Windows port (TUI only)

[rezdm]

Port pexc (the TUI) to Windows. No GUI port: on the Windows desktop, Sysinternals Process Explorer and System Informer already own that space — a pex GUI would add nothing. What does not exist on Windows is a good terminal process explorer (htop-class or better) for SSH sessions, Server Core, headless admin, and Windows Terminal users. That is the niche: pexc.exe with the full feature set — tree + network + history + Top Consumers + find-open-handle — in a console.

The architecture is ready for this: pex_core (DataStore, HistoryStore, Settings, viewmodels) is OS-agnostic; the work is one new src/platform/windows/ backend behind the existing three interfaces, portability shims in core, and a TUI technology decision.

Plan

Phase 0 — scaffolding & core portability

• PEX_PLATFORM=windows in CMake (TUI-only; BUILD_GUI forced off)
• Core shims: Winsock in NameResolver (WSAStartup, getnameinfo), localtime_r -> localtime_s, HOME -> USERPROFILE/APPDATA in Settings/exports; exclude single_instance (GUI-only) from the Windows build
• CI: windows-latest job in the multi-platform workflow

Phase 1 — "htop for Windows" (documented APIs only)

• Process list/tree: CreateToolhelp32Snapshot (+ parent-PID with creation-time guard against PID reuse)
• Per-process: GetProcessTimes (CPU), GetProcessMemoryInfo (working set / private bytes), QueryFullProcessImageName, user via OpenProcessToken/LookupAccountSid, threads via Toolhelp
• System: GetSystemTimes / NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemProcessorPerformanceInformation) for per-CPU, GlobalMemoryStatusEx
• I/O rates: GetProcessIoCounters (simpler than Linux)
• Network tab: GetExtendedTcpTable / GetExtendedUdpTable — per-PID with real TCP states (nicer than the procfs inode dance)
• Kill / kill tree: TerminateProcess + Toolhelp parent walk
• Command line: NtQueryInformationProcess + remote PEB read (needs SeDebugPrivilege for foreign processes; degrade gracefully)
• PRIVILEGES.md: Windows section (SeDebugPrivilege, run-as-Administrator notes)

Phase 2 — the Process-Explorer features

• Open handles of other processes: NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemHandleInformation) + NtQueryObject with the worker-thread-timeout trick (NtQueryObject can hang on some pipe handles); drives the Files tab and find-open-file
• Memory maps: VirtualQueryEx; modules/libraries: EnumProcessModules
• Environment of other processes: remote PEB read

Phase 3 — free

History, Top Consumers, CSV export, settings persistence all live in pex_core and arrive with the port.

TUI technology (decision pending)

Option	Reuse of existing TUI	Notes
PDCursesMod (curses API for Windows)	~95% — existing src/ui/tui compiles nearly as-is	Maintained; WinCon + VT backends; mouse, colors, ACS lines all supported. Fastest path.
Native Win32 Console API (what FAR Manager uses)	0% — full TUI rewrite, Windows-only fork of the UI layer	Richest input model (key up/down, modifiers), but FAR's "richness" comes from its widget framework, not the API; two TUI codebases forever
FTXUI (modern C++ TUI framework)	0% — rewrite, but ONE new TUI could replace ncurses on all platforms later	Attractive as a future unified-TUI project; out of scope for the port itself
Turbo Vision (magiblot/tvision port)	0% — rewrite into an app framework that owns the main loop	The genuine FAR/Borland feel; biggest paradigm shift
ImTui (ImGui-to-terminal backend)	reuses the GUI code instead	Clever, but stale upstream and chunky rendering; risky foundation

Recommendation: PDCursesMod for the port (the existing TUI already has the right design and look); revisit FTXUI later only if a unified richer TUI across all platforms becomes a goal.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[rezdm]

Experimental Windows TUI support merged in #71 (commit d0fda6c). pexc.exe builds natively on Windows (MSYS2/UCRT64 + PDCursesMod) and runs, validated on a real host: process tree, CPU/memory/IO, network connections, threads, libraries, and the Details tabs (open files, memory maps, environment) all work; kill with the PID-reuse guard; the search hang and mouse-motion CPU issues are fixed. A Windows (TUI only) CI job keeps it building.

Closing the core "Windows port (TUI only)" ask. Remaining polish (not blocking, can be a follow-up issue if wanted):

• Per-process state (all shown Running) and thread stack traces unimplemented.
• Command line falls back to the image path (no argv/PEB read yet).
• Collection uses Toolhelp + per-process handle opens each tick; NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemProcessInformation) would cut the per-tick cost.
• GUI is not built on Windows.