Vscode terminal not loading .zshrc on startup! How can I fix this?

Question

I have code package installed my on Pop!_OS 21.10, and recently after opening the integrated terminal, I noticed that it does not load my .zshrc.

Here are my settings:

 "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "zsh",

Note: Everything works fine when I run source .zshrc after opening the integrated terminal, but it does not load the profile automatically. Anyone knows why?

Answer 1

The current version of VSCode may ignore your .zshrc in the following situation:

• the option Terminal › Integrated › Shell Integration: Enabled (terminal.integrated.shellIntegration.enabled) is checked
• the environment variable $ZDOTDIR is empty

Consider the comment and add the following line to your settings.json:

"terminal.integrated.profiles.osx": { "zsh": { "path": "/bin/zsh", "args": ["-l", "-i"] } }

(osx in the setting's name is for MacOS, linux is for Linux)

Answer 2

I had the same problem and had also to manually execute

source ~/.zshrc 

And long story short I solved it with a symlink by executing

ln -s ../.zshrc $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc

Explanation how I came up with this solution and why I prefer this solution over two other possible solutions that are working and have been proposed above:

Following the documentation in

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/terminal/shell-integration

I've added the following line at the end of my ~/.zshrc

[[ "$TERM_PROGRAM" == "vscode" ]] && . "$(code --locate-shell-integration-path zsh)"

which sources a script whenever VSCode gets started.

But that alone didn't fix that particular problem.

When looking at that script by executing

less "$(code --locate-shell-integration-path zsh)"

I found following line that caused this problem

. $USER_ZDOTDIR/.zshrc

with $USER_ZDOTDIR pointing to ~/.zsh The variable $USER_ZDOTDIR even sets the variable $ZDOTDIR So setting

USER_ZDOTDIR=${HOME}

would have solved it, but since $ZDOTDIR is very crucial and pointing it to ${HOME} could break things by missing the ${HOME}/.zsh/.zshenv with $ZDOTDIR/.zshenv pointing to it.

For example, in my $ZDOTDIR/.zshenv scripts are sourced which paths are added to the $PATH variable in (e.g. $HOME/.cargo/bin)

To have a fast look on that script I recommend executing

cat "$(code --locate-shell-integration-path zsh)" | grep -E '\bUSER_ZDOTDIR\b'

results in (Attention: these are not consecutive lines)

ZDOTDIR=$USER_ZDOTDIR
    HISTFILE=$USER_ZDOTDIR/.zsh_history
    if [[ $options[norcs] = off  && -f $USER_ZDOTDIR/.zshrc ]]; then
        ZDOTDIR=$USER_ZDOTDIR
        . $USER_ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
if [[ $options[login] = off && $USER_ZDOTDIR != $VSCODE_ZDOTDIR ]]; then
    ZDOTDIR=$USER_ZDOTDIR

(Attention: these are not consecutive lines) with

cat "$(code --locate-shell-integration-path zsh)" | grep -E '\bUSER_ZDOTDIR\b' -A 2 -B 2

you get these lines with some context! And by increasing the numbers at the end you can display more context

But you can see the line causing the problem

. $USER_ZDOTDIR/.zshrc

and

cat "$(code --locate-shell-integration-path zsh)" | grep -E '\bZDOTDIR\b' # -A 1 -B 1

you can have a look concerning the effects of $ZDOTDIR. Remove the # and change the number after -A and -B to include more or less context.

You also don't have to be concerned about your $HISTFILE in spite of the line

HISTFILE=$USER_ZDOTDIR/.zsh_history

which stays the same with this solution as long it's set in your ~/.zshrc file and overwrites this assignment.

---

Off-Topic but potentially useful

While searching for the solution which fits the most I found out that you could have a different history files for VSCode only by adding also

[[ "$TERM_PROGRAM" == "vscode" ]] && HISTFILE=${ZDOTDIR}/.vscode_history

which can be very useful for shell-intensive projects like npm, yarn etc. are.

But the commands have to be executed inside the VSCode-Shell to end up in said history file.

Since I have created⁽¹⁾ two aliases which are useful for myself and possible for others, too

You can also have history files which are only assigned to a single project.

All the following extra history files are contained in the $ZDOTDIR folder

This alias temporarily sets $HISTFILE according to the folder you're in and should only executed in the project's root folder

alias set-project-histfile='eval "[[ \"\$TERM_PROGRAM\" == \"vscode\" ]] && HISTFILE=\${ZDOTDIR}/\$(echo \$PWD | rev  | cut -d '/' -f1  | rev)_history"'

while the following alias writes the $HISTFILE assignment which is like above also only in effect when using the VSCode terminal at the end of $HOME/.zshrc making it permanent until this line is deleted manually

alias set-project-histfile-permanent='echo "[[ \"\$TERM_PROGRAM\" == \"vscode\" ]] && HISTFILE=\${ZDOTDIR}/\$(echo \$PWD | rev  | cut -d '/' -f1  | rev)_history" >> ${HOME}/.zshrc'

Keep in mind that this $HISTFILE assignment has the effect that each project you're working with VSCode has its own history file in the $ZDOTDIR folder.

Examples:

$ZDOTDI/projectFoo_history
$ZDOTDIR/projectBar_history
$ZDOTDIR/projectFoobar_history
$ZDOTDIR/Fugazi_history
…
$HOME/.zsh/Fugazi_history

and the command you execute in VSCode's terminal end up in these history file instead of the usual one.