From 0ecee7dcca5c9ee078d3a09a22623fe1f91b946d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2025 19:42:57 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] macOS: Workaround for regression in Tahoe 26.2 that breaks
 --detach

Fixes #9288
---
 docs/changelog.rst    |  3 +++
 kitty/launcher/main.c | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index c65560734..3ee369a55 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -192,6 +192,9 @@ Detailed list of changes
 
 - Fix :opt:`tab_bar_min_tabs` not respecting :opt:`tab_bar_filter` (:iss:`9278`)
 
+- macOS: Workaround for regression in Tahoe 26.2 that breaks :option:`--detach`
+  (:iss:`9288`)
+
 0.44.0 [2025-11-03]
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/kitty/launcher/main.c b/kitty/launcher/main.c
index 8a5d54a28..b892215f6 100644
--- a/kitty/launcher/main.c
+++ b/kitty/launcher/main.c
@@ -388,7 +388,16 @@ handle_fast_commandline(CLISpec *cli_spec, const char *instance_group_prefix) {
         exit(0);
     }
     opts.session = get_string_cli_val(cli_spec, "session");
-    if (get_bool_cli_val(cli_spec, "detach")) {
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+    char pid_str[32];
+    snprintf(pid_str, sizeof(pid_str), "%d", getpid());
+    const char *ekfd = getenv("KITTY_EXEC_FOR_DETACH");
+    bool is_exec_for_detach = ekfd && strcmp(getenv("KITTY_EXEC_FOR_DETACH"), pid_str) == 0;
+    if (is_exec_for_detach) unsetenv("KITTY_EXEC_FOR_DETACH");
+#else
+    bool is_exec_for_detach = false;
+#endif
+    if (get_bool_cli_val(cli_spec, "detach") && !is_exec_for_detach) {
         const char *detached_log = get_string_cli_val(cli_spec, "detached_log");
         if (being_tested) {
             printf("detach: true\n");
@@ -419,6 +428,18 @@ handle_fast_commandline(CLISpec *cli_spec, const char *instance_group_prefix) {
             errno = 0; while (close(fds[0]) != 0 && errno == EINTR);
             setsid();
             errno = 0; while (close(fds[1]) != 0 && errno == EINTR);
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+            // fork() without exec() is unsafe on macOS. It used to work since
+            // in this case we havent yet loaded any major Cocoa libraries but
+            // in Tahoe 26.2 Apple broke that as well. So now just exec() on --detach
+            snprintf(pid_str, sizeof(pid_str), "%d", getpid());
+            setenv("KITTY_EXEC_FOR_DETACH", pid_str, 1);
+            char exe_path[PATH_MAX] = {0};
+            read_exe_path(exe_path, PATH_MAX);
+            execv(exe_path, cli_spec->original_argv);
+            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to execv() for --detach with exe_path: %s\n", exe_path);
+            exit(1);
+#endif
         }
     }
     unsetenv("KITTY_SI_DATA");