Reputation: 667

VS Code - Cygwin as Integrated Terminal

I would like to use Cygwin as the integrated terminal on Visual Studio Code on my Windows laptop (as this would give me use of the Linux terminal commands git and G++, etc.) but when I set the value for "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": to the address of the Cygwin application (.exe) then it opens a new Cygwin terminal rather than remaining in VS Code.

So my question is: can I use Cygwin integrated into the VS Code terminal and use that to use commands on it (mkdir, rm, etc.) but also use git commands and use it as an integrated compiler and debugger (for generically but for C++ at least)? And how would I go about this?

Upvotes: 67

Answers (9)

Timothy C. Quinn

Reputation: 4515

NOTICE - As of vscode 1.55 the answer has changed. Its now recommened to use builtin Terminal Profiles functionality in VSCode.

VS Code only allows you to set one default terminal configuration at a time and as its likely that users would want multiple shells to be available at any time like CMD, Powershell and Cygwin Bash, it would be best to use an Visual Studio Code Extension called Shell Launcher.

This tool will allow you to launch any number of shells at any time. First you need to reassign the CTRL-SHIFT-T hotkey to shellLauncher or use a different unused hotkey.

Then, go into your settings.json for VS Code and add the following block:

"shellLauncher.shells.windows": [
  {
    "shell": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe",
    "label": "cmd"
  },
  {
    "shell": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe",
    "label": "PowerShell"
  },
  {
    "shell": "C:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe",
    "args": ["-l"],
    "env": {"CHERE_INVOKING": "1"},
    "label": "Cygwin Bash"
  }
],

Note: alter paths above as required

Now when you hit the hotkey you assigned, you will get a dropdown of the available terminals configured.

Upvotes: 9

Tejas

Reputation: 19

Add these lines to your settings.json file

"terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Cygwin",
     "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
          "Cygwin": {
               "path": "C:\\cygwin64\\bin\\bash.exe",
               "args": [
                    "--login"
               ],
               "icon": "code"
          }
     }

Now when you create a new terminal window it should open Cygwin.

Upvotes: 1

VonC

Reputation: 1329242

Note that with VSCode 1.75 (Jan. 2023), you will have a confirmation step, when using a Cygwin terminal.

See:

issue 167721 ("Bring back unsafe terminal profile paths with a confirmation step")
PR 170193 ("Support detecting terminal profile with potentially unsafe paths and add an opt-in")

Some background on this: there was a CVE recently about picking up shells with paths that could be written to by other users on Windows in a shared user environment.
The cygwin profile was removed and the git bash profile lost a single path it used to pick up:
C:\Cygwin64\bin\bash.exe
C:\Cygwin\bin\bash.exe
C:\ProgramData\scoop\apps\git-with-openssh\current\bin\bash.exe
This change adds the ability to pick unsafe paths up as a "detected profile", similar to Windows PowerShell when PowerShell is not installed, it will not show up in new terminal with profile list by default:

But we do make it more convenient to set up:

From there the user can select the item to make it the default or click the gear to just add it to settings.

This is what that looks like now if you have Cygwin or MSYS2 (new) installed:

Notice the warning icon next to the exe as an extra indicator that this one is special. When you click on either the profile or the gear, it will present this notification:

When accepting:

This is available in VSCode insiders today.

Upvotes: 4

tony

Reputation: 602

Since VS Code 1.55 (March 2021), you can use terminal profiles.

Select File > Preferences > Settings
Select the Open Settings (JSON) icon (top right, same level as tabs)
Copy and paste the code below inside the top-level curly braces {}

  "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
    "Cygwin": {
      "path": "C:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe",
      "args": ["--login"],
      "env": {"CHERE_INVOKING": "1"}
    }
  }

If you have 64-bit, your Cygwin path may need to be:

        "path": "C:\\cygwin64\\bin\\bash.exe",

To open the Cygwin terminal

Press F1
Type: Terminal: Create New Terminal (with Profile)
Select Cygwin

Upvotes: 37

AlexK

Reputation: 69

For VS Code v1.60 works the following approach:"

    "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
      "Cygwin": {
        "source": "PowerShell",
        "args": ["C:\\cygwin\\cygwin.bat -i /Cygwin-Terminal.ico -"]
       }
     }

As disadvantage: opened directory will be the root folder.

Upvotes: 5

Spilvergo

Reputation: 76

If you take out the following part the terminal starts in the project you have open.

// Make it a login shell
/*"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": [
    "--login"
  "-l"
]*/,

Upvotes: 1

Στρατής Χριστοδούλου

Reputation: 353

Combining above answers, this is my working configuration.

{
    "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe",
    "terminal.integrated.env.windows": {
        "CHERE_INVOKING": "1"
    },
    "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": [
        "--login",
        "-i"
    ],
}

{tested at ubuntu 18.04lts, running Windows 7 ultimate 32bt in Virtualbox 5.2.12}

Upvotes: 14

Rick Renshaw

Reputation: 859

These config settings work for me:

{
  // start bash, not the mintty, or you'll get a new window
  "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe",
  // Use this to keep bash from doing a 'cd ${HOME}'
  "terminal.integrated.env.windows": {
    "CHERE_INVOKING": "1"
  },
  // Make it a login shell
  "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": [
    "-l"
  ],
}

Upvotes: 80

Nick Tsai

Reputation: 4149

You could just call the Cygwin.bat without ENV issue:

{
    // Replace with your Cygwin.bat file path 
    "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\cygwin64\\Cygwin.bat",
}

Make sure the BAT scripts fit to your Cygwin.

Upvotes: 17

VS Code - Cygwin as Integrated Terminal

Answers (9)

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