What causes "Failed to get stdin handle" in sinelaw/fresh?

Run the editor from a real console session so a stdin handle exists

Failed to get stdin handle

Error message

Failed to get stdin handle

What it means

The editor failed to obtain the standard input handle on Windows via GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE). It bails out when the returned handle is INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE or null, since stdin cannot be used or redirected without it. This is a Windows-specific console setup step, typically performed when attaching stdin to a TTY.

Solutions

Run the editor from a real console session so a stdin handle exists
If detaching is intentional, allocate a console first (AllocConsole) or open CONIN$ directly instead of relying on GetStdHandle
Check how the process is spawned and stop passing STD_ERROR_HANDLE/closed handles as stdin
On non-Windows this code path does not run; verify you are on the expected platform build

Example fix

// before
let stdin_handle = unsafe { GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE) };
// after
let stdin_handle = unsafe { GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE) };
if stdin_handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE || stdin_handle.is_null() {
    unsafe { AllocConsole(); }
    let stdin_handle = unsafe { GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE) };
    if stdin_handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE || stdin_handle.is_null() {
        anyhow::bail!("Failed to get stdin handle");
    }
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn has_stdin_handle() -> bool {
    let h = unsafe { GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE) };
    h != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE && !h.is_null()
}

Type guard

fn is_valid_handle(h: HANDLE) -> bool {
    h != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE && !h.is_null()
}

Try / catch

match try_setup_stdin() {
    Ok(()) => {},
    Err(e) => eprintln!("stdin unavailable: {e}"), // degrade gracefully
}

Prevention

Run GUI-launched processes with a console or allocate one with AllocConsole
Check handle validity with GetConsoleWindow/GetStdHandle before console work
Avoid spawning the editor with closed stdin handles

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE) on Windows returns INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE or a null handle, e.g. when the process was started detached from any console (no stdin allocated) or stdin was already closed.

Common situations: Launching fresh-editor from a GUI without a console, from a service or scheduled task, or with stdin redirected to a closed handle; running under a runner that detaches the console.

Understand the failure class

Background: "open() failed", "failed to open file", "cannot create file" — what a file open error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of sinelaw/fresh@67894ca546 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d219f6b49870423f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/fresh-editor/src/main.rs:750

    // SAFETY: `pipe_fd` is a valid descriptor this function just created and
    // hands sole ownership of to the returned `File`.
    Ok(unsafe { std::fs::File::from_raw_fd(pipe_fd) })
}

/// Windows counterpart of [`take_stdin_pipe`].
#[cfg(windows)]
fn take_stdin_pipe() -> AnyhowResult<std::fs::File> {
    use std::os::windows::io::FromRawHandle;
    use windows_sys::Win32::Foundation::{
        DuplicateHandle, DUPLICATE_SAME_ACCESS, HANDLE, INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE,
    };
    use windows_sys::Win32::System::Console::{GetStdHandle, STD_INPUT_HANDLE};
    use windows_sys::Win32::System::Threading::GetCurrentProcess;

    // SAFETY: plain console/handle queries; every failure is checked below.
    let stdin_handle = unsafe { GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE) };
    if stdin_handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE || stdin_handle.is_null() {
        anyhow::bail!("Failed to get stdin handle");
    }

    let mut duplicated: HANDLE = std::ptr::null_mut();
    // SAFETY: duplicating a handle this process owns into this process; the
    // result is checked and then owned by the `File` below.
    let ok = unsafe {
        let me = GetCurrentProcess();
        DuplicateHandle(
            me,
            stdin_handle,
            me,
            &mut duplicated,
            0,
            0, // not inheritable
            DUPLICATE_SAME_ACCESS,
        )
    };
    if ok == 0 {

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