Files
miniSCP/docs/platform-notes.md
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jgamboaandClaude f7ebed5478 Make Linux a supported platform: HTML context menus + runtime deps + release target
`bun run start` died on Linux with ERR_DLOPEN_FAILED (missing
libayatana-appindicator3.so.1). Fixing the environment exposed the real gap:
electrobun's ContextMenu.showContextMenu is a documented no-op on Linux, and
since the UI suppresses the webview's own right-click menu, EVERY panel context
menu was silently dead there — Send to Other Panel, Open, Rename, Permissions,
Delete, Copy Path, Reveal and the column picker all unreachable. Electrobun
itself logs "Application menus are not supported on Linux. Implement menu UI in
your webview HTML instead." at boot.

- Context menus are now HTML on EVERY platform (ui/src/app/context-menu.ts +
  context-menu.service.ts), not just as a Linux fallback: one implementation
  cannot drift from a second one. The item builders are ported verbatim from
  the old bun menu, so ordering, per-platform labels and the Windows-local
  chmod hide are unchanged, and picks are emitted as the same `ctx-*` / `col:*`
  strings through RpcService.emitMenuAction — App.handleMenuAction is untouched
  and still the single dispatcher for both the macOS menubar and right-clicks.
  Adds what the native menu gave for free: arrow/Enter/Escape keys, viewport
  edge-flip, close on blur/resize/scroll. The Edit item now shows the real F4
  hint instead of the native menu's "e" mnemonic.
- New shellItemAction RPC replaces showRowMenu/showColumnsMenu — the only part
  the webview can't do itself (reveal, open-with-default, copy path). Deletes
  src/bun/context-menu.ts entirely.
- release.ts gains a linux-x64 target. Electrobun emits only the .tar.zst
  updater blob on Linux, so the artifact is a .tar.gz of the assembled app
  folder, mirroring the Windows portable zip.
- Docs: platform-notes gets a Linux runtime-dependency table (AppIndicator is
  linked HARD — a missing lib is a boot failure, not a degraded tray), the
  ldd diagnostic, GNOME tray caveat, known issues and a first-boot smoke test;
  gotchas gets the ERR_DLOPEN_FAILED trail and the benign GLX/GBM startup
  noise; architecture/build-and-release/README updated accordingly.

Verified: backend `tsc --noEmit` clean, `bun run build:ui` clean (399 kB
initial), app boots on Linux with no errors beyond the documented benign
warnings. NOT verified on macOS/Windows — the native menu is retired on those
platforms too, so the menus need eyeballing on a Mac before the next release.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-15 14:23:58 +02:00

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# Platform notes — macOS / Windows / Linux behavior matrix
macOS is the primary target; Windows 11+ x64 and Linux x64 are **beta** targets
(win-arm64 and linux-arm64 deferred). Every platform seam carries a
`PORTABILITY:` comment at the branch site.
## Seam inventory (where platform branches live)
| Concern | File | mac | win | linux |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window chrome | `src/bun/windows.ts`, `index.ts` | hiddenInset + traffic-light offset, UI drag header | native titlebar, compact header | same as win |
| External editor launch | `src/bun/edits.ts launchEditor` | `open [-a app]` | `cmd /c start "" [app] file` | app directly / `xdg-open` |
| Editor app picker | `rpc-handlers.ts pickEditorApp` | /Applications, `.app` | %ProgramFiles%, `.exe` | home, any |
| Owner/group names | `fs/local.ts resolveId` | `id -nu` + `dscacheutil` | undefined → "—" | `id -nu` + `getent` |
| Drive roots | `fs/local.ts listLocalDrives` | empty | `fsutil fsinfo drives` | empty |
| chmod/Permissions | context-menu.service.ts, file-panel, file-actions | full | hidden for LOCAL panels (only flips read-only); SFTP unaffected | full |
| Shell wording | `ui context-menu.service.ts` | Reveal in Finder / Move to Trash | Show in Explorer / Move to Recycle Bin | Show in File Manager |
| Shortcut labels | `ui platform.ts MOD_LABEL/ALT_LABEL` | ⌘ / ⌥ | Ctrl+ / Alt+ | Ctrl+ / Alt+ |
| Tray | `src/bun/tray.ts` | 22 pt template PNG | 16 px colored PNG | colored (needs AppIndicator, see below) |
| App menu | `src/bun/menu.ts` | full menu incl. About | none (early return) — About lives in the options popover | none (unsupported upstream) |
| connections.json protection | `store/connections.ts` | chmod 0600 | `icacls` current-user ACL (0600 is meaningless) | 0600 |
| App data dir | `store/paths.ts` | ~/Library/Application Support | %APPDATA% | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/.config |
| ssh-agent | `fs/sftp.ts` | $SSH_AUTH_SOCK | `\\.\pipe\openssh-ssh-agent` fallback | $SSH_AUTH_SOCK |
| Paths in UI | `ui format.ts joinPath/isRootPath` | "/" | separator detected from the dir string; drive-root regex | "/" |
The **context menu is HTML on every platform** (`ui/src/app/context-menu.ts` +
`context-menu.service.ts`), not a native electrobun menu — see the Linux section
below for why. Only the three shell actions it can't do itself (reveal, open with
the default app, copy path) cross to bun, via the `shellItemAction` RPC.
