Ghostty

From Gentoo Wiki
Jump to:navigation Jump to:search
This article is a stub. Please help out by expanding it - how to get started.

Ghostty is a terminal emulator available for Linux and macOS that aims for high performance and a wide feature-set.

Ghostty was first publicly released in December 2024, as version 1.0.0.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for x11-terms/ghostty Fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator

+X Add support for X11
+adwaita Use gui-libs/libadwaita for better GNOME integration
+system-fontconfig Use system fontconfig instead of the bundled one
+system-freetype Use system freetype instead of the bundled one
+system-glslang Use system glslang instead of the bundled one
+system-harfbuzz Use system harfbuzz instead of the bundled one
+system-libpng Use system libpng instead of the bundled one
+system-libxml2 Use system libxml2 instead of the bundled one
+system-oniguruma Use system oniguruma instead of the bundled one
+system-zlib Use system zlib instead of the bundled one
man Build and install man pages
Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2025-01-14 15:15 More information about USE flags

Windowing backend

Note
GLFW is not a recommended runtime, and its features are not as comprehensive as GTK. There may be some issues, such as input method and Wayland support.

Ghostty recommends GTK as the default app runtime environment, which it will use by default.

To use GLFW runtime, set these USE flags (see /etc/portage/package.use):

FILE /etc/portage/package.use
x11-terms/ghostty -gtk -adwaita glfw

Emerge

Note
These packages are currently in the testing branch. If needed, the article on accepting keywords explains how to install packages from the testing branch.
Tip
To save time building Zig, there is a precompiled binary package available in the Gentoo ebuild repository (using this package may be superfluous for some systems that use binary package host packages by default).


To avoid x11-terms/ghostty pulling in dev-lang/zig as a dependency, emerge dev-lang/zig-bin with the --oneshot option:

root #emerge --ask --oneshot dev-lang/zig-bin

Install x11-terms/ghostty:

root #emerge --ask x11-terms/ghostty

Configuration

Files

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/config - main configuration file
  • $HOME/.config/ghostty/config - main configuration file if the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable does not exist
Note
In this article, the Ghostty configuration directory will be listed as $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/. If the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable is not defined on a given system, replace this with $HOME/.config/ghostty/, as evidenced above. (In practice, both of these paths will often resolve to ~/.config/ghostty/.)

Choose themes

Ghostty has built-in themes that can be previewed using the +list-themes action:

user $ghostty +list-themes
Tip
In the theme preview interface, press ? to list available keybindings. The c key may be useful to copy the selected theme name to the clipboard.

Set the chosen theme by editing the Ghostty config file:

FILE $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/config
theme = tokyonight

Custom themes

Ghostty also supports custom themes. Themes must adhere to Ghostty's format and be placed in the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/themes/ directory.

Here is an example theme converted from Manjaro konsole Breath:

FILE $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/themes/Breath
palette = 0=#1e2229 
palette = 1=#ed1515
palette = 2=#448539
palette = 3=#f67400
palette = 4=#1d99f3
palette = 5=#9b59b6
palette = 6=#1abc9c
palette = 7=#fcfcfc
palette = 8=#7f8c8d
palette = 9=#c0392b
palette = 10=#55a649
palette = 11=#fdbc4b
palette = 12=#3daee9
palette = 13=#8e44ad
palette = 14=#16a085
palette = 15=#ffffff
background = #1e2229
foreground = #17a88b
cursor-color = #17a88b
selection-background = #17a88b
selection-foreground = #1e2229

Once a custom theme file is added, edit the Ghostty config to use it:

FILE $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/config
theme = Breath
Tip
There is a tool to convert konsole themes to the Ghostty format: konsole2ghosttytheme.bash

Usage

Invocation

For a listing of invocation options:

user $ghostty --help

Usage: ghostty [+action] [options]

Run the Ghostty terminal emulator or a specific helper action.

If no `+action` is specified, run the Ghostty terminal emulator.
All configuration keys are available as command line options.
To specify a configuration key, use the `--<key>=<value>` syntax
where key and value are the same format you'd put into a configuration
file. For example, `--font-size=12` or `--font-family="Fira Code"`.

To see a list of all available configuration options, please see
the `src/config/Config.zig` file. A future update will allow seeing
the list of configuration options from the command line.

