1 files changed, 101 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
index c60fb888..08beae86 100644
--- a/src/main.zig
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -85,6 +85,19 @@ const help_text =
     \\                         PARDES_FS and PARDES_PANE into every pane shell
     \\  --fs=<dir>             ...at <dir> instead. Must be absolute; pardes
     \\                         unmounts it on exit but leaves the directory
+    \\  --detach               run this session with NO terminal of its own,
+    \\                         serving frontends over a unix socket beside the
+    \\                         nested-instance one. The core, the panes and the
+    \\                         undo history outlive every frontend that attaches
+    \\  --detach=<name>        ...named <name> rather than this process's pid, so
+    \\                         a frontend can say which session it wants. One
+    \\                         path component: no '/' and nothing empty
+    \\  --attach               become a frontend of the one detached session
+    \\                         that is running: draw its screen, send it input,
+    \\                         fork its pane shells. Several frontends may be
+    \\                         attached at once and all see the same screen
+    \\  --attach=<name>        ...of the session called <name>, which is what to
+    \\                         use when more than one is running
     \\  -h, --help             show this help and exit
     \\
 ;
@@ -128,14 +141,27 @@ fn nativeMain(init: std.process.Init) !void {
     // bare `pardes` boots straight into tty mode — and so does a `pardes`
     // carrying nothing but flags that say something about the SESSION rather
     // than about its layout: --nested is about this session's relationship to
-    // its parent, --fs is about who may script it, and neither says anything
-    // about what should be on screen. Anything else (a FILE, -n, --tty) is
-    // layout, and answers this question itself further down.
+    // its parent, --fs is about who may script it, --detach is about who may
+    // WATCH it, --attach is about whose screen this one is showing, and none of
+    // the four says anything about what should be on screen. Anything else (a
+    // FILE, -n, --tty) is layout, and answers this question itself further
+    // down.
     opts.tty_only = for (args[1..]) |a| {
         if (!std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--nested") and
             !std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--fs") and
-            !std.mem.startsWith(u8, a, "--fs=")) break false;
+            !std.mem.startsWith(u8, a, "--fs=") and
+            !std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--detach") and
+            !std.mem.startsWith(u8, a, "--detach=") and
+            !std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--attach") and
+            !std.mem.startsWith(u8, a, "--attach=")) break false;
     } else true;
+    // `--detach[=<name>]`: null when it was not given, so the empty string is
+    // free to mean "the default name" the way opts.fs uses it for a directory.
+    var detach: ?[]const u8 = null;
+    // ...and `--attach[=<name>]`, the same shape: null when it was not given,
+    // and the empty string means "the one session there is" (tty.zig
+    // `sessionName`) rather than a session with no name.
+    var attach: ?[]const u8 = null;
     // Kept RAW until every flag is parsed: classifying it means chdir'ing into
     // a directory and recording nothing, and the nested client below still
     // needs the word itself to resolve.
@@ -171,6 +197,22 @@ fn nativeMain(init: std.process.Init) !void {
             opts.fs = a["--fs=".len..];
         } else if (std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--nested")) {
             opts.nested = true;
+        } else if (std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--detach")) {
+            detach = "";
+        } else if (std.mem.startsWith(u8, a, "--detach=")) {
+            // `--detach=<name>` and never `--detach <name>`, for exactly the
+            // reason --fs gives above: the flag is useful bare, so a two-word
+            // form would make `pardes --detach README` a session called README
+            // that opens no file.
+            detach = a["--detach=".len..];
+        } else if (std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--attach")) {
+            attach = "";
+        } else if (std.mem.startsWith(u8, a, "--attach=")) {
+            // `--attach=<name>` and never `--attach <name>`, for the reason
+            // --fs states above and --detach repeats: the flag is useful bare,
+            // so a two-word form would make `pardes --attach README` an attach
+            // to a session called README that opens no file.
+            attach = a["--attach=".len..];
         } else if (std.mem.eql(u8, a, "-h") or std.mem.eql(u8, a, "--help")) {
             try std.Io.File.stdout().writeStreamingAll(init.io, help_text);
             return;
@@ -186,7 +228,17 @@ fn nativeMain(init: std.process.Init) !void {
     // instance resolves against ITS panes' directories, which are not ours.
     // A word naming nothing on disk sends nothing and falls through to the
     // classification below, which already refuses it — no second UI either way.
