gtk: window border is not removed if window-decoration is false

[echasnovski]

On current main (4cf6202) window border is not removed with window-decoration=false but it is removed with gtk-titlebar=false.
I've bisected the behavior change to 2d7baaa (i.e. #1950).

As documentation says that both titlebar and borders should be disabled when window-decoration=false, I am not sure if this is an issue with documentation or code.

OS: Linux
Window manager: i3

Screenshots:

ghostty (with default config):

ghostty --window-decoration=false:

ghostty --gtk-titlebar=false:

[mitchellh]

Hm, I could use a GTK expert on this one. We have to create the titlebar for toggling window decorations to work, adding it later didn't work in my testing (but could be a skill issue). Should we update the docs here?

cc @tristan957 @jcollie

[tristan957]

Reading the GTK documentation, it isn't clear how the two properties interact. What is the benefit of having separate window-decoration and gtk-titlebar options? Should they just be combined into a unified window-decoration option with the caveat that on linux window-decoration also turns off the titlebar?

[neurocyte]

There are four different states, so two bits make sense. The naming of the options seems wrong though.

window-decoration, gtk-titlebar

1. true, true = full gtk title bar and normal border with rounded corners
2. false, true = no titlebar, normal border with rounded corners
3. true, false = plain titlebar with no controls, normal border with rounded corners
4. false, false = no window decorations at all

[mitchellh]

The issue is that we want to provide toggle_window_decorations action. For that to work, the header must already exist. We can't at runtime with an existing window toggle them without that (again, may be a skill issue but the obvious approach didn't work for me).

For that reason, I'm leaning towards updating the docs that this may include a border unless BOTH are false.

[neurocyte]

To match the documentation and parameter names I would say that gtk-titlebar=false should mean state 2 (in my last post) and window-decoration=false should mean state 4 (irrespective of gtk-titlebar). State 3 is pretty useless I'd say.

[mitchellh]

I believe this will be fixed with #2222. If someone could confirm that'd be great. It wasn't my intention to fix this issue with that PR but it may work. If it didn't work then please comment and I'll reopen.

[echasnovski]

@mitchellh, I still can reproduce the same behavior in debug build at info: ghostty version=0.1.0-main+3558ac9a.

The main confusion here for me is that --window-decoration=false does not remove border (although based on the name I'd assume it would) while --gtk-titlebar=false does (although based on the name I'd assume it would not).

[mitchellh]

Got it. Yeah I think we need to fix this with docs because it appears to just be a silly GTK quirk and potentially theme dependent too.

[tjbarber]

Confirmed that this is still happening, but they do go away with:

gtk-titlebar=false
window-decoration=false

[davidbudzynski]

I'm having similar issue using Arch and Qtile WM. It looks like window-decoration = false yields removes decorations but rounded corners stay like so:

if I comment out window-decoration = false and add gtk-titlebar = false, this solves my issue with rounded corners being present.

I'm assuming that gtk-titlebar is Linux specific or Linux with a WM specific and
window-decoration is irrelevant?

[treeman]

As of today (1.0.2-main+60611b8a) I can no longer disable borders with window-decoration nor gtk-titlebar:

window-decoration = false
gtk-titlebar = false

gtk-titlebar doesn't seem to have any effect anymore.

Edit: Reverting to 1.0.1-HEAD+a8e5eef1 fixed the issue

[davidbudzynski]

Same here actually.

…

On Wed, 1 Jan 2025, 21:44 Jonas Hietala, ***@***.***> wrote: As of today (1.0.2-main+60611b8a) I can no longer disable borders with window-decoration nor gtk-titlebar: window-decoration = false gtk-titlebar = false border.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4db51fd5-1f0a-495a-b383-56188f39cd83> gtk-titlebar doesn't seem to have any effect anymore. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2023 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANPFTKKAHXZ3YOLV4KZGPJD2IRHTNAVCNFSM6AAAAABL2EWQK6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDKNRXGE2DAOBUGQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jcollie]

See #4224

[treeman]

See #4224

Thank you, gtk-adwaita = false made the borders go away again.

[Gelmo]

Small problem. With gtk-adwaita = false, the tabs are no longer respecting the window theme. Config:

theme = DraculaFix
window-theme = ghostty
gtk-titlebar = false
gtk-adwaita = false

Screenshot:

Description:

The top window shows gtk-adwaita = true, and the bottom window shows gtk-adwaita = false. I'd like to have the lack of border from the bottom window, with the colors used in the top window. I actually prefer the styling of the non-Adwaita tab bar, but wish it was the same colors as specified for the Ghostty theme.

I think the following should all be configurable by the user:

• No title bar (both windows shown above)
• No border (the bottom window shown above)
• Properly themed tabs regardless of whether or not Adwaita is used

Ideal config:

theme = DraculaFix
window-theme = ghostty
gtk-titlebar = false
gtk-border = false
tab-theme = ghostty

Or

theme = DraculaFix
window-theme = ghostty
gtk-titlebar = false
gtk-border = false
tab-theme = ghostty
gtk-adwaita = false

The only difference in the above configs would be the layout/rounding/highlighting of the tab bar (Adwaita layout vs vanilla GTK layout), with both using the same colors.

I suppose this could help get what I want - #4089 - But still leaving my opinions here in case others feel the same

[tristan957]

Small problem. With gtk-adwaita = false, the tabs are no longer respecting the window theme.

