Add OSC 7 escape sequence support for tracking current working directory #611

basil · 2026-02-01T05:21:55Z

Fixes #606. Tested by reproducing the issue described there and verifying it no longer occurs after this PR.

OSC 7 is a standard escape sequence that allows shells to report their current working directory to the terminal emulator.

basil · 2026-02-01T05:24:33Z

lib/Pty.h

+    /**
+     * Sets the initial working directory.
+     */
+    void setInitialWorkingDirectory(const QString &dir);
+


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/Pty.h#L137-L141

basil · 2026-02-01T05:24:55Z

lib/Pty.cpp

+void Pty::setInitialWorkingDirectory(const QString &dir)
+{
+    QString pwd = dir;
+
+    // remove trailing slash in the path when appropriate
+    // example: /usr/share/icons/ ==> /usr/share/icons
+    if (pwd.length() > 1 && pwd.endsWith(QLatin1Char('/'))) {
+        pwd.chop(1);
+    }
+
+    setWorkingDirectory(pwd);
+
+    // setting PWD to "." will cause problem for bash & zsh
+    if (pwd != QLatin1String(".")) {
+        setEnv(QStringLiteral("PWD"), pwd);
+    }
+}
+


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/Pty.cpp#L232-L249

basil · 2026-02-01T05:27:26Z

lib/qtermwidget.cpp

    connect(m_impl->m_session, SIGNAL(resizeRequest(QSize)), this, SLOT(setSize(QSize)));
    connect(m_impl->m_session, SIGNAL(finished()), this, SLOT(sessionFinished()));
    connect(m_impl->m_session, &Session::titleChanged, this, &QTermWidget::titleChanged);
+    connect(m_impl->m_session, &Session::currentDirectoryChanged, this, &QTermWidget::currentDirectoryChanged);


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/SessionController.cpp#L192

basil · 2026-02-01T05:28:02Z

lib/qtermwidget.cpp

-#ifdef Q_OS_LINUX
-    // Christian Surlykke: On linux we could look at /proc/<pid>/cwd which should be a link to current
-    // working directory (<pid>: process id of the shell). I don't know about BSD.
-    // Maybe we could just offer it when running linux, for a start.
-    QDir d(QString::fromLatin1("/proc/%1/cwd").arg(getShellPID()));
-    if (!d.exists())
-    {
-        qDebug() << "Cannot find" << d.dirName();
-        goto fallback;
-    }
-    return d.canonicalPath();
-#endif
-
-fallback:
-    // fallback, initial WD
-    return m_impl->m_session->initialWorkingDirectory();


Moved without modification to Session.cpp.

basil · 2026-02-01T05:29:02Z

lib/qtermwidget.h

+    /**
+     * Emitted when the current working directory of the active session
+     * has changed.
+     */
+    void currentDirectoryChanged(const QString &dir);
+


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/Session.h#L793-L799

basil · 2026-02-01T05:36:57Z

lib/Session.cpp

    if (!_initialWorkingDir.isEmpty()) {
-        _shellProcess->setWorkingDirectory(_initialWorkingDir);
+        _shellProcess->setInitialWorkingDirectory(_initialWorkingDir);
    } else {
-        _shellProcess->setWorkingDirectory(cwd);
+        _shellProcess->setInitialWorkingDirectory(cwd);
    }


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/Session.cpp#L576-L580

basil · 2026-02-01T05:37:38Z

lib/Session.cpp

+    if (what == 7) {
+        _reportedWorkingUrl = QUrl::fromUserInput(caption);
+        emit currentDirectoryChanged(currentWorkingDirectory());
+        modified = true;
+    }
+


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/Session.cpp#L711-L716

basil · 2026-02-01T05:38:08Z

lib/Session.h

+    /**
+     * Returns the current directory of the foreground process in the
+     * session.
+     */
+    QString currentWorkingDirectory();
+


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/Session.h#L236-L240

basil · 2026-02-01T05:38:31Z

lib/Session.h

+    /**
+     * Emitted when the current working directory of this session changes.
+     *
+     * @param dir The new current working directory of the session.
+     */
+    void currentDirectoryChanged(const QString &dir);
+


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/Session.h#L793-L799

basil · 2026-02-01T05:38:43Z

lib/Session.h

    int            _sessionId;

    QString        _initialWorkingDir;
+    QUrl           _reportedWorkingUrl;


https://github.com/KDE/konsole/blob/23593731801e5023d764cef1f8c52898706534b4/src/session/Session.h#L1001

tsujan · 2026-02-01T06:13:06Z

Thanks a lot for the PR!

