PowerShell doesn't respect the current directory when invoked from Visual Studio Code

[mklement0]

Note: While I haven't looked at what's going on under the hood, the fact that other shells (cmd.exe, WSL bash, bash on Unix, Git bash) do _not_ exhibit this problem leads me to suspect that PowerShell is the culprit.

Steps to reproduce

• Open Visual Studio Code (tested with v1.17.2)

• Make PowerShell the default shell by adding the following to the user preferences:

  • Windows: "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "pwsh"
  • macOS: "terminal.integrated.shell.osx": "pwsh", "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.osx": []
  • Linux: "terminal.integrated.shell.linux": "pwsh"

• Open a folder that has subfolders.

• In the Explorer view in the side bar, right-click on a subfolder and choose Open in Terminal.

Expected behavior

The PowerShell instance that is created in the integrated terminal should have the right-clicked subfolder as the current location.

Actual behavior

The PowerShell instance that is created in the integrated terminal _invariably_ has the folder that was originally opened in Visual Studio Code as the current location.

Environment data

PowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.9 on macOS 10.13
PowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.9 on Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
PowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.9 on Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit; v10.0.15063)
Windows PowerShell v5.1.15063.674 on Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit; v10.0.15063)

[iSazonov]

VS Code sent current path as parameter?

[mklement0]

No; from what I can tell, it just invokes the configured shell _from the target directory_.

I have a _vague_ hunch that this may be related to PowerShell maintaining its own current location, independently of the underlying .NET working directory.

[iSazonov]

If it just invokes the configured shell from the target directory any from the shells should get the same directory as current. I wonder :-)

[mklement0]

Yes, it is mysterious. As stated, bash and cmd.exe behave as expected.

If anyone is looking for a workaround: see this SO answer.

The workaround uses bash / cmd.exe to invoke PowerShell _with an explicit Set-Location call_.

[iSazonov]

I want to see VS Code code that call the shell.

[mklement0]

After looking at this briefly, my guess is that the code is in terminalInstance.ts.

(I don't have time to look into this; doing so would take me a while.)

[iSazonov]

We could a right thing - open Issue-Question in VS Code repo. If they conclude that they can not fix and it is PowerShell issue we'll continue here.

[SteveL-MSFT]

This is working for me on my MacBook Pro. Started vscode from the root of my PowerShell repo folder. Right click on a subfolder and using Open in Terminal (after configuring default to pwsh and clearing out the osx args), it opens to the subfolder.

[rkeithhill]

It is working for me as well on Windows 10 FCU - VSCode 1.17.2.

[mklement0]

My (embarrassingly) bad, guys:

I had custom code in my profile that changed the current location.
The fact that the OP of the linked SO question seemed to experience the same - nonexistent - problem made me see a pattern that wasn't there.

I'm closing this - sorry for the noise.

[MarkusRodler]

Thanks @mklement0 for this issue, it helped me a lot because I had the same stupid brain fail 😄

[Robot1que]

Had the same problem. Managed to solve it by adding if statement into my PowerShell $PROFILE script:

if ($env:VSCODE_CWD)
{
    # VS Code environment
}
else
{
    Set-Location -Path $env:USERPROFILE
}