Opening VS Code from 'cmd.exe' and then trying to immediately exit command window fails.

[maptz]

• VSCode Version:1.1.1
• OS Version:Windows 10

I want to open VS Code from a command line, and exit the command window in one step, but for some reason this fails.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open a command window, cmd.exe
2. Type in: start "" code . && exit
3. VS Code opens, the command window closes, but immediately re-opens.

The equivalent command start "" notepad && exit works as expected.

[joaomoreno]

Unfortunately code is a batch script in itself, while nodepad is an executable.

What are you trying to achieve here? Doesn't a simple code . return immediately?

[maptz]

I am trying to end Command Window bloat when I'm editing files. I want to open a command terminal to start VS Code and then close the command window once Code is open.

For instance, I have full VS running, and want to edit the same solution in VSCode, I press Ctrl+Alt+Space (my key-binding for opening command terminals in full VS.) Then I want to type in some command to open VS Code at the current location, and close the newly opened command window. Note: If I type code . and press enter, code will open, and hijack the focus, so I can't type exit immediately which means I have to navigate back to the opening command window to type an 'exit' command.

I have found that I can get the desired behaviour if I change LINE 5 of the code.cmd file to:

 start` "" "%~dp0..\Code.exe" "%~dp0..\resources\\app\\out\\cli.js" %*

I can then type code . && exit to get the desired behaviour.

I'm not a batch script expert, so I don't really understand the consequences of starting code using start versus call. No doubt it has consequences.

[joaomoreno]

Me neither... it is truly a dark craft...

We can explore using start instead of call... see what breaks in there.

[maptz]

Great.

After very cursory research here, it appears that there is very little difference between CALL and START when initializing EXEs, and the differences only become relevant when starting (other) batch files.

[Tyriar]

I don't understand why code . returns immediately, so does code . & echo test, but code . & exit or code . && exit waits until vscode terminates...?

[joaomoreno]

@maptz Figured out why call is used: it allows us to implement the --wait and companion command line switches. Using start would make the prompt return immediately at all times, even when using --wait, which would be wrong.

After one hour of trial and error, I failed to get anywhere.

Closing the issue since this is not specific to Code, but a Batch question. I suggest Stack Overflow for this. Good luck!

[Matheus-de-Souza]

I wrote a script to start vscode and other programs too, and I had the same problem @maptz had. I don't know why is used call instead of start "". Changing the line 5 on the code.cmd allowed me to start the vscode on cmd, powershell, etc..