Enable PSReadline support in the integrated console (syntax highlighting, keyboard navigation)

[daviwil]

PSReadline is not supported in the integrated console at this time. A non-trivial amount of work is needed to make PowerShell Editor Services and PSReadline play nicely together so this could take some time.

Features this will enable:

• Ctrl+Arrow keys, etc (keyboard navigation of the input line)
• Syntax highlighting of input text
• Multi-line text input (writing a function definition in the console across multiple lines)

[dotps1]

i was going to request this yesterday but i got distracted.

[cobdev]

Thank you!

[Liquidmantis]

Hopefully this will include PSReadline's Vi EditMode and ViModeIndicator. I found this issue while searching for a way to get vi mode working.

[gwojan]

Um, @daviwil, when did PSReadline start working in the VSCode PowerShell terminal window? I just opened the terminal and noticed my PSReadline history was available. A quick Set-PSReadlineOption -EditMode Vi and I'm in hog heaven!

Is there something I should be watching for? I guess I should mention: Windows 10 Anniversary Update, PowerShell 5.1, VSCode 1.13.1, PowerShell addin 1.4.1...

[rkeithhill]

PSReadline support in the PowerShell terminal is a VSCode feature. What isn't implemented yet is PSReadline support in the PowerShell Integrated Console.

[daviwil]

Hey Greg, unfortunately you're just seeing PSReadLine work inside of plain powershell.exe in the integrated terminal. As Keith mentions, it doesn't currently work in the PowerShell Integrated Console yet. I've started working on that last week though so I expect to have some progress soon!

[gwojan]

Thanks @daviwil and @rkeithhill! I guess I need to start playing with the Integrated Console because I'm sure I knew it was there. It will be great to have PSReadline support because that one particular feature is why I abandoned the ISE a long time ago. I'm such a lousy typist I need all the help I can get. ;-)

[GlitterHorn]

Is Ctrl+Backspace supposed to be working with PSReadLine support in the latest preview build?

[rkeithhill]

Try putting this in your VSCode specific profile - (Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1):

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+w' -Function BackwardKillWord
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Alt+D' -Function KillWord
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+@' -Function MenuComplete

[GlitterHorn]

Try putting this in your VSCode specific profile - (Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1):

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+w' -Function BackwardKillWord
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Alt+D' -Function KillWord
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+@' -Function MenuComplete

Thanks - I had to put this in Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1, but it worked!

$profile is set to that file according to VSCode's terminal.

[rkeithhill]

Sorry, I thought you were trying out the PSRL support in the PowerShell Integrated Console which does load the VSCode profile. The profile you put this in will load in both the PSIC and the regular integrated terminal. But it will also load this into any PowerShell console. You might want to fire up a PowerShell console and make sure backspace still works as you expect.

[GlitterHorn]

I have ConPTY set up with the VSCode extension, if that makes any difference. I changed that after seeing somewhere (github issue, probably) that I should use ConPTY to have keyboard shortcuts like this.

[rkeithhill]

Cool. Well if you wind up with issues in the external PowerShell console, you could conditionally invoke the above script like so:

if ($env:TERM_PROGRAM -eq "vscode") {
    Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+w' -Function BackwardKillWord
    Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Alt+D' -Function KillWord
    Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord 'Ctrl+@' -Function MenuComplete    
}

There is also a $env:TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION that might come in handy.

[Jaykul]

Still. Waiting.

[JustinGrote]

@Jaykul you can use it in the powershell preview module that was published, unless you're waiting on something else?

[rfoust]

@JustinGrote The preview module doesn't show up as an available module on code-insiders, fwiw.

[TylerLeonhardt]

@rfoust it should. They both pull from the same marketplace.

Search for "PowerShell" and look down the list. I remember seeing it about half way down the page.

[rfoust]

Oh you're right, there it is. Not sure why I didn't see it last night. :)

[SydneyhSmith]

Closing as PSReadLine is now available in the PowerShell Preview extension, tracking that PSReadLine is not available in the main PowerShell Extension here #1793

[iampeterdaniels]

After updating to the non-preview powershell extension v 2020.1.0 and vscode 1.42.1, I have lost syntax highlighting in the integrated console. The actual code editor is working fine. Any ideas?

[JustinGrote]

@iampeterdaniels non-preview extension doesn't have PSReadline, you have to use the preview extension for psreadline functionality (which includes syntax highlighting, special characters, etc.)

[iampeterdaniels]

Thank you, Justin. Not sure why I thought the PSReadline 2.0 release somehow translated into it being in the non-preview extension.

[JustinGrote]

@iampeterdaniels the current preview extension should roll into stable very soon, they're trying to target it for the PS7 release which will probably drop sometime this week or next.

[max-programming]

For some reason, my Ctrl + Backspace still does not work in VS Code with Powershell integrated terminal.

Tried both Powershell V5 and V7.

Any fix on that?

[ghost]

Thank you for your comment, but please note that this issue has been closed for over a week. For better visibility, consider opening a new issue with a link to this instead.

[starball5]

Is running multiple selected lines in the same commandline command supported now? I'm trying to find where the discussion from microsoft/vscode#9715 and #1607 (comment) continues and can't find it. Is there a dedicated issue ticket covering it?