Yes, this is expected behavior, and is documented as such. Please read the documentation.

[Gelmo]

Yes, this is expected behavior, and is documented as such. Please read the documentation.

Right, I have done so. I'm posting because my desired behavior is not currently supported, and it's related to this issue. As discussed in this issue and #4224 the gtk window border is shown unless you set gtk-adwaita = false.

I'm stating that setting gtk-adwaita = false results in other changes, as well, which are undesirable to this user (me). And therefore, having a way to disable the border while respecting the used theme could be beneficial.

I wanted to post my comment in response to this - #4224 (comment) - However, with that discussion being listed as "Answered" I feel that it may not get attention from the appropriate people; that's why I posted here.

I doubt I am the only person who wants to be able to remove the border while also having their set GTK theme respected. Maybe I am now, with Ghostty being recently made public, but over time there will be others with the same gripe.

I use a non-Adwaita GTK theme. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to be able to use my set GTK theme without being forced onto another theme (Adwaita) that doesn't fit the rest of my environment.

Should I post this in the other discussion? Open a new discussion? Give up on any hope of Ghostty being able to be configured as desired and go back to another terminal emulator?

[Gelmo]

Here's a screenshot of another GTK application that respects my set theme

Just to confirm that the issue is unrelated to my set theme.

Edit: I have "resolved" this by copying my gtk theme from the globally installed location to .config/gtk-4.0/. For all other GTK apps that I use, the theme is picked up correctly from the global install location /usr/share/themes/. Might want to look into why globally-installed themes aren't being found.

[tristan957]

I'm stating that setting gtk-adwaita = false results in other changes, as well, which are undesirable to this user (me). And therefore, having a way to disable the border while respecting the used theme could be beneficial.

Using Adwaita has pros and cons, and is something that every user must balance for their own sake. Reworking the Adwaita theme to meet expectations that it is not meant for is not something that I would advocate for within Ghostty.

[Gelmo]

Using Adwaita has pros and cons, and is something that every user must balance for their own sake. Reworking the Adwaita theme to meet expectations that it is not meant for is not something that I would advocate for within Ghostty.

Yes, I agree that adwaita behavior shouldn't be modified. I'm saying that when adwaita is disabled, it should use the globally-set GTK theme, and in my case, it doesn't unless the theme is installed locally for the user (which is not necessary for other GTK applications that I utilize)

[jcollie]

We're going to explore the use of some Wayland protocols to enable server-side decorations if we're not running on Gnome. So it may be possible to keep Adwaita and have server-side decorations. No promises, this is at the concept stage and very experimental and probably won't make 1.0.2.

[tristan957]

Yes, I agree that adwaita behavior shouldn't be modified. I'm saying that when adwaita is disabled, it should use the globally-set GTK theme, and in my case, it doesn't unless the theme is installed locally for the user (which is not necessary for other GTK applications that I utilize)

We are not doing anything that would preclude GTK from picking up your theme if adwaita is disabled.

[Gelmo]

We're going to explore the use of some Wayland protocols to enable server-side decorations if we're not running on Gnome.

What about people using X11?

[Gelmo]

We are not doing anything that would preclude GTK from picking up your theme if adwaita is disabled.

That's what I would have assumed, but it doesn't explain why other GTK apps didn't require my theme to be installed per-user

[mitchellh]

What about people using X11?

We have experienced volunteers doing good work pursuing Wayland improvements and don’t presently have the same enthusiasm for X11. I’m not against it at all, it’s just the present state of contribution.

[JenChampagne]

For what it's worth, I'm on X11 and was able to hide borders with the following config when I was on commit 037de64e:

gtk-adwaita=false
gtk-titlebar=false
window-decoration=false

I just upgraded to commit ff9414d9 and borders are back despite those configs. I was able to narrow it down to commit c4ece2a, so I'll stay on the prior commit for now.

I don't have the ability to help with code at the moment but I'm happy to be a test subject at least 😆

Some of my system details in case it's helpful:
OS: Linux hostname 6.5.0-0.deb12.4-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.5.10-1~bpo12+1 (2023-11-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux
X.Org version: 1.21.1.7
i3: 4.22 (2023-01-02)

[treeman]

With Ghostty 1.1.0 the borders are still present.

With window-decoration = none I still get a small border but with commit 1baf8928 I don't get this border (1baf8928 on the left without a border, and 1.1.0 on the right with a small dark blue border):

If I add gtk-adwaita = false then i get the same border as in the second image of OP.

Edit: This is on Void Linux with X11.

[pluiedev]

This is fundamentally because libadwaita adds a slight outline to all windows and there's no easy way to disable that aside from custom CSS. The actual fix itself is very simple, but I'm not sure if we want to include this as a part of our SSD styling:

.window {
  outline-width: 0px;
}

Without CSS:

With CSS:

EDIT: Looks like there's actually a bug on our end. We're applying CSD styling even when we're using SSDs.

[treeman]

The small extra border I wrote about above is still there after the latest fix (small blue border to the right):

[CatalinVoineag]

I still have this issue even after the fix was merged.

I managed to fix mine by adding custom CSS to my ghostty config

# ghostty/config file
window-decoration = false
gtk-custom-css = ./custom.css


# custom.css file
window {
  padding: 0
}