VS Code - Cygwin as Integrated Terminal

Question

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?

Do you have Windows 10 on your computer? If so, you can just use WSL instead of Cygwin. — ifconfig, Sep 05 '17 at 22:58
Besides, @user2766296 I don't believe VS Code works with Cygwin as a terminal anyway. — ifconfig, Sep 06 '17 at 15:55
@ifconfig, it does. I just tried it (see answer below), and it works great. Even shell colors (.dircolors) work. — Steven Volckaert, Nov 22 '17 at 07:17
Cygwin is not a **terminal**, so it's meaningless to ask for _using Cygwin as terminal_. You can use Cygwin programs **inside** a terminal of course, and the Cygwin distribution indeed provides some terminals for this purpose (I'm using for instance `mintty`), but you can equally well using some other terminal program for your purpose (`ConEmu` works well). — user1934428, Apr 04 '22 at 10:11

score 75 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 17 '18 at 17:16

75

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"
  ],
}

edited Jun 17 '18 at 17:16

Davis Herring

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answered Oct 25 '17 at 16:37

Rick Renshaw

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5

Is there a way to add this as an additional shell option, so that you could choose to use either cmd or bash whenever you created a new terminal window? – mfortner Dec 23 '17 at 00:49
4

Also, for a 64-bit Cygwin installation, the path might be `"C:\\cygwin64\\bin\\bash.exe"` – RashaMatt Feb 20 '18 at 03:04
1

Can this settings be placed in workspace file .code-workspace? That would be very helpfull. – Danijel Dec 05 '18 at 13:08
4

what file are you adding these settings to? – SunDontShine Apr 23 '21 at 17:46

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 04 '22 at 07:40

23

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

edited Apr 04 '22 at 07:40

DBolton

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answered Dec 21 '21 at 14:50

tony

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After your block of code, you just need to add: `"terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Cygwin",` – Leonardo Pinheiro Apr 19 '22 at 22:46
@LeonardoPinheiro You don't need that, only if you want to make Cygwin your default shell – glades Oct 20 '22 at 16:57
1

Still works like a charm in June 2023. – XIII_ Jun 03 '23 at 19:17
add [codicon](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/codicon/) icon after env `"icon": "terminal-bash"` – piouson Jun 08 '23 at 09:12

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 31 '18 at 15:33

16

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.

answered Jan 31 '18 at 15:33

Nick Tsai

3,799
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But then Terminal > Run Active File no longer works how do I fix this @Nick Tsai – Mark Nov 14 '18 at 21:40
@Mark, I'm afraid that the integration loses `Run Active File` feature but only `Run Selected Text` works. – Nick Tsai Nov 15 '18 at 05:50

score 14 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 30 '18 at 14:44

14

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}

edited Aug 30 '18 at 14:44

Ben Voigt

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answered Jun 27 '18 at 05:32

Στρατής Χριστοδούλου

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Bash options: `-i Force the shell to run interactively`. `--login Make this shell act as if it had been directly invoked by login. When the shell is interactive, this is equivalent to starting a login shell with ‘exec -l bash’. When the shell is not interactive, the login shell startup files will be executed. ‘exec bash -l’ or ‘exec bash --login’ will replace the current shell with a Bash login shell.` – Danijel Dec 10 '18 at 13:08
2

For 64-bit Cygwin, remember to place Cygwin with cygwin64, but otherwise, this seems to work so far. – Hashim Aziz Aug 27 '19 at 16:50
a correct configuration in official website of visual studio code: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal – Chi Cuong Le Jan 11 '21 at 12:22
This warns that you are using a deprecated setting, but I couldn't find a work around. – Daniel Kaplan Jul 13 '21 at 23:14
1

@DanielKaplan, the "work around" is to use the newer VSCode settings of `terminal.integrated.profiles.windows` and `terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows` as noted in @tony's answer (which of course came after your comment). – Matthew Oct 31 '22 at 16:03

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 09 '20 at 16:27

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.

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 06 '21 at 07:43

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.

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 28 '21 at 18:31

1

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"
]*/,

answered Jul 28 '21 at 18:31

Spilvergo

31
4

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 23 '23 at 09:27

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.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 03 '23 at 14:29

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.

VS Code - Cygwin as Integrated Terminal

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