Remote (SFTP) paths are ALWAYS POSIX regardless of host or server OS
(`path.posix` throughout `fs/sftp.ts`).
## Memory footprint (expected, not a bug)
Investigated 2026-07 — packaged build. Roughly **~200 MB macOS / ~300 MB
Windows** (Linux sits near macOS: WebKitGTK, like WKWebView, is lighter than
Chromium), which is normal for a Bun + system-WebView app (30 MB is native /
no-web-engine territory; Tauri-class apps run ~80–200 MB, Electron 150–400 MB).
Not reducible to tens of MB without dropping the web UI.
- macOS splits across several "miniSCP" processes: the **Bun main** (~120 MB:
backend + the bundled electrobun runtime + live SSH sessions — the largest and
least reducible piece), the **`views://app`** WKWebView content process (~60 MB,
the Angular UI), and the standard WebKit **Networking** / **Graphics and
Media** helpers. All are one app; WebKit just names them per-role.
- Windows is higher because **WebView2 is Chromium** (multi-process: browser +
GPU + renderer + utility + crashpad), vs macOS's lighter WKWebKit.
- Measure against a **packaged** build — `bun run dev` inflates the WebContent
heap (ng-serve, unminified, sourcemaps, live-reload) and is not representative.
- Verified non-issues: transfers stream (no whole-file buffering), icons
tree-shaken to ~33 glyphs, zoneless Angular, 364 KB prod bundle.
- Only real growth levers if this ever matters: the file list is **not
virtualized** (a directory with tens of thousands of entries retains a DOM row
each), and each open tab keeps both panels' full `entries` arrays; terminal
transfers are retained until cleared. None affect normal use.
## Linux runtime dependencies (REQUIRED — the app will not start without them)
electrobun's `libNativeWrapper.so` links AppIndicator *hard* for the tray, so a
missing library is a hard boot failure (`ERR_DLOPEN_FAILED` out of `bun:ffi`
`dlopen`), not a degraded tray. The transitive deps (`libdbusmenu-glib`,
`libdbusmenu-gtk3`, `libayatana-indicator3`, `libayatana-ido3`) come in as
package dependencies:
| Distro | Install |
|---|---|
| Arch / CachyOS | `sudo pacman -S libayatana-appindicator` |
| Debian / Ubuntu | `sudo apt install libayatana-appindicator3-1` |
| Fedora | `sudo dnf install libayatana-appindicator-gtk3` |
GTK/WebKit itself comes from the distro too — electrobun uses the system webview
(`bundleCEF: false`), so `webkit2gtk` must be present.
Diagnosing a boot failure:
```sh
ldd build/dev-linux-x64/*/bin/libNativeWrapper.so | grep 'not found'
```
`libasar.so => not found` in that output is **expected and harmless** — it ships
in the same `bin/` folder and resolves at load time; only an unresolved
`libayatana-appindicator3.so.1` is fatal.
**Tray visibility** is a separate matter from linking: GNOME 3.26+ hides the
legacy tray, so the icon needs the
[AppIndicator extension](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/).
KDE Plasma, XFCE, MATE and Cinnamon show it out of the box. The app runs fine
either way — the tray is a convenience, and every action it offers exists in-app.
