Selecting text in the command-line, à la Warp

[00-kat]

It would be splendid if one could bind shift+arrow to select or extend text in the current command-line/prompt, similar to what is possible in the Warp terminal.

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Originally #3142; see that for more discussion and workarounds.

See also: #6917, for selecting text in the scrollback, as opposed to the command-line.

[00-kat]

As an aside: Ghostty may need to step in and add selection itself, as some shells (such as Bash) do not support selecting text. Apart from that, this feature is likely entirely rooted in shell integration, unless a Warp-style input panel were to be considered.

Also, some shells (such as Fish) may need little to no changes to facilitate this feature.

[00-kat]

One other thing to consider is whether this change would break users of the Vi and Emacs bindings of their shell. A potential solution is to make this configurable, so that users can choose to disable it were it to interfere with something of theirs.

These bindings should also not override custom bindings of the user's at the shell level. Care should also be taken to ensure that these bindings, were they to be done at the Ghostty level rather than the shell level, do not affect any programs apart from the shell when at the prompt.

[KieranP]

For context (if it helps), to avoid issues with Vi/Vim, Emacs, etc, Warp only shows its custom prompt for shells that have Warps shell integration enabled. So the default shell when opening the terminal, the shell when ssh'ing into boxes (because it uploads the shell integration automatically - this can be disabled), and when opening shells within shells.

In order to use the custom shell in other areas, Warp uses the concept of subshells. In the settings, you can provide which executables Warp should wrap in order to provide custom prompt. IIRC, this is empty by default. So things like Vi/Vim, Emacs, various application consoles (like rails), are not wrapped by default and therefore not affected.

Psuedo code:

prompt_supported = (!current_executable || current_executable in settings.subshells)
if current_shell.integration_enabled? and prompt_supported
  show_custom_prompt = true
  disable_shell_input = true
else
  show_custom_prompt = false
  disable_shell_input = false
end

[Integralist]

I'm hoping the "enable the feature" approach doesn't end up resulting in the same behaviour as Warp where it doesn't support bind keys and custom shell auto-complete.

I've no idea how this all works and gets implemented so I can't comment on anything useful other than voicing my support for having the ability to move the cursor around using the standard macOS key bindings (including selection) but at the same time keep support for bind keys and the auto-complete tools users already utilise.

[00-kat]

to avoid issues with Vi/Vim, Emacs, etc, Warp only shows its custom prompt for shells that have Warps shell integration enabled

…in Ghostty's case, that would be Bash, Zsh, Fish and Elvish. Many users of those shells use the Vi or Emacs (default) bindings.

Edit: for clarity, I'm talking about the keybindings you use at your prompt, not the Vim and Emacs text editors.

[00-kat]

I'm hoping the "enable the feature" approach doesn't end up resulting in the same behaviour as Warp where it doesn't support bind keys and custom shell auto-complete.

Depends. If a Warp-style input panel were added, it would hinder shell bindings and shell auto-completion. But if it were done with keybindings in the shell integration, it wouldn't.

[LeonardoMor]

For what is worth, the Windows Terminal does this well, in my opinion.

On the Windows Terminal, you press Ctrl+Shift+m to enter selection mode (though I don't remember if they call it that). Then the cursor changes. At this point you can move it with the arrow keys. To select, you press and hold Shift and move with the arrows. To go back to normal, you can just press Enter.

I don't think this conflicts with vi or Emacs type bindings.

[rhodes-b]

That sounds much more like a copy mode which is a separate request
#3488

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/selection
that keybind you listed is also not on this list

[00-kat]

Aside from that being like copy mode, I'm not sure if that's desirable as one of the main reasons this feature is requested is because it makes interacting with a terminal emulator more akin to any standard GUI application.

[andreas-karlsson]

Can someone explain (like I'm five) why this is difficult? I'm sure it's something I fundamentally don't understand about terminals.. or is it just about depriving the input from the shell? I.e. if the terminal captures shift+left to initiate selection, it might break shell applications? Is regular cursor movement handled by the shell?

[EReaso]

The input is directly captured by the shell in most terminal emulators, however Warp features its own panel for input.

[ortonomy]

It's just not selection that Warp offers, it's an entire editing experience - just clicking in place to put the cursor in place, selection, deletion, editing just like you would any other text in MacOS.

[00-kat]

This discussion is specifically about selecting text. One of the potential ways to address it (adding an input pane similar to Warp) is going to enable everything else for “free”, but that doesn't change the scope of this discussion.