Install Ghostty in Windows using WSL

In case you haven’t heard, there is a new terminal emulator that hit the scene, called Ghostty. It is the creation of Mitchell Hashimoto, the co-founder of Hashicorp. While this terminal emulator by Mitchell’s own words is not supposed to be revolutionary in itself, it is a breath of fresh air as a really great terminal emulator that natively integrates into macOS and Linux environments. While Ghostty isn’t said to be compatible directly with Windows Subsystem for Linux, it does work in Linux in general, so I wanted to try it out in an Ubuntu WSL environment. Let’s see how to install Ghostty in Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Not released for Windows yet if at all

I haven’t seen anywhere listed that Ghostty will be released for Windows natively. It seems to be purpose-built for Linux and macOS and there is no talk of it being released any time soon if at all. However, one tool that we have if using Windows that is awesome is Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

I have seen some chatter on Reddit where some users have already ported it over as a Win32 application, but the PR for the project has not been accepted as of yet.

As you all know, WSL allows you to run Linux applications natively in Windows using a native terminal. So can Ghostty run in WSL?

Install Ghostty in WSL by building it from source

You can install Ghostty in WSL by building it from source from Github and the running it from WSL to try it in Windows. Let’s look at the steps required.

Install dependencies and Zig

First, we need to install the dependencies to build it from source:

sudo apt install libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev

Next, install Zig using the snap package:

sudo snap install --beta zig --classic

Clone Ghostty from Github

Now that we have the prerequisites and Zig installed, we can clone down Ghostty from source. To do that, you need to clone it down from the official GitHub repository URL:

https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty.git

Below, I am cloning down the repo into my WSL environment.

Build it from source code

Now that we have the project pulled down, change into the cloned ghostty directory and run the following command:

sudo zig build -p /usr -Doptimize=ReleaseFast

Viewing help options

You can view the available action commands and help options with the command:

ghostty --help

Launching Ghostty

Once the build of Ghostty from source completes successfully, you can launch it using the simple command in WSL:

ghostty

It will pop open a new terminal window in Windows that you can then interact with. You can open additional tabs, and other features.

Viewing Ghostty Theme Preview

You can launch the Ghostty Theme Preview using the command:

ghostty +list-themes

It will launch the Theme Preview utility. You can scroll and click to view the look of each profile in the window.

You can select themes in your configuration file

~/.config/ghostty/config

For instance, to select one of the popular themes like the Catppucin theme:

theme = catppuccin-frappe

You will need to copy the contents of the theme to your directory:

~/.config/ghostty/themes

Impressions?

One of the first impressions you will have with Ghostty is how fast it is. It is extremely fast in native environments like macOS and Linux. It also has GPU acceleration so you really feel this when running the Ghostty terminal.

I would love to see this implemented natively so it can be used as a terminal in WSL in VSCode in a seamless way. I know there are a lot of smart people out there already likely working on this. I want to have more hands on with the terminal to provide a more longterm review of using it in WSL in Windows.

Helpful links for Ghostty

There are helpful links for Ghostty documentation and other resources to note:

• Ghostty
• Ghostty Docs
• https://github.com/ghostty-org

Windows Subsystem for Linux tweaks

Check out my video covering Windows Subsystem for LInux tweaks and mods that you need to know here:

Wrapping up

Have you tried Ghostty yet? Are you planning on trying it? If you were wondering if you can use it in Windows, well, at least not natively. You have to install it in WSL by building it from source. However, as the steps above show, there isn’t much to doing this. Let me know in the comments if you have tried it yet or installed it in WSL.

It’s amazing how much buzz and excitement these types of projects generate and just how much we all know and love the CLI on various systems.