fix: bash shell integration use-after-free bug from PR #9881 (#9885)

(Claude-generated content below)

## Fix bash shell integration use-after-free bug

### Problem

After updating to the latest `main` branch, Ghostty fails to launch with
bash shell integration enabled on Linux (Ubuntu 25.10). The terminal
window briefly appears and then closes with an error like:

```
/bin/sh: 1: ically: not found
```

The error message varies but typically contains fragments of words (like
"ically" from "automatically").

Related issue was possibly [reported in the comments of PR
#9881](https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/9881) shortly after
it was merged.

### Root Cause Analysis

The bug is a **use-after-free** in the bash shell integration setup.

In `setupBash()`, the `ShellCommandBuilder` is initialized with a
`stackFallback` allocator:

```zig
var stack_fallback = std.heap.stackFallback(4096, alloc);
var cmd = internal_os.shell.ShellCommandBuilder.init(stack_fallback.get());
```

When `cmd.toOwnedSlice()` is called, it returns a slice allocated from
the `stackFallback` allocator. Since the command string (e.g., "bash
--posix") easily fits within 4096 bytes, this memory is allocated on the
**stack**.

When `setupBash()` returns, the stack frame is deallocated, but the
returned `.shell` command still points to this now-invalid stack memory.
When the command is later used in `execCommand()` to build the `/bin/sh
-c "..."` invocation, it reads garbage data.

The garbage data often contains "ically" because it picks up fragments
from nearby memory—likely from the string literal "automatically" in the
comment on line 280:

```zig
// being manually sourced or automatically injected (from here).
```

This is a [known footgun with Zig's stackFallback
allocator](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/16344) - memory
allocated from the stack portion becomes invalid once the stack frame is
exited.

### Bisect / Blame

The bug was introduced **~5 hours ago** (earlier today):

| Field | Value |
|-------|-------|
| **Commit** | `04fecd7c07fccad423ab1c33324a1997e142b6e2` |
| **PR** | [#9881](https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/9881)
(os/shell: introduce ShellCommandBuilder) |
| **Date** | Fri Dec 12 08:59:44 2025 -0500 |
| **Merged as** | `dd06d8a13` |

The previous implementation in commit `c0deaaba4` used
`std.mem.joinZ(alloc, " ", args.items)` which correctly allocated the
result using the arena allocator. The refactor to use
`ShellCommandBuilder` inadvertently changed the allocation strategy to
use stack memory for the returned value.

Other uses of `stackFallback` in the codebase are safe because they
either:
- Copy data to another allocator before the function returns (e.g.,
`env.put()` in `setupXdgDataDirs`)
- Use the data only within the function scope (e.g.,
`stream_handler.zig`)

### The Fix

Copy the command string to the arena allocator before returning:

```zig
const cmd_str = try cmd.toOwnedSlice();
return .{ .shell = try alloc.dupeZ(u8, cmd_str) };
```

This ensures the memory remains valid for the lifetime needed by the
caller, matching the behavior of other `stackFallback` usage patterns in
the codebase.

### Testing

- Verified the fix on Ubuntu 25.10 with Ghostty built from source
- Before fix: Terminal crashes immediately with "ically: not found"
error
- After fix: Terminal launches successfully with shell integration
working

```
info(io_exec): shell integration automatically injected shell=.bash
info(io_exec): started subcommand path=/bin/sh pid=...
info(surface): surface closed addr=...  # Normal close, no "abnormal process exit"
```

### Platform

Primarily affects Linux where `.shell` commands are wrapped in `/bin/sh
-c "..."`. macOS uses a different execution path via `login(1)`.
pull/9887/head
Mitchell Hashimoto 2025-12-12 12:11:06 -08:00 committed by GitHub
commit c198c6dc69
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1 changed files with 5 additions and 1 deletions

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@ -353,7 +353,11 @@ fn setupBash(
); );
try env.put("ENV", integ_dir); try env.put("ENV", integ_dir);
return .{ .shell = try cmd.toOwnedSlice() }; // Get the command string from the builder, then copy it to the arena
// allocator. The stackFallback allocator's memory becomes invalid after
// this function returns, so we must copy to the arena.
const cmd_str = try cmd.toOwnedSlice();
return .{ .shell = try alloc.dupeZ(u8, cmd_str) };
} }
test "bash" { test "bash" {