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

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?

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

I use the following for powershell on Windows:
{
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": [
"-NoExit",
"-Command", "conda activate ./env"
]
}

Answer 7

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

Answer 8

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"
}

Answer 9

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",
}

Answer 10

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