Documentation for running a Cygwin shell causes build to fail

[Ben-Voris]

Following the instructions for setting "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows" given at https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal#_can-i-use-cygwins-shell-with-the-terminal-on-windows
causes run build task using Cygwin to fail with:

cygpath: option requires an argument -- c
Try `cygpath --help' for more information.

A task window opens and shows a bash prompt. make runs correctly at that
prompt.

run build task correctly runs Cygwin make after removing
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows".

Using Cygwin Shell says:

add the following settings to your settings.json file:

"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe",
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": ["/bin/xhere", "/bin/bash"]

xhere takes one or two arguments: a program to start and an optional
directory to make the cwd before starting the given program.

This problem occurs because, when executing run build task, VS Code
passes three arguments: the Cygwin path name of the Windows path given in
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows", a literal -c, and , as one
argument, the value of "command" and the "args" array from tasks.json. For
example, when running all from this tasks.json:

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "all",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "C:/cygwin64/bin/make.exe",
            "args": [
                "all"
            ],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

arg 1: /bin/bash
arg 2: -c
arg 3: C:/cygwin64/bin/make.exe all

It appears that VS Code changes the current work directory before starting
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows" which would make xhere unnecessary. If
that is so, the fix would be to change the text of
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal#_can-i-use-cygwins-shell-with-the-terminal-on-windows
to say that "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows" need not be set,
along with a warning that it must not contain -l or --login as they
reset the cwd to the user's home directory.

Version: 1.35.1 (system setup)
Commit: c7d83e57cd18f18026a8162d042843bda1bcf21f
Date: 2019-06-12T14:30:02.622Z
Electron: 3.1.8
Chrome: 66.0.3359.181
Node.js: 10.2.0
V8: 6.6.346.32
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.16299

Problem occurs with all extensions disabled.

If I clear "Dev Tools Console" before run build task, it displays nothing
new after running run build task.

VS Code version: Code 1.35.1 (c7d83e5, 2019-06-12T14:30:02.622Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.16299

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz (8 x 2712)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled checker_imaging: disabled_off flash_3d: enabled flash_stage3d: enabled flash_stage3d_baseline: enabled gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on native_gpu_memory_buffers: disabled_software rasterization: enabled surface_synchronization: enabled_on video_decode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	15.88GB (8.22GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (9)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
spellright	ban	3.0.38
remote-containers	ms-	0.59.0
remote-ssh	ms-	0.42.2
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.42.2
remote-ssh-explorer	ms-	0.42.2
remote-wsl	ms-	0.38.0
vscode-remote-extensionpack	ms-	0.15.0
cpptools	ms-	0.24.0-insiders
rewrap	stk	1.9.1

[Tyriar]

You're right, it looks like cygwin just works without the args stuff now. Because of this I think we should just expose it in the default shell selector now using the standard install paths instead of having the FAQ.

[Tyriar]

[alexr00]

It looks like there is still some additional setup needed. I can't just change the shell to cygwin:

[Tyriar]

Removing cygwin detection for now, it looks like it needs needs args which is an area the shell detector doesn't touch yet. The old instructions don't seem to work, something must have changed in cygwin https://www.fesevur.com/2017/11/cygwin-terminal-in-vscode.html

Hoping someone in the community will put together some instructions that we can update the documentation with. I'll remove the doc entry completely for the time being.

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