Missing TERM_PROGRAM variable at launch time

[stefanistrate]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.75.0
• OS Version: macOS Ventura 13.2

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Add the following line to ~/.zshrc (or the equivalent ~/.bashrc):

echo "TERM=$TERM_PROGRAM" >> ~/Desktop/debug.txt

2. When launching VS Code, the variable TERM_PROGRAM is not set properly (i.e. the output of the text file I write to is TERM=).
3. When opening the TERMINAL tab in VS Code afterwards, a new line is added to my output file with the correct TERM_PROGRAM (i.e. TERM=vscode).

Why is TERM_PROGRAM missing initially? This behaviour is stopping me from using TERM_PROGRAM to decide when to launch tmux automatically (i.e. I don't want to launch it when the terminal belongs to VS Code).

Any workarounds?

Thanks,
Ștefan

[meganrogge]

maybe related #173277

[Tyriar]

This is by design, TERM_PROGRAM is only set when a terminal launches. You might be looking for the new environment variable VSCODE_RESOLVING_ENVIRONMENT that we just added in 1.75 https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_75#_new-vscoderesolvingenvironment-environment-variable