Refresh integrated terminal with .env variables after changing .env file

[ScottWilliamAnderson]

Type: Bug

Behaviour

I've found that there is no way for me to update the living integrated terminal with the updated .env variables, is that right? The only way is to kill the terminal and start a new one. Relaunch terminal does not relaunch it, and does not update environment variables

Steps to reproduce:

create a .env file in a python project folder, if you make any changes to it, your terminal will show an orange warning triangle and suggest either Relaunching the terminal or Show environment contributions.
Your newly added environment variables from the .env will never arrive to already launched terminals.

Diagnostic data

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

2025-02-14 09:27:52.099 [info] > & ./.venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1 ; echo 'e8b39361-0157-4923-80e1-22d70d46dee6' ; python ~/.vscode/extensions/ms-python.python-2025.0.0-win32-x64/python_files/printEnvVariables.py
2025-02-14 09:27:52.099 [info] shell: powershellCore
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable COMPOSE_FILE in collection to docker-compose-dev.yml {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable CONDA_PROMPT_MODIFIER in collection to False {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable DB_USER in collection to readonly-django-user {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable DISABLE_API_AUTH in collection to True {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable DISABLE_API_CACHE in collection to True {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable OT_API_KEY in collection to da2-x7u2ucifubbttnaz5ezhzhckmy {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable OT_API_URL in collection to https://gql.open-trade.io {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Prepending environment variable PATH in collection to c:\Users\username\.vscode\extensions\ms-python.python-2025.0.0-win32-x64\python_files\deactivate\powershell;C:\Users\username\Source\my-project\.venv/Scripts;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin;C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files\dotnet\;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\16\bin;C:\Program Files\nodejs\;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_211\bin;C:\Hadoop\hadoop-3.3.6\bin;C:\Program Files\WireGuard\;C:\Program Files\WezTerm;C:\Program Files (x86)\oh-my-posh\bin;C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\;C:\Program Files\GitHub CLI\;C:\Users\username\.local\bin;C:\Users\username\scoop\shims;C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin;C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code Insiders\bin;;C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\spicetify; {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable POSH_SESSION_ID in collection to c13863ce-f399-4200-9e93-365e4a93f9db {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable POSH_SHELL_VERSION in collection to 7.5.0 {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable POSH_THEME in collection to C:\Users\username\Source\scripts\oh-my-posh\plenty-of-info.omp.json {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable POWERLINE_COMMAND in collection to oh-my-posh {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable PSMODULEPATH in collection to C:\Users\username\OneDrive - FiveSigma\Documents\PowerShell\Modules;C:\Program Files\PowerShell\Modules;c:\program files\powershell\7\Modules;C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable PYTHONIOENCODING in collection to utf-8 {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable PYTHONUNBUFFERED in collection to 1 {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable SECRET_KEY in collection to j#mba3)n^__zfwuz2k(ph*1*q1ik@s^iaeo#v$cxwy!_r%+!$( {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable TEMP in collection to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable TMP in collection to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable USE_DISKCACHE in collection to 0 {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable VIRTUAL_ENV in collection to C:\Users\username\Source\my-project\.venv {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}
2025-02-14 09:27:54.847 [info] Setting environment variable VIRTUAL_ENV_PROMPT in collection to my-project {"applyAtShellIntegration":true,"applyAtProcessCreation":true}

Extension version: 2025.0.0
VS Code version: Code 1.97.1 (e249dada235c2083c83813bd65b7f4707fb97b76, 2025-02-10T13:13:58.153Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
Modes:

• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): 3.12.8
• Type of virtual environment used (e.g. conda, venv, virtualenv, etc.): Venv
• Value of the python.languageServer setting: Pylance

User Settings

languageServer: "Pylance"

Installed Extensions

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[ScottWilliamAnderson]

Is there any additional data I can provide to help with this?

[anthonykim1]

Hello @ScottWilliamAnderson Thanks for filing this issue.

Few things to clarify before I dig into this further.

Q1. Are you able to get the terminal with updated variables from your .env when you kill your current terminal and launch a "new", fresh terminal?

Relaunch terminal does not relaunch it, and does not update environment variables

Q2. Do you mean you can launch the terminal with the "relaunch terminal" button, but just not have your updated variables from your updated .env file?

I did see

create a .env file in a python project folder, if you make any changes to it, your terminal will show an orange warning triangle and suggest either Relaunching the terminal or Show environment contributions.
Your newly added environment variables from the .env will never arrive to already launched terminals.

but just wanted to triple check.

Q3. Which shell are you using on your Windows machine?

Thanks again.

[anthonykim1]

Also, another important one is:

Are you able to repro this outside of Python experience?
Since .env files are not really specific to Python, I wonder if you suffer from same problem when you are outside of Python experience in VS Code, if so we should get this moved to VS Code itself.

[ScottWilliamAnderson]

Hi @anthonykim1, thank you for taking a look at this.

Q1. Are you able to get the terminal with updated variables from your .env when you kill your current terminal and launch a "new", fresh terminal?

Yes, in a Python workspace, the newly launched terminals respect the latest saved .env variables.

Q3. Which shell are you using on your Windows machine?

I am using Powershell 7.5.0

Q2. Do you mean you can launch the terminal with the "relaunch terminal" button, but just not have your updated variables from your updated .env file?

I came across something strange digging further into this:

• I made an empty folder, and opened in VSCode. I added a .env file with an environment variable.
• Opening the integrated terminal (I use Powershell 7 and run gci env:* | sort-object name) the variable is not present. I Believe this is expected behaviour.
• If I add a "script.py" file to this folder with something short like import antigravity, launch a new integrate terminal, and run the same gci env:* | sort-object name command, the env variable is still not present. I also think this is expected behaviour.
• If I create a python virtual environment, set it as the default interpreter and run script.py, then the hover information for the integrated terminal with the orange triangle warning icon appears. It prompts to relaunch the terminal. Clicking on the blue "Relaunch Terminal" link in the hover information reloads the terminal as expected. The env variable is then present. Also any newly opened terminals respect the latest .env at the time of creation.
• For some reason, in my larger, existing python repositories, the Blue hyperlink "Relaunch Terminal" in the hover does not do anything. This is a mild nuisance, but I have found a simple workaround: I've set a keyboard shortcut for the "Terminal: Relaunch Active Terminal" Command:

I find this actually easier than having to navigate my mouse within the hover on the terminal name. Using the Keyboard shortcut or invoking the same command via f1, works as expected.

I could improve slightly my setup by debugging this and pinning down the cause of the failed relaunch using the hover link, but I don't think it's worth the time now that I have the keyboard shortcut.

I suppose my original curiosity still stands,

I've found that there is no way for me to update the living integrated terminal with the updated .env variables, is that right?

So e.g. if you are running a server on your integrated terminal, the only way for it to update its environment variables with new .env data is to shut it down and relaunch it, given you have to relaunch the terminal its living in.

Thanks!