From 542d6aa14d2f9a4d522f3ca614dbcc6264191740 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jonathan Marler <johnnymarler@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2026 10:27:40 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] windows: avoid fontconfig and ensure build compiles

---
 .github/workflows/test.yml | 4 ++++
 src/font/backend.zig       | 8 ++++++++
 2 files changed, 12 insertions(+)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index fbbfa8714..21728b809 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -744,6 +744,10 @@ jobs:
           Write-Host "Zig installed."
           .\zig\zig.exe version
 
+      - name: Compile build
+        shell: pwsh
+        run: .\zig\zig.exe build --help
+
       - name: Generate build testing script
         shell: pwsh
         run: |
diff --git a/src/font/backend.zig b/src/font/backend.zig
index 37b3189b6..d24edec79 100644
--- a/src/font/backend.zig
+++ b/src/font/backend.zig
@@ -40,6 +40,14 @@ pub const Backend = enum {
             };
         }
 
+        if (target.os.tag == .windows) {
+            // Avoid fontconfig on Windows because its libxml2 dependency
+            // may not unpack due to symlinks. Use plain freetype for now
+            // which means no font discovery. Full solution would likely use
+            // DirectWrite which has its own discovery API.
+            return .freetype;
+        }
+
         // macOS also supports "coretext_freetype" but there is no scenario
         // that is the default. It is only used by people who want to
         // self-compile Ghostty and prefer the freetype aesthetic.