## Linux known issues (upstream electrobun)
- **No native menus of any kind.** Application menus and `showContextMenu` are
both no-ops (electrobun's `dist/api/bun/proc/linux.md`; the app logs
"Application menus are not supported on Linux" at boot). The app menubar was
already macOS-only, and the panel context menus are now HTML on every platform,
so nothing is missing at the UI level — but do not add a feature that depends
on a native menu.
- **Benign startup noise**: `X11 Error: GLXBadWindow (code 170)`, `Failed to
create GBM buffer of size WxH: Invalid argument`, and a deprecation warning
pointing at `libayatana-appindicator-glib`. None are fatal.
- **Unsigned, unpackaged**: the release artifact is a portable tarball — no
AppImage, `.deb`, `.desktop` entry or icon installation. Unpack and run
`bin/launcher`.
## First-Linux-boot smoke test
1. Install the AppIndicator package for your distro (table above), then
`bun run start`. The window opens and the tray icon appears (or doesn't, on
bare GNOME — that's the extension caveat, not a failure).
2. Right-click a file row: menu appears at the pointer, Send to Other Panel is
first, Permissions is present, Escape / click-outside / arrow keys + Enter all
work, and a right-click near the bottom-right flips the menu instead of
overflowing.
3. Right-click empty panel space (New Folder / New File / Refresh / Show in File
Manager) and a column header (checkmarks toggle columns live).
4. Copy Path puts the path on the clipboard; Show in File Manager opens the
distro's file manager; Open (local file) launches the default app via
`xdg-open`.
5. local↔remote transfers both directions; external editor round-trip
(temp download → save → auto-upload) with the inotify watcher.
6. Move to Trash lands the item in the desktop's trash; connections.json is 0600.
7. `bun scripts/release.ts --target linux-x64` produces
`release/linux-x64/miniSCP-Build<N>-linux-x64.tar.gz`; unpack it elsewhere and
run `bin/launcher`.
## Windows known issues (upstream electrobun, documented not fixed)
- **HiDPI blur** — WebView2 renders at 1x on scaled displays
(blackboardsh/electrobun#324, open). Most user-visible defect; wait for
upstream DPI awareness.
- **Notifications** are legacy balloon style (`Shell_NotifyIcon`), not
Windows toasts.
- **Unsigned binaries** — Setup.exe and the portable exe both trigger
SmartScreen / Mark-of-the-Web on first run. No Authenticode support in
electrobun 1.18.1 (signtool post-hook or electrobun-builder are options
later). Installer unpacks to `%LOCALAPPDATA%`, desktop shortcut only — no
Start Menu entry or uninstaller.
- `hiddenInset` degrades to `hidden` on Windows — irrelevant here because
non-mac windows use the native titlebar.
- `findInPage` is a `window.find()` shim on WebView2 — irrelevant here, the
editor find is custom.
## First-Windows-boot smoke test
Code paths written blind (no Windows box was available); verify in order:
1. Build: `bun scripts/release.ts --target win-x64` on the Windows machine —
core binaries download from GitHub releases on first run; Setup.zip AND
the portable zip appear under `release/win-x64/` (the portable step warns
instead of failing if the assembled-app folder layout differs — fix the
`appDir` path in release.ts if so).
2. App boots, tray icon renders colored, window has a native titlebar.
3. Drives dropdown in each panel lists `C:\` (+ others); navigating to a
drive root hides the `'..'` row; the path bar shows consistent `\` paths.
4. local↔remote transfers both directions; self-copy guard still blocks
same-path copies.
5. External editor: default app opens via `cmd /c start`; the Choose… picker
starts in Program Files and accepts an .exe; remote temp-edit → save →
auto-upload works (directory watcher on NTFS).
6. Context menus: Send to Other Panel is the first row item; Show in Explorer,
Move to Recycle Bin (item restorable from the bin), Copy Path; Permissions
ABSENT on local rows, present on remote.
7. Ctrl+T/W/F/S and Ctrl+digit tab jumps; tooltips read "Ctrl+…".
8. connections.json ACL: `icacls connections.json` shows only the current
user after saving a connection.
9. Editor/manager windows open, modal bounce works, About shows from the
options popover.
10. Known-issue confirmation: HiDPI blur on a scaled display (expected until
upstream fixes it).