-    if (!opts.nested) if (nested.outer()) |outer_pid| {
+    //
+    // `--detach` is exempt for the same reason `--nested` is, arrived at from
+    // the other side: it stacks no UI at all. A detached session started from a
+    // pane is a session, not a request that the outer instance open something,
+    // and handing it our positional would leave the caller with no session.
+    //
+    // `--attach` is exempt for the mirror of that: it stacks a UI, but the UI
+    // is a session that already exists somewhere else, and handing our word to
+    // the outer instance would open the file in the WRONG session and leave
+    // the caller with no frontend.
+    if (!opts.nested and detach == null and attach == null) if (nested.outer()) |outer_pid| {
         const word = positional orelse {
             try std.Io.File.stderr().writeStreamingAll(init.io, nested_text);
             std.process.exit(1);
@@ -228,14 +280,41 @@ fn nativeMain(init: std.process.Init) !void {
     opts.startup_config = found.bytes;
     opts.startup_config_path = found.path;
     opts.config_dir = found.dir;
+    // `--detach` is the core with no terminal and `--attach` is a terminal
+    // with no core, so the two together are a contradiction with no useful
+    // reading. Refused rather than resolved by declaration order, which would
+    // silently drop whichever flag lost.
+    if (detach != null and attach != null) return error.BadArgs;
+    // `--detach` replaces the frontend rather than choosing among them: the
+    // core runs here, with no terminal, and the frontends are elsewhere on a
+    // socket (src/detached/). It is checked before `platform` because it is not
+    // a shell — the tty and gui builds can both be asked for one.
+    if (detach) |name| {
+        // Bare `--detach` is named by this process's pid, which is the one name
+        // nobody has to be told and no two sessions can share. Unsigned: `{d}`
+        // prints a leading '+' for a positive SIGNED int, which is nested.zig's
+        // note about the same cast.
+        const named = if (name.len != 0)
+            name
+        else
+            try std.fmt.allocPrint(arena, "{d}", .{@as(u32, @intCast(std.c.getpid()))});
+        return @import("detached/server.zig").run(init, opts, named);
+    }
+    // A frontend is a SHELL, and only the tty one knows how to be one today.
+    // Comptime-folded, so a tty build carries none of this.
+    if (attach != null and pardes.platform != .tty) {
+        try std.Io.File.stderr().writeStreamingAll(init.io, "pardes: --attach needs the tty shell\n");
+        std.process.exit(1);
+    }
     switch (pardes.platform) {
-        .tty => try @import("tty/tty.zig").run(init, opts),
+        .tty => try @import("tty/tty.zig").run(init, opts, attach),
         .gui => try @import("gui/gui.zig").run(init, opts),
         // Every other shell is entered by its host and never links this file
         // at all: the browser through src/web.zig, the macOS app through
-        // src/macos.zig, and the ESP32-P4 firmware through its own app root in
-        // the zig-p4 package, which imports this package's `pardes_p4` module.
-        .web, .macos, .p4 => unreachable,
+        // src/macos.zig, and the ESP32-P4 firmware through src/esp32p4/app.zig,
+        // which is a root of its own in this repository and links the
+        // `pardes-esp32p4` object over the C ABI in src/esp32p4.zig.
+        .web, .macos, .esp32p4 => unreachable,
     }
 }
 
@@ -277,6 +356,19 @@ test {
     // silence. That is the fonts.zig story above, told once already.
     _ = @import("acmefs.zig");
     _ = @import("fuse.zig");
+    // The detached-session transport (src/detached/), same story as fuse.zig
+    // above: it speaks the core's Event/Surface, so it belongs in THIS module
+    // rather than a standalone b.addTest, and nothing the core analyses reaches
+    // it. A TTY build does — tty.zig imports client.zig for `--attach` — but
+    // these names are what makes the transport's tests exist in every other
+    // build too, and `--detach` is not a tty-only feature.
+    // client.zig's own tests drive a real `Session` over a real socket, so
+    // naming it reaches server.zig too — but server.zig is named anyway, for
+    // the acmefs.zig reason: the day client.zig stops importing it is the day
+    // those tests vanish in silence.
+    _ = @import("detached/wire.zig");
+    _ = @import("detached/server.zig");
+    _ = @import("detached/client.zig");
     if (comptime pardes.platform == .tty) {
         _ = @import("tty/tty.zig");
         // tty.zig calls the compositor only from its runtime loop, so merely