Set global $PATH environment variable in VS Code

I am using vscode on macos for C/C++ development in conjunction with CMake.

The vscode extension CMake Tools allows to manipulate environment variables via the configuration properties cmake.configureEnvironment, cmake.buildEnvironment and cmake.environment (acting respectively on the CMake configuration phase, the build phase and both - see docs).

Then you can extend your system PATH with custom paths by adding the following snippet to your user or project settings.json:

"cmake.environment": {
    "PATH": "~/.myTool/bin:${env:PATH}"
},

In:

> Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)

add to the JSON file:

"terminal.integrated.env.windows": {
    "PATH": "${env:PATH}"
},

-> terminal.integrated.env should end with .osx, .linux or .windows depending on your OS.

In order to check if it works execute in your VS Code Terminal:

# For PowerShell
echo $env:PATH
# For bash
echo "$PATH"

Visual Studio Code is the problem.

No matter how you set your PATH variable in the shell, there are cases where Visual Studio Code will not inherit your PATH setting. If you're using an application launcher like LaunchBar to start Visual Studio Code, your PATH variable will not be inherited.

Here is a system-wide fix:

In the /etc/paths.d directory, create a file with your Unix username. In that file, place the additional paths that Visual Studio Code needs to work. In my case, this is the contents of my /etc/paths.d file:

/usr/ucb /opt/local/bin /opt/local/sbin ~/go/bin

Note: Your /etc/paths.d file will be processed system-wide. Since most systems are single-user, this shouldn't be a problem for most developers.

Since this is the top Google search result for variants of "VS Code path", I will add my answer here.

I'm running Linux and my problem was that VS Code couldn't find some executable needed to build my project. I was running VS Code from the quick launcher (ALT+F2), and not from a Terminal. I tried modifying the PATH variable in many different places, but I couldn't seem to get it right.

In the end, placing the right PATH inside of ~/.zshenv is what worked. It's because .zshenv is the only file that gets sourced for non-interactive shell command execution like from inside of VS Code (more detailed explanation here https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/71253/what-should-shouldnt-go-in-zshenv-zshrc-zlogin-zprofile-zlogout )

This was even easier to fix than the above answers suggested.

Open VSCode Settings (Ctrl + ,) and search for terminal.defaultProfile.

I updated my Terminal > Integrated > Default Profile: Windows.

It was set to null by default. As soon as I changed it to PowerShell and restarted the terminal, it picked up my system's path variables!

What did the trick in my case (Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon, VS code installed via snap) was to put my appended PATH in ~/.profile . Since this file is read at the beginning of a user session, don't forget to logout/login or reboot after editing this file.

I'm working with ubuntu 18.04. I had a similar problem, my enviroment variables were defined and the terminal knows the $PATH but when I tried to debug with golang, go libraries were not found in $PATH variable.

So, to solve it I uninstall the default version from ubuntu software and install manually using the following instructions:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux

It works for me.

As of VS Code v1.63.2, you can proceed with Ctrl + Shift + P and then type Open Settings (JSON), and simply add the following line.

"terminal.integrated.inheritEnv": true

In my case the code was already there, but set to false. After changing it, everything was fine.

Add the following to your ~/.bash_profile:

launchctl setenv PATH $HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH:$HOME/bin

Or run a Bash script when needed, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
set -Eeuxo pipefail

proj_path=$( cd $( dirname ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} ) && pwd )
launchctl setenv PATH $proj_path/bin:${PATH:-}

For me it's resolved by editing the .desktop file.

Originally I have

Exec=/usr/bin/code-oss --unity-launch %F

. Just changed to

Exec=zsh -c "source ~/.zshrc && /usr/bin/code-oss --unity-launch %F"

since I use zsh, instead of bash. But if you have the same problem with bash, simply replace zsh with bash. And shortcuts from your desktop environment should be fixed.