Launching External Terminal Changes Ctrl+C Handling Of Programs

[MikuAuahDark]

Type: Bug

Steps to reproduce:

1. Launch VSCode (anywhere)
2. Start new external terminal using Ctrl+Shift+C. I used Command Prompt in this case.
3. Launch new program that can handle Ctrl+C
4. Press Ctrl+C.

Expected result: Program handles Ctrl+C normally. Actual result: Program doesn't sees Ctrl+C at all.

A simple program that can handle Ctrl+C for this example is Python. However any app that handles Ctrl+C is affected (such as my simple WASAPI loopback program). Run this Python script within same terminal that VSCode creates at step 2.

try:
    while True:
        pass
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print("OK")

If Ctrl+C is pressed while that script is running:

• If the terminal/command prompt was launched by VSCode, pressing Ctrl+C does nothing.
• If the terminal/command prompt was launched by other means, pressing Ctrl+C prints "OK" and stops the infinite loop.

Reproducible both in insiders and stable (1.87.0).

VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.88.0-insider (8c2b09c0443b94d75a73819ed35610f7e09375ae, 2024-02-28T18:53:20.095Z) OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631 Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics (8 x 1996)
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 vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	15.39GB (7.43GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id ca2e3ed8-bdf1-4e2a-b9d7-b651fe0eba6b
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions: none

A/B Experiments

vsliv368cf:30146710
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805cf:30301675
vsaa593cf:30376535
py29gd2263:30784851
c4g48928:30535728
962ge761:30841072
pythongtdpath:30726887
welcomedialog:30812478
pythonidxpt:30768918
pythonnoceb:30776497
asynctok:30898717
dsvsc013:30777762
dsvsc014:30777825
dsvsc015:30821418
pythontestfixt:30866404
pythonregdiag2:30926734
pyreplss1:30879911
pythonmypyd1:30859725
pythoncet0:30859736
pythontbext0:30879054
accentitlementst:30870582
dsvsc016:30879898
dsvsc017:30880771
dsvsc018:30880772
cppperfcontrol:30963551
d34g3935:30961436
edj9j583:30943796
fegfb526:30952798
7j2b6412:30951517
bg6jg535:30946824
ccp1r3:30958150

[kazza-dev]

+1

[mstv]

It does not matter whether the external terminal is opened using a hotkey or using the command palette. The internal terminal is not affected, i.e. Ctrl+C works there.

[haezera]

+1

Please fix this issue/provide us a solution. It used to work completely fine last year, have zero clue what happened.

[MikuAuahDark]

A workaround that works for me is to run wt && exit after VSCode launches the external terminal. The new Windows Terminal tab will not have the issue. Unfortunately this only works if users set Windows Terminal as their default conhost.

[yafyz]

it seems that spawning a process with detached set to true breaks Ctrl+C behavior setting it to false in WindowsExternalTerminalService.spawnTerminal fixes it for me https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/588ec342a0ce15f8f049d66b41d6970a0ad46432/src/vs/platform/externalTerminal/node/externalTerminalService.ts#L71 funnily enough, that change was introduced in 9af00bdd834a4e9dc2f199251cdeeb4e9700f2f2, which was supposed to fix Ctrl+C not working

[kazza-dev]

setting it to false in WindowsExternalTerminalService.spawnTerminal

can't find that in vscode settings

[yafyz]

it's not a setting, it's hard coded in the source code you would have to compile vs-code yourself (or change the right detached:!0 in the compiled source (resources/app/out/main.js), the one whose arguments correspond the most with the source (without stdio arg). this way is of course not ideal)

[kazza-dev]

change the right detached:!0 in the compiled source (resources/app/out/main.js)

It works, thanks!