0
  - libX11     : enabled
  - libwayland : enabled

OS Version Information

Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS

(Linux only) Display Server

None

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

GNOME 46.0

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

# The issue occurs even with an empty config

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[mitchellh]

Please check if this reproduces on a tip release, and if possible get us a crash log or stack trace (preferably from a debug build).

[lutalli]

Hi, I tried to build a tip release just now but I got the following error when running zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast:

/snap/zig/14937/lib/std/Io/Writer.zig:1198:9: error: ambiguous format string; specify {f} to call format method, or {any} to skip it
        @compileError("ambiguous format string; specify {f} to call format method, or {any} to skip it");
        ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/snap/zig/14937/lib/std/Io/Writer.zig:700:25: note: called at comptime here
        try w.printValue(
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
/snap/zig/14937/lib/std/fmt.zig:629:20: note: called at comptime here
    dw.writer.print(fmt, args) catch |err| switch (err) {
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~
/snap/zig/14937/lib/std/fmt.zig:658:83: note: called at comptime here
pub inline fn comptimePrint(comptime fmt: []const u8, args: anytype) *const [count(fmt, args):0]u8 {
                                                                             ~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~
src/build/zig.zig:12:44: note: generic function instantiated here
        @compileError(std.fmt.comptimePrint(
                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
build.zig:7:24: note: called at comptime here
    buildpkg.requireZig("0.14.0");
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~
referenced by:
    root: /snap/zig/14937/lib/compiler/build_runner.zig:17:26
    main: /snap/zig/14937/lib/compiler/build_runner.zig:366:30
    5 reference(s) hidden; use '-freference-trace=7' to see all references
src/build/GhosttyResources.zig:16:47: error: struct 'array_list.Aligned(*Build.Step,null)' has no member named 'init'
    var steps = std.ArrayList(*std.Build.Step).init(b.allocator);
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~
/snap/zig/14937/lib/std/array_list.zig:606:12: note: struct declared here
    return struct {
           ^~~~~~

[00-kat]

You need Zig 0.14.x; Ghostty doesn't yet support Zig 0.15.x (xref #8372).

[lutalli]

You need Zig 0.14.x; Ghostty doesn't yet support Zig 0.15.x (xref #8372).

Ah thank you. Now I'm using Zig 0.14.1. I'm getting another error though:

error: error: unable to find dynamic system library 'gtk4-layer-shell-0' using strategy 'mode_first'. searched paths:
  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /usr/local/lib/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /lib64/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /lib/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /usr/lib64/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /usr/lib/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.so
  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /usr/local/lib/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /lib64/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /lib/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /usr/lib64/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /usr/lib/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a
  /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk4-layer-shell-0.a

while both libgtk-4-dev and libgtk4-layer-shell-dev are installed. I spent a lot of time googling but can't figure it out myself.

[00-kat]

Odd; I'm not sure why it isn't finding the library. You can get it to not use the system library if you want using -fno-sys=gtk4-layer-shell though, which is probably the easiest solution.

[lutalli]

Odd; I'm not sure why it isn't finding the library. You can get it to not use the system library if you want using -fno-sys=gtk4-layer-shell though, which is probably the easiest solution.

With -fno-sys=gtk4-layer-shell the build magically succeeded. Thank you so much!

[lutalli]

I built the tip release (Ghostty 1.1.4-HEAD+cd6820eb9) and tested it. The bug does get reproduced, but in a slightly different way - When running Ghostty's tip release from a terminal (I was using Gnome's default terminal), reloading config won't crash it, until I run and close the stable Ghostty:

1. Open Gnome terminal.
2. Run Ghostty's tip release (by executing .../ghostty/zig-out/bin/ghostty).
3. Reload config.
4. Ghostty's tip release won't crash.
5. Run Ghostty's stable release and close it.
6. Run Ghostty's tip release from Gnome terminal again.
7. Reload config.
8. Ghostty's tip release will crash.
9. Run Ghostty's tip release again and it won't crash when reloading config, until Ghossty's stable release is opened again.

Two things I observed:

• Suppose I have fullscreen = true in the config. Then in steps 2 and 9, Ghostty's tip release will be run in a normal windowed mode instead of fullscreen. But in step 6, the tip release will be run in fullscreen.
• I didn't really see any crash log (at least not from the terminal; is there a log file somewhere?). But I saw something interesting: In steps 2 and 9, the terminal that ran Ghostty will keep handling Ghostty's logs (the prompt is occupied by Ghostty until I close it):
  
  However, in step 6, I noticed that the host terminal immediately stopped handling Ghostty and jumped to a new prompt:
  

[lutalli]

UPDATE: I just switched to Ubuntu 25.04 and installed Ghostty 1.2.0 via Snap.

Now reloading config never crashes Ghostty or disables fullscreen. However, fullscreen = true doesn't work on startup anymore (Ghostty always starts in windowed mode). maximize = true doesn't seem to work either.

EDIT: I switched back to Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS and encountered the same behavior.

[lutalli]

Closing this discussion, since the crash has been solved in 1.2.0; or rather it has been transitioned into the problem that fullscreen and maximize are not working, which is being discussed here.