Improve experience when func is not on PATH

[RylandDeGregory]

When trying to debug a function project locally, VS Code cannot access the installation of azure-functions-core-tools v3.

VS Code also fails to install the tools using the built-in command.

However, azure-functions-core-tools v3 is installed using homebrew and accessible via PATH.

Is there a VS Code setting or environment variable that I need to set for the extension (and therefore the debugger) to pick up my installation of the core tools?

[ejizba]

If it is actually is in your path and we're just blocking debugging for no reason, you can set "azureFunctions.validateFuncCoreTools": false in your VS Code settings to bypass our prompt

If that works, I'll close this as a duplicate of #2019. The PATH is sometimes different in the child process we use to detect the func cli. The fix on our side would be to use a "task" with the same environment as your VS Code terminal to detect the func cli

[RylandDeGregory]

I've added the setting, so I can see the error now. However, it still doesn't make sense why the integrated terminal can see the executable but the debug task can't.

[ejizba]

Yeah I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy. I'd suggest you take a look at your integrated terminal settings: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal

Specifically, you might want to make sure the "automation" and normal one are the same:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal#_changing-shell-for-tasks-and-debug

[ejizba]

If that's not helpful, please give more information on how you installed the func cli. When you say "VS Code also fails to install the tools using the built-in command." there should be some errors in the "Azure Functions" output pane. You could copy those here and/or try uninstalling through your method first before installing again with the VS Code command

[RylandDeGregory]

Here's the settings you referenced from my settings.json:

I installed azure-functions-core-tools@3 using Homebrew based on the instructions here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-run-local?tabs=macos%2Ccsharp%2Cbash#v2

I uninstalled and tried to install following your instructions to view the error in the Azure Functions output pane:

The link in the error just tells me to install using Homebrew.

[ejizba]

Okay so we throw that error if the install command succeeded, but func --version still failed. It's probably some underlying issue where brew packages aren't in your path for VS Code for some reason. Aka, we have no problem running brew install azure-functions..., but we still can't see func. Any idea why brew packages might not be on your PATH? How are you starting VS Code...from a terminal or from the App Icon? What about do you have any .zshrc or .zhenv files that could be affecting this?

[RylandDeGregory]

The core tools did not install successfully using the VS Code command, despite that error allegedly indicating that they did.

To answer your questions, I am starting VS Code sometimes from the dock and sometimes with code .. I have an empty .zshrc, because I usually use PowerShell 7.1 as the default shell on my MacBook and in VS Code, I just set it to zsh while debugging the issues I was having to rule out PowerShell being the issue...

---

However, I went and installed the core tools from Homebrew directly with brew install azure-functions-core-tools@3 then followed the instructions here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/45637716 to add my full $PATH to my VS Code settings file.

My settings.json now includes this:

    "terminal.integrated.env.osx": {
        "PATH": "/usr/local/microsoft/powershell/7:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/share/dotnet:~/.dotnet/tools"
    },

That solved it. I am now able to debug PowerShell functions locally from within VS Code (using F5 or the debug panel).

I'm still not sure why the extension (or VS Code itself) is not picking up my complete $PATH, but I'm glad to have found a workaround.

Thank you very much for your assistance @ejizba , and I hope that you are able to find a root cause at some point :)

[ejizba]

Glad you got it working! We might not be able to fix the root cause per se (func not showing up in the PATH), but we could perhaps make it easier to identify and solve this error for users - maybe in the form of better error messages or more VS Code settings

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Happy Coding!

[ejizba]

We added a setting for the path ("azureFunctions.funcCliPath") in #2928, which should help with this scenario. Only thing left is we could still maybe have better messages directing people to use that setting or modify their PATH