Microsoft/vscode

Shell Integration unwanted characters in files

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#275598 opened on Nov 5, 2025

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 (1 comment) (0 reactions) (1 assignee)TypeScript (74,848 stars) (10,221 forks)batch import
help wantedterminal-shell-bashunder-discussion

Description

Hi! First of all, thank you so much for providing Visual Studio Code 🙂 I use it almost every day and it's awesome.

I have a fresh installation of Visual Studio Code (downloaded from https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=linux-x64) on Debian 13 (trixie). No extensions installed. I just installed the OS and VSCode from scratch in a VM.

I noticed the following in the integrated terminal:

$ for i in 1 2 3; do echo Hey; done > /tmp/myfile.txt && cat -A /tmp/myfile.txt
^[]633;E;for i in 1 2 3;626d5160-3c6e-4585-8da3-26c10d43fd2b^G^[]633;C^GHey$
Hey$
Hey$

As you can see, there are some unwanted escape sequences and other characters in the written file. I guess they come from the VSCode shell integration.

When I run the same in a normal Debian Terminal window (i.e. outside VSCode) I get the expected result:

$ for i in 1 2 3; do echo Hey; done > /tmp/myfile.txt && cat -A /tmp/myfile.txt
Hey$
Hey$
Hey$

Also, disabling shell integration ("terminal.integrated.shellIntegration.enabled": false) solves the problem completely.

Just in case, my shell is the Debian's default Bash:

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 5.2.37(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
...

Also, I personally can happily live with shell integration disabled. This is not a problem at all for me right now. But I thought it would have been nice to report the problem anyway :)

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes (no extensions installed at all)

  • VS Code Version:
$ ~/apps/vscode/vscode/bin/code --version
1.105.1
7d842fb85a0275a4a8e4d7e040d2625abbf7f084
x64
  • OS Version:
$ cat /etc/os-release 
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="13"
VERSION="13 (trixie)"
VERSION_CODENAME=trixie
DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=13.1
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Make sure your environment matches mine (fresh VSCode, Debian 13, etc.), but I guess this problem also happens in other cases
  2. Make sure VSCode shell integration is enabled
  3. Open the integrated terminal and type the aforementioned command
  4. You should see the result as above

Contributor guide

Tech stack
typescriptshell
Domain
developer experience
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Basic shell scriptingFamiliarity with VS Code terminal
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Investigate the shell integration script in the VS Code repository, likely in `src/vs/workbench/contrib/terminal/browser/terminalShellIntegration.ts`. The issue is that escape sequences (e.g., OSC 633) are being written to stdout when redirecting output. Check if the shell integration should be disabled during output redirection. The assigned developer may have insights; review the assignee's comments or linked work.