Ghostty 1.4 Released: History limit increased by 5 times, while using less memory

Article

Dongcha Beating AI Newsflash: terminal emulator Ghostty released 1.4.0 after 7 months of development. 172 contributors submitted nearly 2900 code updates. This release focuses on addressing memory usage during prolonged terminal use, with notable improvements to performance and graphics support.

The new version automatically compresses off-screen history when the terminal is idle, decompressing it on demand when reviewing or searching. Compressed plain-text history can save 70%to 90%of physical memory, and the default history limit has also increased from 10MB per terminal to 50MB. Even when filled, it will generally still use less memory than the previous version. It currently supports macOS and 64-bit Linux.

Background tabs also no longer continuously consume GPU resources. In official macOS testing, with 1 visible tabs and 20 background tabs,GPU memory usage fell from approximately 385MiB to 18MiB. The method of reading terminal output was also rewritten, increasing macOS data throughput by 25%to 55%. Directly using `cat` to output a 150MB text file reduced the time required from 1.5 seconds to 566 milliseconds.Ghostty also completed support for animation and relative positioning in the Kitty graphics protocol. Previously, displaying GIF animated images in the terminal showed only a static frame; they can now play normally. The founder said this is the first terminal other than Kitty to fully implement the graphics protocol.

The new version also supports macOS 27, while Linux has adopted a rendering approach based on EGL, and adds `ghostty +ssh`, which can automatically install the required terminal configuration when connecting to remote servers.

This release also fixes 10 security vulnerabilities. One involves Kitty graphics commands: an attacker need only induce the terminal to display malicious output, potentially causing application crashes or abnormal memory consumption and, under certain circumstances, even reading or deleting files outside the temporary directory.

Original link https://m.theblockbeats.info/flash/374131

Key points

Ghostty Released 1.4.0 after 7 months of development, with 172 contributors submitting nearly 2900 code updates.
Off-screen history is automatically compressed when the terminal is idle; compressed plain text can save 70%to 90%of physical memory.
The default history limit increased from 10MB per terminal to 50MB。
In macOS testing, 1 visible tabs and 20 background tabs saw GPU memory usage fall from approximately 385MiB to 18MiB。
macOS data throughput increased by 25%to 55%; outputting a 150MB text file was reduced from 1.5 seconds to 566 milliseconds.
Ghostty Completed support for animation and relative positioning in the Kitty graphics protocol.
The new version supports macOS 27, while Linux adopts a rendering approach based on EGL and adds ghostty +ssh.
The new version fixes 10 security vulnerabilities, one of which involves Kitty graphics commands. Malicious output may cause application crashes or abnormal memory consumption and, under certain circumstances, may read or delete files outside the temporary directory.

AI-assisted interpretation

The following is analysis, separate from reported facts. Verify important claims independently.

Ghostty is a terminal emulator. 1.4.0 enables terminals to retain more history while reducing memory use through compression; background tabs also reduce GPU resource usage and multiple security vulnerabilities have been fixed.

Why it matters to readers

Terminal users may gain greater history capacity, lower resource consumption, and faster output; the security fixes relate to malicious terminal output.

If you use Ghostty, upgrading may improve the experience of prolonged use, background tabs, and large text output, and also includes security fixes.

Risks and unknowns

Evidence did not provide an official Ghostty 1.4.0 release note as independent cross-validation.
Evidence did not provide 10 the vulnerability identifier or specific remediation details for each vulnerability.
The evidence did not state whether the relevant vulnerabilities had actually been exploited.
The performance data comes from the tests described in the text; its applicability to all devices and scenarios is unknown.

Ghostty 1.4 Released: History limit increased by 5 times, while using less memory

Article

AI-assisted interpretation

Why it matters to readers

Risks and unknowns

Related Developments

Related concepts

Keep following

Security Center