copilot-debug terminal integration breaks python venv activation

[dnabb]

• Copilot Chat Extension Version: 0.23.2
• VS Code Version: 1.96.2
• OS Version: Windows 11
• Logs:

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Start with a clean VSCode profile
2. Install the python extension
3. Create a virtual environment and set it as the python interpreter
4. Open a new terminal and run (get-command python).Source (or equivalent for your shell): it should point to the python interpreter from the virtual environment, because the Python extension activates the environment for you and prepends it to env:PATH
5. Now, install Copilot Chat and restart VSCode
6. Open a new terminal and re-run (get-command python).Source: this time, it should point to the global python interpreter.

The issue seems to be that both Python extension and Copilot Chat seem to be trying to modify the PATH at the same time, probably overriding each others changes (even if in my case, Copilot Chat seems to always override Python).

Even worse, Copilot Chat seems to completely ignore the "github.copilot.chat.copilotDebugCommand.enabled": false setting, with the extension still trying to add features to the terminal.
EDIT: Adding a separate issue for this, microsoft/vscode-copilot-release#3499

[connor4312]

copilot-debug only appends to the path, it doesn't overwrite it. If this is destructive I think there might be something up with how Python does the contribution or how the terminal applies them

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot/blob/a803c8aa2cdcd8d7a381c663916814b8c9b16479/src/extension/onboardDebug/vscode-node/copilotDebugCommandContribution.ts#L223-L229

[dnabb]

copilot-debug only appends to the path, it doesn't overwrite it. If this is destructive I think there might be something up with how Python does the contribution or how the terminal applies them

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot/blob/a803c8aa2cdcd8d7a381c663916814b8c9b16479/src/extension/onboardDebug/vscode-node/copilotDebugCommandContribution.ts#L223-L229

From what I can see from Show Environment Contribution, both Python and Copilot append/prepend to the PATH by taking the "old path" and prepending/appending to it:

Python:
PATH=c:\Users\myuser\.vscode\extensions\ms-python.python-2024.22.0-win32-x64\python_files\deactivate\powershell;C:\Users\myuser\customer_repos\myfolder\.venv\Scripts;${env:PATH}

Copilot:
PATH=${env:PATH};c:\Users\DanieleAbbatelli\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\github.copilot-chat\debugCommand

My guess is that, for both exensions, the "old path" (${env:PATH}) refers to the PATH before contributions from other extensions.

[gymlt]

We are experiencing a similar issue after the update. We are utilising Dev Containers, and if your container is based on any non-Windows operating system, your PATH environment variable will be corrupted due to differing syntax. This results in the PATH appearing as follows:

PATH=/root/.vscode-server/bin/fabdb6a30b49f79a7aba0f2ad9df9b399473380f/bin/remote-cli:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin;c:\Users\maryte\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\github.copilot-chat\debugCommand

All Linux commands cease to function, leading to numerous similar errors:

root@2412dad5f1da:/workspace# grep
bash: sed: command not found
bash: grep: command not found
root@2412dad5f1da:/workspace#

Could this be looked into? Thank you.

[Tyriar]

My guess is that, for both exensions, the "old path" (${env:PATH}) refers to the PATH before contributions from other extensions.

I think that's the case and to fix this we will need to do an initial pass of all the mutators to merge multiple append/replace mutators that target the same environment variable (mainly PATH) together.

Relevant code:

vscode/src/vs/platform/terminal/common/environmentVariableCollection.ts

Lines 63 to 94 in decaa08

	async applyToProcessEnvironment(env: IProcessEnvironment, scope: EnvironmentVariableScope | undefined, variableResolver?: VariableResolver): Promise<void> {
	let lowerToActualVariableNames: { [lowerKey: string]: string | undefined } | undefined;
	if (isWindows) {
	lowerToActualVariableNames = {};
	Object.keys(env).forEach(e => lowerToActualVariableNames![e.toLowerCase()] = e);
	}
	for (const [variable, mutators] of this.getVariableMap(scope)) {
	const actualVariable = isWindows ? lowerToActualVariableNames![variable.toLowerCase()] || variable : variable;
	for (const mutator of mutators) {
	const value = variableResolver ? await variableResolver(mutator.value) : mutator.value;
	// Default: true
	if (mutator.options?.applyAtProcessCreation ?? true) {
	switch (mutator.type) {
	case EnvironmentVariableMutatorType.Append:
	env[actualVariable] = (env[actualVariable] || '') + value;
	break;
	case EnvironmentVariableMutatorType.Prepend:
	env[actualVariable] = value + (env[actualVariable] || '');
	break;
	case EnvironmentVariableMutatorType.Replace:
	env[actualVariable] = value;
	break;
	}
	}
	// Default: false
	if (mutator.options?.applyAtShellIntegration ?? false) {
	const key = `VSCODE_ENV_${mutatorTypeToLabelMap.get(mutator.type)!}`;
	env[key] = (env[key] ? env[key] + ':' : '') + variable + '=' + this._encodeColons(value);
	}
	}
	}
	}

[Tyriar]

Also I believe this method of activating Python terminals will get removed soon. There's a setting that @anthonykim1 can point you to in the meantime.