VSCode: How to run a command after each terminal open?

Question

On Windows I have to run the command start-ssh-agent.cmd on each new terminal session I open. My development environment is VSCode, and I open a dozen new terminals each day. After each terminal open, I have to manually run this command.

Is there is a way to run this command on the terminal each time I open one ?

This may take the form of a VSCode extension, VSCode configuration (settings) or a Windows environment configuration.

Any idea?

x00 · Answer 1 · 2020-03-02T07:41:38.267

On Linux systems you should use:

"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux"

On Windows and OSX:

terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows

and

terminal.integrated.shellArgs.osx

respectively.

If you want to apply shellArgs setting on a per-workspace basis - you can, despite the fact that documentation says:

The first time you open a workspace which defines any of these settings, VS Code will warn you and subsequently always ignore the values after that

At least version 1.42 of VSCode asks you something like:

"This workspace wants to set shellArgs, do you want to allow it?"

See issue 19758

On Linux, if you are using bash (default for shell in VSCode), there are some subtleties:

```
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux": ["your_init_script.sh"]
```
will execute the script and close terminal right away. To prevent this you'll have to end the script with $SHELL command.
```
#!/bin/bash
echo "init"
export PATH=$PATH:/xxx/yyy/zzz # or do whatever you want
$SHELL
```
But that way you end up in a subshell. Sometimes it's unacceptable (Read 1) (Read 2).

"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux": ["--init-file", "your_init_script.sh"]

will leave you in the initial shell, but will not execute the .bashrc init file. So you may want to source ~/.bashrc inside your_init_script.sh

#!/bin/bash
source ~/.bashrc
echo "init"
export PATH=$PATH:/xxx/yyy/zzz # or do whatever you want

And if you already have some_init_script.sh in a repository, and for some reason don't feel like adding source ~/.bashrc into it, you can use this:
```
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux": ["--init-file", "your_init_script.sh"]
```
your_init_script.sh:
```
#!/bin/bash
source ~/.bashrc
source some_init_script.sh
```
some_init_script.sh:
```
#!/bin/bash
echo "init"
export PATH=$PATH:/xxx/yyy/zzz # or do whatever you want
```
Outside of VSCode you can do without creating extra file. Like this
```
bash --init-file <(echo "source ~/.bashrc; source some_init_script.sh")
```
But I could not pass this string into terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux - it needs to be split into array somehow. And none of the combinations I've tried worked.

Also, you can open terminal at a specific folder:

terminal.integrated.cwd

Change env:

"terminal.integrated.env.linux"
"terminal.integrated.env.windows"
"terminal.integrated.env.osx"

And even change terminal to your liking with

terminal.integrated.shell.linux
terminal.integrated.shell.windows
terminal.integrated.shell.osx

Or

terminal.external.linuxExec
terminal.external.osxExec
terminal.external.windowsExec

Surely there has to be more to this answer? If you just set `shellArgs.linux` to a script, won't the shell just execute the script and exit? — Hubro, Feb 28 '20 at 15:04
After a little bit of digging found a better solution: `--init-file`. Updated the answer. Also that may be helpful https://serverfault.com/questions/368054/run-an-interactive-bash-subshell-with-initial-commands-without-returning-to-the?newreg=627eeaeb1c9741c6944c3b83fa0db39d — x00, Feb 28 '20 at 16:42
Well, the man page says `Execute commands from file instead of the standard personal initialization file ~/.bashrc if the shell is interactive` — Hubro, Feb 28 '20 at 18:14
@Hubro, you're right. That took me a while. But I think I've made it. Updated the answer. — x00, Feb 28 '20 at 20:43
Note that to add `["--init-file", "your_init_script.sh"]` in the settings ui (not the json) you need to add `--init-file` and `your_init_script.sh` as two separate items. — Zitrax, Oct 08 '20 at 07:07
`terminal.integrated.shellArgs` is now **deprecated** - see @Robert's answer below for a modern solution. — Jordan Mitchell Barrett, Apr 19 '22 at 05:05

score 24 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 19 '22 at 13:17

24

I actually found a pretty neat Linux solution for this. It should also work on Windows if you use a shell like Bash. I'm not sure if it's possible using vanilla CMD.