It should be checked thoroughly for making sure that it won't cause a regression anywhere. Also, there may be a more direct way of doing it. Sadly, I may not have the required time soon. So, unless another dev reviews it, please be patient.

basil · 2026-02-01T07:15:48Z

The code is taken verbatim from Konsole (references linked above) and has been stable for many years. In addition to that, I have been using it as my daily driver with no issues.

There is not a more direct way of doing this. I know this because I have implemented this previously in Ghostty as well. The Konsole approach (directly copied into this PR) is standard among all modern terminal emulators. The shell keeps track of changes to the current working directory. OSC 7 codes are needed for the shell to inform the terminal emulator of directory changes. (Ghostty goes one step further than Konsole and actually injects OSC 7 code into the shell's startup sequence, a bit too much magic for me.) The terminal can then parse the OSC 7 code and know the current working directory reliably. The only remaining step is to set PWD when starting a new shell (to the value retrieved from the OSC 7 code), without which the shell would have to recompute the realpath from /proc/$pid/cwd and all the work we did would be lost. Thus the handoff is complete.

tsujan · 2026-02-01T10:28:05Z

The code is taken verbatim from Konsole

Konsole has bugs, and as I mentioned elsewhere, the codes of konsole and qterminal have diverged.

basil · 2026-02-01T15:46:09Z

All software has bugs, but code that has been shipping in production for years without any major issues being reported is less likely to have them than code that has been freshly written. This PR consists of the former rather than the latter. While Konsole has diverged plenty in other areas, in this particular area it has diverged very little.

As for my patience, mentioned in a previous comment, I serve on the governing board of a large open source project, as well as an elected role in the Linux Foundation, so I am quite familiar with the time scale of open source software development. Some changes take days, other takes weeks, while yet others take months or years, but ultimately working code that solves problems prevails.

tsujan · 2026-02-01T16:01:57Z

As for my patience…

I asked for it because I should deal with lots of codes in several apps (during the last hour, I was working on 5 different apps), and understandably I can do it only in my free time. We lack enough manpower, and I got very happy when I saw that you attended to those 2 reports. Please keep up the good work.

basil · 2026-02-01T16:35:52Z

That comes with the territory of open source projects maintained by volunteers, with which (as I mentioned) I am more than familiar. Take your time.

To summarize the flow of things (in virtually all modern terminal emulators):

The shell uses PWD if passed to it from the terminal emulator (ideally), or else does a real path of /proc/$pid/cwd (not ideal, because it resolves symlinks to the realpath).
As you use the cd shell builtin, the shell keeps track of the current working directory (with correct symlink names).
If you configure the shell to emit this via OSC 7, then the shell reports this back to the terminal emulator with every command.
If the terminal emulator can read the OSC 7 emitted by the shell, now the terminal emulator can reliably keep track of the (symlink) working directory.
Once the terminal emulator can keep track of this reliably (and not by having to query /proc from the kernel), it can then pass this to new shells (e.g. new tabs or new windows) in the PWD environment variable. The shell uses this in step 1 if provided rather than calculating its own.

Hope this helps!

tsujan · 2026-02-03T16:50:36Z

The code seems good and works with qterminal -w ….

But with this patch, when I open QTerminal inside the symlink folder with pcmanfm-qt (→ #606 (comment)), it shows the target folder instead. Konsole has the same problem but XTerm doesn't — and, of course, QTerminal didn't either without the patch. So, I think Konsole's problem is transferred to qtermwidget now.

I don't think the issue can be in libfm-qt but will check its code again later.

Add OSC 7 escape sequence support for tracking current working directory

ba66f08

OSC 7 is a standard escape sequence that allows shells to report their current working directory to the terminal emulator.

basil commented Feb 1, 2026

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Add OSC 7 escape sequence support for tracking current working directory #611

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Add OSC 7 escape sequence support for tracking current working directory #611

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