Merge pull request #2398 from ghostty-org/app-focus

Make core app-focus aware, used to determine global keybind behavior

include/ghostty.h

@@ -615,6 +615,7 @@ ghostty_app_t ghostty_app_new(const ghostty_runtime_config_s*,
 void ghostty_app_free(ghostty_app_t);
 bool ghostty_app_tick(ghostty_app_t);
 void* ghostty_app_userdata(ghostty_app_t);
+void ghostty_app_set_focus(ghostty_app_t, bool);
 bool ghostty_app_key(ghostty_app_t, ghostty_input_key_s);
 void ghostty_app_keyboard_changed(ghostty_app_t);
 void ghostty_app_open_config(ghostty_app_t);

macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.App.swift

@@ -83,14 +83,27 @@ extension Ghostty {
             }
             self.app = app
 
-            #if os(macOS)
-            // Subscribe to notifications for keyboard layout change so that we can update Ghostty.
-            NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
+#if os(macOS)
+            // Set our initial focus state
+            ghostty_app_set_focus(app, NSApp.isActive)
+
+            let center = NotificationCenter.default
+            center.addObserver(
                 self,
                 selector: #selector(keyboardSelectionDidChange(notification:)),
                 name: NSTextInputContext.keyboardSelectionDidChangeNotification,
                 object: nil)
-            #endif
+            center.addObserver(
+                self,
+                selector: #selector(applicationDidBecomeActive(notification:)),
+                name: NSApplication.didBecomeActiveNotification,
+                object: nil)
+            center.addObserver(
+                self,
+                selector: #selector(applicationDidResignActive(notification:)),
+                name: NSApplication.didResignActiveNotification,
+                object: nil)
+#endif
 
             self.readiness = .ready
         }
@@ -99,13 +112,9 @@ extension Ghostty {
             // This will force the didSet callbacks to run which free.
             self.app = nil
             
-            #if os(macOS)
-            // Remove our observer
-            NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(
-                self,
-                name: NSTextInputContext.keyboardSelectionDidChangeNotification,
-                object: nil)
-            #endif
+#if os(macOS)
+            NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
+#endif
         }
 
         // MARK: App Operations
@@ -266,6 +275,19 @@ extension Ghostty {
             ghostty_app_keyboard_changed(app)
         }
 
+        // Called when the app becomes active.
+        @objc private func applicationDidBecomeActive(notification: NSNotification) {
+            guard let app = self.app else { return }
+            ghostty_app_set_focus(app, true)
+        }
+
+        // Called when the app becomes inactive.
+        @objc private func applicationDidResignActive(notification: NSNotification) {
+            guard let app = self.app else { return }
+            ghostty_app_set_focus(app, false)
+        }
+
+
         // MARK: Ghostty Callbacks (macOS)
 
         static func closeSurface(_ userdata: UnsafeMutableRawPointer?, processAlive: Bool) {

src/App.zig

@@ -30,6 +30,21 @@ alloc: Allocator,
 /// The list of surfaces that are currently active.
 surfaces: SurfaceList,
 
+/// This is true if the app that Ghostty is in is focused. This may
+/// mean that no surfaces (terminals) are focused but the app is still
+/// focused, i.e. may an about window. On macOS, this concept is known
+/// as the "active" app while focused windows are known as the
+/// "main" window.
+///
+/// This is used to determine if keyboard shortcuts that are non-global
+/// should be processed. If the app is not focused, then we don't want
+/// to process keyboard shortcuts that are not global.
+///
+/// This defaults to true since we assume that the app is focused when
+/// Ghostty is initialized but a well behaved apprt should call
+/// focusEvent to set this to the correct value right away.
+focused: bool = true,
+
 /// The last focused surface. This surface may not be valid;
 /// you must always call hasSurface to validate it.
 focused_surface: ?*Surface = null,
@@ -54,6 +69,9 @@ last_notification_digest: u64 = 0,
 /// Initialize the main app instance. This creates the main window, sets
 /// up the renderer state, compiles the shaders, etc. This is the primary
 /// "startup" logic.
+///
+/// After calling this function, well behaved apprts should then call
+/// `focusEvent` to set the initial focus state of the app.
 pub fn create(
     alloc: Allocator,
 ) !*App {
@@ -265,9 +283,25 @@ pub fn setQuit(self: *App) !void {
     self.quit = true;
 }
 
+/// Handle an app-level focus event. This should be called whenever
+/// the focus state of the entire app containing Ghostty changes.
+/// This is separate from surface focus events. See the `focused`
+/// field for more information.
+pub fn focusEvent(self: *App, focused: bool) void {
+    // Prevent redundant focus events
+    if (self.focused == focused) return;
+
+    log.debug("focus event focused={}", .{focused});
+    self.focused = focused;
+}
+
 /// Handle a key event at the app-scope. If this key event is used,
 /// this will return true and the caller shouldn't continue processing
 /// the event. If the event is not used, this will return false.
+///
+/// If the app currently has focus then all key events are processed.
+/// If the app does not have focus then only global key events are
+/// processed.
 pub fn keyEvent(
     self: *App,
     rt_app: *apprt.App,
@@ -294,10 +328,12 @@ pub fn keyEvent(
         .leaf => |leaf| leaf,
     };
 
-    // We only care about global keybinds
-    if (!leaf.flags.global) return false;
+    // If we aren't focused, then we only process global keybinds.
+    if (!self.focused and !leaf.flags.global) return false;
 
