codex/codex-rs/utils/pty

codex-utils-pty

Lightweight helpers for spawning interactive processes either under a PTY (pseudo terminal) or regular pipes. The public API is minimal and mirrors both backends so callers can switch based on their needs (e.g., enabling or disabling TTY).

API surface

• spawn_pty_process(program, args, cwd, env, arg0) → SpawnedProcess
• spawn_pipe_process(program, args, cwd, env, arg0) → SpawnedProcess
• spawn_pipe_process_no_stdin(program, args, cwd, env, arg0) → SpawnedProcess
• conpty_supported() → bool (Windows only; always true elsewhere)
• ProcessHandle exposes:
  • writer_sender() → mpsc::Sender<Vec<u8>> (stdin)
  • output_receiver() → broadcast::Receiver<Vec<u8>> (stdout/stderr merged)
  • has_exited(), exit_code(), terminate()
• SpawnedProcess bundles handle, output_rx, and exit_rx (oneshot exit code).

Usage examples

use std::collections::HashMap;
use std::path::Path;
use codex_utils_pty::spawn_pty_process;

# tokio_test::block_on(async {
let env_map: HashMap<String, String> = std::env::vars().collect();
let spawned = spawn_pty_process(
    "bash",
    &["-lc".into(), "echo hello".into()],
    Path::new("."),
    &env_map,
    &None,
).await?;

let writer = spawned.session.writer_sender();
writer.send(b"exit\n".to_vec()).await?;

// Collect output until the process exits.
let mut output_rx = spawned.output_rx;
let mut collected = Vec::new();
while let Ok(chunk) = output_rx.try_recv() {
    collected.extend_from_slice(&chunk);
}
let exit_code = spawned.exit_rx.await.unwrap_or(-1);
# let _ = (collected, exit_code);
# anyhow::Ok(())
# });

Swap in spawn_pipe_process for a non-TTY subprocess; the rest of the API stays the same. Use spawn_pipe_process_no_stdin to force stdin closed (commands that read stdin will see EOF immediately).

Tests

Unit tests live in src/lib.rs and cover both backends (PTY Python REPL and pipe-based stdin roundtrip). Run with:

cargo test -p codex-utils-pty -- --nocapture