can't start remote SSH when remote Linux server uses fish shell

[doj]

Type: Bug

I want to use the Remote-SSH extension to access the file system on a remote Linux server. My user account on the remote server is set up to use the fish shell https://fishshell.com/ This shell uses a different language than the regular bourne shell, typically used on Linux. When connecting, the SSH session is created successfully, but then simply times out. I assume that VSCode sends some commands to start the remote server which use bourne shell syntax, which then fails with the fish shell.

Extension version: 0.120.0 VS Code version: Code 1.100.2 (Universal) (848b80aeb52026648a8ff9f7c45a9b0a80641e2e, 2025-05-14T21:47:40.416Z) OS version: Darwin arm64 23.6.0 Modes: Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.15.0-119-generic

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M2 (8 x 2400)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	2, 2, 2
Memory (System)	16.00GB (0.18GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 27792d9b-e32e-4fbf-bbee-4c9d557b4aa1
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: vm
OS	Linux x64 5.15.0-119-generic
CPUs	Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8280 CPU @ 2.70GHz (8 x 0)
Memory (System)	31.27GB (28.62GB free)
VM	0%

A/B Experiments

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pythonrstrctxt:31112756
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dwcopilot:31170013
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[doj]

I'm working around the issue by creating a second user account which has bash configured as the system shell. then fiddled with the group configuration, so that both users can read and write each other's files.

What would help is, if when VS starts the SSH session that it sets an environment variable. My startup scripts can then check for such variable and start an alternative shell. Maybe it's already doing this, but I didn't find a log file in ~/.vscode-server/ that would show details of the SSH session.

[joshspicer]

It is difficult to understand this issue without your SSH logs, could you please provide them? We execute an installation script on your remote machine, but we explicitly run this script in an sh or bash shell.

[vs-code-engineering[bot]]

Thanks for creating this issue! We figured it's missing some basic information or in some other way doesn't follow our issue reporting guidelines. Please take the time to review these and update the issue.

Happy Coding!

[doj]

Is there a log file on the destination SSH server? Or only the terminal output from the Visual Studio Code program?

[bugslayer01]

I'm also affected by this.

Environment

• Remote OS: Ubuntu 24.04
• Local OS: Garuda Linux (Arch-based)
• VS Code Remote SSH: Latest
• Default shell on remote: fish

With fish as the default shell, VS Code hangs while setting up the remote server.

---

What I tried

I attempted to work around the issue by editing the remote ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

if test "$TERM_PROGRAM" = "vscode"
    exec bash -l
end

I also tried

Host proxy-vscode
    HostName <server-ip>
    User <username>
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    RemoteCommand bash -l
    IdentitiesOnly yes

The only reliable solution was to:

• Change the default shell on the remote to bash using `chsh -s /bin/bash

If any further details are needed, please let me know.

---

Logs

I've attached my connection logs provided by vscode after failure

vscode.log

[TLCFEM]

✅ bash ❎ fish

Well I think if one can explicitly execute the initialization script in fish, it would be quite straightforward to tell what is not compatible with fish.

[ithinkihaveacat]

One workaround that works for me: set your shell to bash, and then switch to fish if bash is running in interactive mode:

# ~/.bash_profile

is_interactive() { [[ $- == *i* ]]; } 

if is_interactive; then 

    # If we're running in interactive mode, look for fish, and exec if it exists.
    
    FISH=$(env PATH="$HOME/local/bin:$HOME/local/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH" which fish)

    if [[ -x "$FISH" ]]; then
      exec env SHELL="$FISH" "$FISH" -i
    fi

fi

Seems wasteful for run bash every single time but well it works and doesn't cause any performance problems or otherwise. Also, this approach has been useful on other systems where fish is not available as a login shell.

[KarlAmort]

To switch it around and run bash in fish when connecting with ssh-remote, you can:

"remote.SSH.enableRemoteCommand": true

You can use a custom configuration in you ~/.ssh/ssh_config such as this:

Host vscode.domain.tld
   HostName ssh.domain.tld
   RemoteCommand /usr/bin/bash

[canxin121]

To switch it around and run bash in fish when connecting with ssh-remote, you can:要在连接 ssh-remote 时切换它并在鱼中运行 bash，您可以：

"remote.SSH.enableRemoteCommand": true

You can use a custom configuration in you ~/.ssh/ssh_config such as this:您可以在 ~/.ssh/ssh_config 中使用自定义配置，如下所示：

Host vscode.domain.tld
   HostName ssh.domain.tld
   RemoteCommand /usr/bin/bash

This works for me, thanks

[MovFish]

Disabling 'Remote-SSH: Use Local Server' is useful for me.