pty.h File Reference

Pseudo Console (PTY) lifecycle, stream management, and shell process spawning. More...

#include "base/base_macros.h"
#include "base/base_types.h"
#include <windows.h>

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Classes
struct	pty_state_t
	Encapsulates the OS-level state of an active Pseudo Console session. More...

Typedefs
typedef struct pty_state_t	PTY_State
	Encapsulates the OS-level state of an active Pseudo Console session.

Functions
b32	pty_init (struct pty_state_t *state, u16 columns, u16 rows)
	Initializes a Pseudo Console and establishes bidirectional communication pipes.
b32	pty_spawn (struct pty_state_t *state, LPCWSTR command_line)
	Spawns a shell process and attaches it to an initialized Pseudo Console.
void	pty_cleanup (struct pty_state_t *state)
	Terminates the Pseudo Console session and releases all active system handles.

Detailed Description

Pseudo Console (PTY) lifecycle, stream management, and shell process spawning.

Abstracts the three-phase setup required to host a shell inside a custom Windows application:

1. Pipe creation two anonymous pipes (input and output) form the byte-level communication channels between our application and ConPTY.
2. ConPTY initialization a Windows Pseudo Console session is created and bound to the pipe ends it owns.
3. Shell spawning a child process (cmd.exe or similar) is created with a STARTUPINFOEXW attribute list that attaches it to the ConPTY, so all its I/O flows through our pipes.

Typical Usage

PTY_State pty = {0};
 
if (!pty_init(&pty, 80, 24)) {
    // handle error
}
 
if (!pty_spawn(&pty, L"cmd.exe")) {
    // handle error
}
 
// Read shell output via pty.hOutputRead
// Write keystrokes via pty.hInputWrite
 
pty_cleanup(&pty);

Data Flow

App --[hInputWrite]--> [Input Pipe] --[hInputRead]--> ConPTY --> Shell
App <--[hOutputRead]-- [Output Pipe] <--[hOutputWrite]-- ConPTY <-- Shell

Note

This module is Windows-only. All types and APIs used are from the Win32 and ConPTY APIs introduced in Windows 10 version 1809.

Copyright

2025 Alfred Jijo (MIT License)

Definition in file pty.h.