A special command line argument `-e <command>` can be used to run
the specific command inside the terminal emulator. For example,
`ghostty -e top` will run the `top` command inside the terminal.

On macOS, launching the terminal emulator from the CLI is not
supported and only actions are supported.

Available actions:

  +version
  +help
  +list-fonts
  +list-keybinds
  +list-themes
  +list-colors
  +list-actions
  +show-config
  +validate-config
  +crash-report
  +show-face

Specify `+<action> --help` to see the help for a specific action,
where `<action>` is one of actions listed below.)

Querying current setup

Show config

Pass +show-config to Ghostty to display the current configuration:

user $ghostty +show-config
font-family = Cascadia Code NF
font-family-bold = Cascadia Code NF
font-family-italic = Cascadia Code NF
font-family-bold-italic = Cascadia Code NF
font-size = 11
command = /bin/zsh
click-repeat-interval = 500
auto-update-channel = stable

List keybinds

Pass +list-keybinds to Ghostty to display the current keybinds:

user $ghostty +list-keybinds
super + ctrl  + shift + up             resize_split:up,10
super + ctrl  + shift + equal          equalize_splits
super + ctrl  + shift + left           resize_split:left,10
super + ctrl  + shift + down           resize_split:down,10
super + ctrl  + shift + right          resize_split:right,10
ctrl  + alt   + shift + j              write_scrollback_file:open
super + ctrl  + right_bracket          goto_split:next
super + ctrl  + left_bracket           goto_split:previous
ctrl  + alt   + up                     goto_split:top
ctrl  + alt   + left                   goto_split:left
ctrl  + alt   + down                   goto_split:bottom
ctrl  + alt   + right                  goto_split:right
ctrl  + shift + v                      paste_from_clipboard
ctrl  + shift + a                      select_all
ctrl  + shift + o                      new_split:right
ctrl  + shift + c                      copy_to_clipboard
ctrl  + shift + q                      quit
ctrl  + shift + n                      new_window
ctrl  + shift + page_down              jump_to_prompt:1
ctrl  + shift + comma                  reload_config
ctrl  + shift + left                   previous_tab
ctrl  + shift + w                      close_surface
ctrl  + shift + j                      write_scrollback_file:paste
ctrl  + shift + right                  next_tab
ctrl  + shift + page_up                jump_to_prompt:-1
ctrl  + shift + t                      new_tab
ctrl  + shift + tab                    previous_tab
ctrl  + shift + e                      new_split:down
ctrl  + shift + enter                  toggle_split_zoom
ctrl  + shift + i                      inspector:toggle
alt   + five                           goto_tab:5
alt   + eight                          goto_tab:8
alt   + three                          goto_tab:3
alt   + nine                           goto_tab:9
alt   + two                            goto_tab:2
alt   + four                           goto_tab:4
alt   + f4                             close_window
alt   + one                            goto_tab:1
alt   + six                            goto_tab:6
alt   + seven                          goto_tab:7
ctrl  + comma                          open_config
ctrl  + page_down                      next_tab
ctrl  + equal                          increase_font_size:1
ctrl  + minus                          decrease_font_size:1
ctrl  + zero                           reset_font_size
ctrl  + enter                          toggle_fullscreen
ctrl  + page_up                        previous_tab
ctrl  + tab                            next_tab
ctrl  + plus                           increase_font_size:1
shift + insert                         paste_from_selection
shift + up                             adjust_selection:up
shift + left                           adjust_selection:left
shift + page_up                        scroll_page_up
shift + end                            scroll_to_bottom
shift + right                          adjust_selection:right
shift + page_down                      scroll_page_down
shift + down                           adjust_selection:down
shift + home                           scroll_to_top

Troubleshooting

Title appears abrupt in system's window manager

If GTK's title appears abrupt in system's window manager, turn off the adwaita USE flag firstly:

FILE /etc/portage/package.use
x11-terms/ghostty -adwaita

Then disable the GTK title:

FILE $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ghostty/config
gtk-titlebar = false

See also

  • Terminal emulator — emulates a video terminal within another display architecture (e.g. in X).

External resources

Retrieved from "https://wiki.gentoo.org/index.php?title=Ghostty&oldid=1327498"