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util: Fix stdin redirect for ShellBuilder (#62078)
# Objective

This is a follow-up to my own PR #59270 which fixed the hang it targeted
(#55042) only partially and broke `ShellBuilder::build` for fish.

**The hang is only half fixed.** The agent's terminal tool wraps
commands as `sh -i -c 'exec </dev/null; <command>'`. The redirect sits
on the same line as the command, but POSIX shells parse an entire line
before executing any of it. So when `<command>` has a syntax error, the
whole line is discarded — including the `exec` that was supposed to
close stdin. Interactive `dash` then recovers from the error, finds
stdin still attached to the PTY, and sits at a `$` prompt until the user
presses Ctrl+D.

That means #59270 only helped when the redirect had already run, i.e.
multi-line commands whose error is on a later line. A single-line
command still hangs, including `cat <(echo hi)`, the example from that
PR's own description. Probably prompts or tool definitions changed since
that PR landed which now make it more likely again to run into this
issue, at least with Anthropic models.

**fish runs no command at all.** #59270 also applied the `exec
</dev/null; …` form to fish, replacing its `begin; …; end </dev/null`
wrapper. But fish's `exec` requires a command to replace the shell with,
so a bare `exec </dev/null` is a usage error: fish prints `exec`'s help
text, skips the rest of the command, and exits 0.

## Solution

For POSIX shells, put the redirect on its own line:

```sh
sh -i -c 'exec </dev/null
<command>'
```

That makes it a separate parse-and-execute unit, so it runs before the
command line is parsed. Any syntax error is then reported by a shell
that already has `/dev/null` on stdin, and it exits instead of
prompting.

For fish, go back to `begin; <command>; end </dev/null`. fish exits on a
parse error even when interactive, so it never needed the `exec` form to
begin with.

Only the `Posix` and `Fish` arms change; the other shells' redirects are
untouched.

Note this is still a targeted fix for `dash`. The underlying reason a
syntax error becomes an interactive prompt is that agent terminals are
built with `-i` at all — non-interactive `dash` exits cleanly even with
no redirect. Dropping `-i` would remove the whole class of hang, but it
would also stop sourcing users' interactive shell config in agent
terminals.

## Testing

`cargo test -p util --lib shell_builder` covers the changed command
assembly.

Reviewers can check the shell behavior directly on a PTY, without
building Zed:

```sh
# hangs at a `$` prompt until Ctrl+D
script -qec "sh -i -c 'exec </dev/null; echo hi ;;'" /dev/null

# exits immediately with just the syntax error
script -qec "sh -i -c 'exec </dev/null
echo hi ;;'" /dev/null
```

```sh
fish -i -c 'exec </dev/null; echo test'        # prints exec's help, no "test", exit 0
fish -i -c 'begin; echo test; end </dev/null'  # prints "test"
fish -i -c 'if true'                           # exit 127, no hang
```

macOS is unaffected in practice because `/bin/sh` there is bash, which
exits on a syntax error even with `-i`; Windows goes through the
`Cmd`/`PowerShell` arms, which this doesn't touch. A `zsh`-as-`/bin/sh`
setup is likewise unaffected.

## Self-Review Checklist:

- [x] I've reviewed my own diff for quality, security, and reliability
- [x] Unsafe blocks (if any) have justifying comments
- [x] The content adheres to Zed's UI standards
([UX/UI](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#uiux-checklist)
and
[icon](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/crates/icons/README.md)
guidelines)
- [x] Tests cover the new/changed behavior
- [x] Performance impact has been considered and is acceptable


---

Release Notes:

- Fixed agent terminal commands hanging at a shell prompt after a syntax
error
2026-08-05 08:16:06 +00:00
.agents/skills Add dylint lint library for Zed-specific patterns (#58496) 2026-07-03 22:05:34 +00:00
.cargo livekit: Use our build of libwebrtc.a (#51433) 2026-03-16 10:47:36 +01:00
.cloudflare Improve docs AI readiness (#59577) 2026-07-08 20:54:51 +00:00
.config Increase timeout for test_random_blocks (#50724) 2026-03-04 12:25:12 -05:00
.factory Add humanizer skill for AI writing pattern detection (#50021) 2026-02-24 14:58:52 -06:00
.github Speed up cargo build -p zed compilation (#62059) 2026-08-01 19:42:37 +00:00
.wezel Add wezel scenario for an incremental editor build (#62016) 2026-08-02 18:40:37 +00:00
.zed agent: Remove old edit file tool (#55612) 2026-05-04 09:54:39 +00:00
assets editor: Add configurable git gutter width setting (#61304) 2026-08-03 01:46:00 +00:00
ci Move Nightly release to gh-workflow (#41349) 2025-10-28 13:57:23 -06:00
crates util: Fix stdin redirect for ShellBuilder (#62078) 2026-08-05 08:16:06 +00:00
docs editor: Add configurable git gutter width setting (#61304) 2026-08-03 01:46:00 +00:00
extensions ci: Set and enforce more default permissions (#60222) 2026-07-06 16:02:54 +00:00
legal Document provider safety retention for designated Zed-hosted models (#58967) 2026-06-09 21:54:48 +00:00
nix agent: Re-enable sandbox (#61711) 2026-07-29 13:03:22 +00:00
script Duplicate Bot: Improve candidate retrieval (v6) (#62011) 2026-07-31 15:45:04 +00:00
tooling Speed up cargo build -p zed compilation (#62059) 2026-08-01 19:42:37 +00:00
.git-blame-ignore-revs Add PR 50413 to .git-blame-ignore-revs (#50421) 2026-03-01 00:50:33 +01:00
.gitattributes windows: Make sure zed.sh using the correct line ending (#37650) 2025-09-05 16:25:55 +00:00
.gitignore csv_preview: Add single-line row displaying mode (#61127) 2026-07-16 19:28:22 +00:00
.mailmap Update .mailmap (#47413) 2026-01-22 23:57:26 +05:30
.prettierrc
.rules Fix typo in .rules (#61693) 2026-07-27 05:59:53 +00:00
AGENTS.md ai: Symlink an AGENTS.md file to .rules (#45939) 2026-01-19 15:29:42 +01:00
Cargo.lock gpui: Webgl backend (#62165) 2026-08-04 15:53:09 +00:00
Cargo.toml agent: Fix NTFS warning breaking terminal tool when WSL not available (#62049) 2026-08-03 11:53:30 +00:00
CLAUDE.md
clippy.toml Revert "Revert scheduler update (#46659)" (#46671) 2026-01-14 07:19:13 +00:00
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
compose.yml Remove Postgres and stripe-mock from Docker Compose (#48313) 2026-02-04 03:42:58 +00:00
CONTRIBUTING.md CONTRIBUTING.md: Document the cap on simultaneous PRs (#61516) 2026-07-23 14:34:29 +00:00
debug.plist
default.nix nix: Use flake-parts, partitions, and treefmt-nix (#45321) 2026-02-02 14:26:42 +00:00
Dockerfile-collab Bump Rust version to 1.94 (#51086) 2026-03-30 09:06:59 +00:00
Dockerfile-collab.dockerignore
Dockerfile-cross.dockerignore
Dockerfile-distros Removal of mold/wild scripts and mentions in docs (#53078) 2026-04-08 21:20:02 +03:00
Dockerfile-distros.dockerignore
flake.lock Rust 1.95 (#55104) 2026-04-29 10:27:47 +00:00
flake.nix ci: Remove garnix substitutor (#58033) 2026-05-29 05:56:42 +00:00
GEMINI.md Add missing GEMINI.md rule file for gemini-cli (#38885) 2025-10-02 09:47:29 -04:00
LICENSE-APACHE
LICENSE-GPL
livekit.yaml
lychee.toml ci: Check for broken links (#30844) 2025-06-06 09:39:35 +00:00
Procfile Update instructions for local collaboration (#35689) 2025-08-06 11:10:28 -07:00
Procfile.web Remove PostgREST (#41299) 2025-10-27 13:27:59 -04:00
README.md docs: Remove readme junk (#60008) 2026-06-27 15:06:29 +00:00
renovate.json Remove workspace-hack (#40216) 2025-10-17 18:58:14 +00:00
REVIEWERS.conl Remove past reviewer (#51767) 2026-03-17 16:34:35 +00:00
rust-toolchain.toml Rust 1.95 (#55104) 2026-04-29 10:27:47 +00:00
rustfmt.toml nix: Use flake-parts, partitions, and treefmt-nix (#45321) 2026-02-02 14:26:42 +00:00
shell.nix nix: Use flake-parts, partitions, and treefmt-nix (#45321) 2026-02-02 14:26:42 +00:00
typos.toml agent: Show MCP tool primary argument in tool-call header (#54604) 2026-07-13 14:00:40 +00:00

Zed

Zed CI

Welcome to Zed, a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.


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