Terminal: Where are the sources for the ConPty?

[E3V3A]

Everything I read and find about the new Windows Console ~WinPty~ ConPty that is to replace conhost.exe, is pointing to this repository. But I cannot find any sources for building the new ~winpty~ ConPTY.

• Where are they located?
• How/Where can I download recent build releases?

[zadjii-msft]

You must be mistaken. Winpty is a community project maintained by @rprichard. Winpty can be used to write terminal-like applications on Windows.

What you're probably thinking of is conpty, which is functionality we've added to Windows to emulate a pty. There are no plans to replace conhost.exe with conpty, rather, conpty is functionality we've added to conhost.exe. With conpty, you can now natively build terminal applications on Windows.

The source for conpty is not open-source, as it is a part of Windows.

The "latest release" of conpty ships with OS updates, so the best way to stay current is to stay on the Insider's Fast Ring.

[E3V3A]

Jesus, yes bad typo after having been reading too much about Consoles...
I meant ConPty!

[bitcrazed]

Hey E3V3A - the ConPTY implementation is internal to Windows Console which, as you know, is part of Windows and is not open source.

Resources

• Background / Announcement / Explainer blog
• Samples illustrating how to use ConPTY
• ConPTY API Docs

HTH.

[E3V3A]

Hi Rich! @bitcrazed

Thanks for the proper feedback. I guess I was a naively fooled by the huge media attention a few years ago that Windows was getting OSS'ed after coming to GitHub and opening a large number of related Repos. Since I'm new to WinAPI development I was simply not aware.

Of course, I'd like to build a hack around this (ConPty) , so that it can also be available on other windows versions, and not only for the W10 insider preview. Hoping to build a conpty that can just be swapped into a (win <10) machine. Perhaps this is impossible?

:+1:

[bitcrazed]

Hey @E3V3A - I think what you may have seen several independent news items:

1. Microsoft moved the source of Windows into Git, not GitHub. The Git repo is hosted internally on our own infrastructure because it is huge and complex
2. Microsoft acquired GitHub
3. Many Microsoft teams are open-sourcing their products/features
4. Certainly not saying it'll never happen, but its unlikely that all of Windows will be open-sourced anytime soon.

[DHowett]

Hah, i just found this issue during a search! You probably realized by now that the source code for conpty and conhost are in this repository :smile: which we made open-source in mid-2019!