-    // Perform the action
+    // Global keybinds are done using performAll so that they
+    // can target all surfaces too.
+    if (leaf.flags.global) {
         self.performAllAction(rt_app, leaf.action) catch |err| {
             log.warn("error performing global keybind action action={s} err={}", .{
                 @tagName(leaf.action),
@@ -305,6 +341,24 @@ pub fn keyEvent(
             });
         };
 
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    // Must be focused to process non-global keybinds
+    assert(self.focused);
+    assert(!leaf.flags.global);
+
+    // If we are focused, then we process keybinds only if they are
+    // app-scoped. Otherwise, we do nothing. Surface-scoped should
+    // be processed by Surface.keyEvent.
+    const app_action = leaf.action.scoped(.app) orelse return false;
+    self.performAction(rt_app, app_action) catch |err| {
+        log.warn("error performing app keybind action action={s} err={}", .{
+            @tagName(app_action),
+            err,
+        });
+    };
+
     return true;
 }
 

src/apprt/embedded.zig

@@ -132,6 +132,11 @@ pub const App = struct {
         surface: *Surface,
     };
 
+    /// See CoreApp.focusEvent
+    pub fn focusEvent(self: *App, focused: bool) void {
+        self.core_app.focusEvent(focused);
+    }
+
     /// See CoreApp.keyEvent.
     pub fn keyEvent(
         self: *App,
@@ -1296,6 +1301,14 @@ pub const CAPI = struct {
         core_app.destroy();
     }
 
+    /// Update the focused state of the app.
+    export fn ghostty_app_set_focus(
+        app: *App,
+        focused: bool,
+    ) void {
+        app.focusEvent(focused);
+    }
+
     /// Notify the app of a global keypress capture. This will return
     /// true if the key was captured by the app, in which case the caller
     /// should not process the key.

src/apprt/gtk/App.zig

@@ -235,6 +235,24 @@ pub fn init(core_app: *CoreApp, opts: Options) !App {
         c.G_CONNECT_DEFAULT,
     );
 
+    // Other signals
+    _ = c.g_signal_connect_data(
+        app,
+        "window-added",
+        c.G_CALLBACK(&gtkWindowAdded),
+        core_app,
+        null,
+        c.G_CONNECT_DEFAULT,
+    );
+    _ = c.g_signal_connect_data(
+        app,
+        "window-removed",
+        c.G_CALLBACK(&gtkWindowRemoved),
+        core_app,
+        null,
+        c.G_CONNECT_DEFAULT,
+    );
+
     // We don't use g_application_run, we want to manually control the
     // loop so we have to do the same things the run function does:
     // https://github.com/GNOME/glib/blob/a8e8b742e7926e33eb635a8edceac74cf239d6ed/gio/gapplication.c#L2533
@@ -1065,6 +1083,72 @@ fn gtkActivate(app: *c.GtkApplication, ud: ?*anyopaque) callconv(.C) void {
     }, .{ .forever = {} });
 }
 
+fn gtkWindowAdded(
+    _: *c.GtkApplication,
+    window: *c.GtkWindow,
+    ud: ?*anyopaque,
+) callconv(.C) void {
+    const core_app: *CoreApp = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ud orelse return));
+
+    // Request the is-active property change so we can detect
+    // when our app loses focus.
+    _ = c.g_signal_connect_data(
+        window,
+        "notify::is-active",
+        c.G_CALLBACK(&gtkWindowIsActive),
+        core_app,
+        null,
+        c.G_CONNECT_DEFAULT,
+    );
+}
+
+fn gtkWindowRemoved(
+    _: *c.GtkApplication,
+    _: *c.GtkWindow,
+    ud: ?*anyopaque,
+) callconv(.C) void {
+    const core_app: *CoreApp = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ud orelse return));
+
+    // Recheck if we are focused
+    gtkWindowIsActive(null, undefined, core_app);
+}
+
+fn gtkWindowIsActive(
+    window: ?*c.GtkWindow,
+    _: *c.GParamSpec,
+    ud: ?*anyopaque,
+) callconv(.C) void {
+    const core_app: *CoreApp = @ptrCast(@alignCast(ud orelse return));
+
+    // If our window is active, then we can tell the app
+    // that we are focused.
+    if (window) |w| {
+        if (c.gtk_window_is_active(w) == 1) {
+            core_app.focusEvent(true);
+            return;
+        }
+    }
+
+    // If the window becomes inactive, we need to check if any
+    // other windows are active. If not, then we are no longer
+    // focused.
+    if (c.gtk_window_list_toplevels()) |list| {
+        defer c.g_list_free(list);
+        var current: ?*c.GList = list;
+        while (current) |elem| : (current = elem.next) {
+            // If the window is active then we are still focused.
+            // This is another window since we did our check above.
+            // That window should trigger its own is-active
+            // callback so we don't need to call it here.
+            const w: *c.GtkWindow = @alignCast(@ptrCast(elem.data));
+            if (c.gtk_window_is_active(w) == 1) return;
+        }
+    }
+
+    // We are not focused
+    core_app.focusEvent(false);
+}
+
 /// Call a D-Bus method to determine the current color scheme. If there
 /// is any error at any point we'll log the error and return "light"
 pub fn getColorScheme(self: *App) apprt.ColorScheme {