Run/Debug BASH Scripts on Windows with Visual Studio Code🔗

The aim of this page📝 is to start with BASH in Visual Studio Code on Windows, and eventually getting to run/debug scripts just by pressing F5. I was kind of skeptical about WSL, I suspected it would somehow interfere with my perfect existing OS/Powershell setup, etc (I was trying to set this up for Clojure and gave up). But no, it really is easy & fast as pasting a single command, 1 reboot, downloading Ubuntu (0.5 GB), and a couple of steps in VsCode.

1. WSL🔗

• We start by setting up Windows Subsystem for Linux by running the following in an elevated Powershell Prompt

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

• Go to Windows Store → Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS → Reboot
• Run the downloaded Ubuntu as a normal → Select username/password → Done

2. VSCode🔗

• Install Bash Debug from Visual Studio Marketplace
• Go to Integrated Terminal → Select newly appeared Ubuntu 20.04 (WSL)
• Create hello.sh → Write a simple loop to print the range <1,20> in the consosoe

for i in {1..20}
do
    echo "$i"
done

• Open launch.json and paste the following

{
    "type": "bashdb",
    "request": "launch",
    "name": "Bash-Debug",
    "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
    "program": "${file}",
    "args": []
    }

• Press F5 in hello.sh, twice to just run without debugging
• Go to DEBUG CONSOLE to get the output → Done

3. links🔗

• Bash Debug — Visual Studio Marketplace
• Getting Started With WSL — DEV Community
• How to Debug Bash with VS Code — VS Code debug specs — Bash