Add something like this to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

#
# Allow parent to initialize shell
#
# This is awesome for opening terminals in VSCode.
#
if [[ -n $ZSH_INIT_COMMAND ]]; then
    echo "Running: $ZSH_INIT_COMMAND"
    eval "$ZSH_INIT_COMMAND"
fi

Now, in your VSCode workspace setting, you can set an environment variable like this:

"terminal.integrated.env.linux": {
    "ZSH_INIT_COMMAND": "source dev-environment-setup.sh"
}

Now the script "dev-environment-setup.sh" will be automatically sourced in all new VSCode terminal windows.

edited Sep 19 '22 at 13:17

Zoe

27,060
21
118
148

answered Feb 27 '20 at 17:12

Hubro

56,214
69
228
381

1

Really interesting! Thanks for sharing @Hubro – Sébastien Feb 28 '20 at 18:42
It looks nicer than my answer. But wouldn't it require editing `.bashrc` of every team member? And so require extra work, extra documentation, and can even introduce conflicts, if `ZSH_INIT_COMMAND` (or any name for that matter) already in use in someone's `.bashrc`. – x00 Mar 01 '20 at 15:20
@x00 Yes, but that's fine. The only part of this that is shared with the team is the dev session setup script. Everything else is local to my PC. My team members can choose to source the script manually, or they can replicate my setup if they want. – Hubro Mar 01 '20 at 20:07
1

This is so elegant! Thanks man! – FlySoFast Oct 11 '21 at 08:44
This is the only answer that works with zsh (which has no `--init-file` equivalent) AND doesn't initiate a sub-shell. Very nice solution, other than the downside mentioned by x00 in the earlier comment. – jeff-h Jul 20 '22 at 03:22
@jeff-h this seems to work for me: `"args": [ "-c", "source ${workspaceFolder}/.vscode/terminal/zsh-init.sh; zsh" ]` – Maxim Mazurok May 15 '23 at 13:53

score 20 · Answer 3 · edited May 20 '18 at 07:26

20

You can do the following:

"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": ["start-ssh-agent.cmd"]

Modified from: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal#_shell-arguments

edited May 20 '18 at 07:26

Gama11

31,714
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answered Aug 11 '17 at 13:00

Jacob Bolda

572
7
18

3

use /K command to process command as an immediate command in terminal such as set CLASSPATH, `["/K", "C:\\cmder\\vendor\\init.bat"]` – Voyager Apr 30 '19 at 05:33

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '21 at 02:22

The other answer are great but a little outdated. You will get a warning in VSCode. Here is what I'm doing in my XXX.code-workspace file on linux:

    "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
      "BashWithStartup": {
        "path": "bash",
        "args": [
          "--init-file",
          "./terminal_startup.sh"
        ]
      }
    },
    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "BashWithStartup"

Be sure to make sure your terminal_startup.sh script is executable:

chmod u+x terminal_startup.sh

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 09 '20 at 11:44

4

I use the following for powershell on Windows:

{
    "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": [
        "-NoExit",
        "-Command", "conda activate ./env"
    ]
}

answered Apr 09 '20 at 11:44

Mathieu CAROFF

1,230
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19

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 16 '19 at 23:05

For anyone using the wonderful cmder, you'll need something akin to the following in your settings.json

{
    "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "cmd.exe",
    "terminal.integrated.env.windows": {
        "CMDER_ROOT": "C:\\path\\to\\cmder"
    },
    "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": [
        "/k",
        "%CMDER_ROOT%\\vendor\\bin\\vscode_init.cmd"
    ],
}

And then you can add any aliases into the user_aliases.cmd file that should already exist in %CMDER_ROOT%\\config\\user_aliases.cmd

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 17 '22 at 12:54

After the April 2021 update the configuration structure has been changed. Check the documentation.
There's a distinction even between terminal instances. To run a file on Windows:

PowerShell

{
  "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
    "My PowerShell": {
      "path": "pwsh.exe",
      "args": ["-noexit", "-file", "${env:APPDATA}PowerShellmy-init-script.ps1"]
    }
  },
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "My PowerShell"
}

Command Prompt

{
  "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
    "cmder": {
      "path": "C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe",
      "args": ["/K", "C:\\cmder\\vendor\\bin\\vscode_init.cmd"]
    }
  },
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "cmder"
}

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 25 '20 at 15:42

If you use PowerShell you can add a PowerShell Script to your your profile in which you can execute what you want. Each development environment has 4 Profiles, stored in $Profile:

AllUsersAllHosts
AllUsersCurrentHost
CurrentUserAllHosts
CurrentUserCurrentHost

Eg create a profile in VSCode with

code $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts

Some more details

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 12 '20 at 04:27

After much trial and error, the following worked for me on OSX:

"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.osx": [
    "-l",
    "-c",
    "source script.sh; bash"
],

For context, I'm using this with a jupyter notebook to set environment variables that cannot simply be defined using terminal.integrated.env.osx

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 07 '22 at 19:27

I did this for accessing x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for 2022:


{
    "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
        "PowerShell": {
            "source": "PowerShell",
            "icon": "terminal-powershell"
        },
        "x64 Native": {
            "path": [
                "${env:windir}\\System32\\cmd.exe"
            ],
            "args": [
                "/K",
                "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Community\\VC\\Auxiliary\\Build\\vcvars64.bat",
            ],
            "icon": "terminal-cmd"
        },
    },
    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "x64 Native",
}

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