pardes - reads stdin into a +Pager pane, and is a terminal's PAGER and GIT_PAGER, Pager pardes|off to opt out; command panes page through cat

A paging command in a terminal, or run through its pty/run, sat in
less, and a pty/run never answered. `pardes -` now reads stdin to its
end, strips terminal escapes (colour, OSC, overstrike), and shows it:
inside a session as a clean <cwd>/+Pager pane made through pane/new and
back at once, outside one as a new editor whose first pane it is, as
`vim -` does. A terminal's shell gets PAGER and GIT_PAGER set to this
pardes's own path and `-` where the user's environment sets neither;
`Pager off`, a setting in /ctl, init and DumpConfig, leaves terminals
started after it to the environment. A command pane's one-shot shell
keeps cat, its output being a pane already.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>

1 files changed, 58 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/src/host_io.zig b/src/host_io.zig
index 8ddb0c90..4ebac9ee 100644
--- a/src/host_io.zig
+++ b/src/host_io.zig
@@ -1255,7 +1255,12 @@ pub const ChildEnv = struct {
         return line[0 .. std.mem.indexOfScalar(u8, line, '=') orelse line.len];
     }
 
-    pub fn build(slots: *Slots) ?[*:null]const ?[*:0]const u8 {
+    /// Which pager a child is given where the user's environment names none:
+    /// a command pane's one-shot shell `cat` (its output is a pane already),
+    /// a terminal's shell `pardes -` (a +Pager pane) unless `Pager off`.
+    pub const Paging = enum { command, terminal, terminal_off };
+
+    pub fn build(slots: *Slots, paging: Paging) ?[*:null]const ?[*:0]const u8 {
         var n: usize = 0;
         var i: usize = 0;
         while (libc.environ[i]) |entry| : (i += 1) {
@@ -1268,9 +1273,15 @@ pub const ChildEnv = struct {
             slots[n] = entry;
             n += 1;
         }
-        // No pager to wait in: a pty/run or a command pane's output is read
-        // whole, and less would hold it at its first screen for ever. Only
-        // where the inherited environment chose none.
+        // No pager to wait in (less holds a run at its first screen for
+        // ever): a command pane's output is read whole, through cat; a
+        // terminal's goes to a +Pager pane. Only where the inherited
+        // environment chose none.
+        const defaults: []const [*:0]const u8 = switch (paging) {
+            .command => &cat_pagers,
+            .terminal => pardesPagers(),
+            .terminal_off => &.{},
+        };
         for (defaults) |default| {
             const set = for (libc.environ[0..i]) |entry| {
                 if (std.mem.eql(u8, name(entry.?), name(default))) break true;
@@ -1288,8 +1299,27 @@ pub const ChildEnv = struct {
         return @ptrCast(slots);
     }
 
-    /// Set for a pane's child only when the user's environment has none.
-    const defaults = [_][*:0]const u8{ "PAGER=cat", "GIT_PAGER=cat" };
+    const cat_pagers = [_][*:0]const u8{ "PAGER=cat", "GIT_PAGER=cat" };
+
+    /// `PAGER='<this pardes> -'`, its own path so no PATH lookup can find
+    /// another; plain `pardes -` where the path cannot be read or quoted.
+    fn pardesPagers() []const [*:0]const u8 {
+        const S = struct {
+            var pager: [std.fs.max_path_bytes + 16:0]u8 = undefined;
+            var git_pager: [std.fs.max_path_bytes + 16:0]u8 = undefined;
+            var entries: [2][*:0]const u8 = undefined;
+            var ready = false;
+        };
+        if (!S.ready) {
+            var exe_buf: [std.fs.max_path_bytes]u8 = undefined;
+            const n = if (comptime builtin.os.tag == .linux) libc.readlink("/proc/self/exe", &exe_buf, exe_buf.len) else -1;
+            const exe: []const u8 = if (n > 0 and @as(usize, @intCast(n)) < exe_buf.len and std.mem.indexOfScalar(u8, exe_buf[0..@intCast(n)], '\'') == null) exe_buf[0..@intCast(n)] else "pardes";
+            S.entries[0] = if (std.fmt.bufPrintSentinel(&S.pager, "PAGER='{s}' -", .{exe}, 0)) |t| t.ptr else |_| "PAGER=pardes -";
+            S.entries[1] = if (std.fmt.bufPrintSentinel(&S.git_pager, "GIT_PAGER='{s}' -", .{exe}, 0)) |t| t.ptr else |_| "GIT_PAGER=pardes -";
+            S.ready = true;
+        }
+        return &S.entries;
+    }
 };
 
 test "the child environment replaces the launcher's terminal identity exactly once" {
@@ -1314,7 +1344,24 @@ test "the child environment replaces the launcher's terminal identity exactly on
     defer _ = unsetenv("PARDES_CHILD_ENV_PROBE");
 
     var slots: ChildEnv.Slots = undefined;
-    const envp = ChildEnv.build(&slots) orelse return error.EnvironmentTooLarge;
+    // Where the user named no pager: a terminal's shell pages into a
+    // +Pager pane (`pardes -`), or, Pager off, as the environment says; a
+    // command pane's through cat. A pager the user named is kept.
+    for ([_]ChildEnv.Paging{ .terminal, .terminal_off }) |paging| {
+        var shell_slots: ChildEnv.Slots = undefined;
+        const shell_envp = ChildEnv.build(&shell_slots, paging) orelse return error.EnvironmentTooLarge;
+        var said: usize = 0;
+        var j: usize = 0;
+        while (shell_envp[j]) |entry| : (j += 1) {
+            const line = std.mem.span(entry);
+            if (std.mem.startsWith(u8, line, "PAGER=") and std.c.getenv("PAGER") == null) {
+                try std.testing.expect(paging == .terminal and std.mem.endsWith(u8, line, " -"));
+                said += 1;
+            }
+        }
+        if (std.c.getenv("PAGER") == null) try std.testing.expectEqual(@as(usize, if (paging == .terminal) 1 else 0), said);
+    }
+    const envp = ChildEnv.build(&slots, .command) orelse return error.EnvironmentTooLarge;
     var terms: usize = 0;
     var colorterms: usize = 0;
     var probes: usize = 0;
@@ -1442,7 +1489,10 @@ pub fn forkShell(
     // not call setenv, whose malloc can deadlock against a pty reader thread
     // that held the heap when the fork took its snapshot.
     var env_slots: ChildEnv.Slots = undefined;
-    const envp = ChildEnv.build(&env_slots);
+    const paging: ChildEnv.Paging = if (one_line != null)
+        .command
+    else if (core) |c| (if (c.settings.pager == .off) .terminal_off else .terminal) else .terminal;
+    const envp = ChildEnv.build(&env_slots, paging);
     const ws = posix.winsize{ .row = rows, .col = cols, .xpixel = 0, .ypixel = 0 };
     // The child says here why it could not become the shell (its chdir or
     // its exec failed, as for a script whose interpreter is not there): the