Using GNU Readline (Bash Shortcuts) in VS Code Terminal

If you use VS Code and a Linux (bash/zsh/what-have-you) terminal, you may have noticed that some keyboard shortcuts (e.g., ctrl+p to cycle previous commands) are intercepted by VS Code. As a fairly proficient user of shell keyboard shortcuts, I found this to be pretty obnoxious. Here’s how you can fix it.

First, open your preferences file (hit ctrl+shift+p and type “User Settings”. You want to copy the default values for terminal.integrated.commandsToSkipShell and remove the following values:

    "workbench.action.quickOpen",
    "workbench.action.quickOpenPreviousEditor",
    "workbench.action.quickOpenView",

Once removed, you’ll find that ctrl+p should now properly rotate through your command-line history. Other shortcuts, like ctrl+k and ctrl+e should also work correctly (as they previously opened the workspace quick-open dialog).

There may be other commands that skip the shell, too. You can remove them from terminal.integrated.commandsToSkipShell as necessary.

Happy coding!

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