allow specifying default local terminal shell on Windows systems by danthe1st · Pull Request #2932 · eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform

danthe1st · 2026-09-15T17:28:15Z

This PR allows configuring the default shell on Windows and not just on Linux/macOS.

I mainly just removed some !Platform.OS_WIN32.equals(Platform.getOS()) checks where this is relevant (in createContents(Composite), I extracted that part to a method but I can change that back to make it easier to review).

Note: For updating the Leave the shell command empty to fallback to the SHELL environment variable or if not set, to /bin/sh. message for Windows, I duplicated the following code from the org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local module. Alternatively, I could create public methods in the x-internal package.

		String defaultShellEnvironmentVariable;
		String defaultShellIfNotSet;
		if (Platform.OS_WIN32.equals(Platform.getOS())) {
			defaultShellEnvironmentVariable = "ComSpec"; //$NON-NLS-1$
			defaultShellIfNotSet = "cmd.exe"; //$NON-NLS-1$
		} else {
			defaultShellEnvironmentVariable = "SHELL"; //$NON-NLS-1$
			defaultShellIfNotSet = "/bin/sh"; //$NON-NLS-1$
		}

Note: When I tried to use it with PowerShell, the color mapping wasn't ideal with some of the text being invisible due to having the same color as the background (PowerShell seems to use the "Bright White" and "Bright Yellow" colors). I don't know whether this is something that can/should be changed. With the "Eclipse Light" color preset, PowerShell was more readable IMO.

Also, I didn't do an exhaustive test of all related code on Windows but it seems like the default configuration, changing the shell/arguments and restoring the defaults works.
I don't know why it was originally disabled (maybe the coloring issue with PowerShell?).

Fixes #2117

eclipse-platform-bot · 2026-09-15T17:34:15Z

This pull request changes some projects for the first time in this development cycle.
Therefore the following files need a version increment:

terminal/bundles/org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

An additional commit containing all the necessary changes was pushed to the top of this PR's branch. To obtain these changes (for example if you want to push more changes) either fetch from your fork or apply the git patch.

Git patch

From b063225c54303ae086e11648ad0791c6fafb78b4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eclipse Platform Bot <platform-bot@eclipse.org>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2026 18:45:40 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Version bump(s) for 4.42 stream


diff --git a/terminal/bundles/org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF b/terminal/bundles/org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
index c1ea0f7371..0367f64b13 100644
--- a/terminal/bundles/org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
+++ b/terminal/bundles/org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Manifest-Version: 1.0
 Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
 Bundle-Name: %pluginName
 Bundle-SymbolicName: org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local;singleton:=true
-Bundle-Version: 1.1.200.qualifier
+Bundle-Version: 1.1.300.qualifier
 Bundle-Activator: org.eclipse.terminal.connector.local.activator.UIPlugin
 Bundle-Vendor: %providerName
 Import-Package: org.eclipse.cdt.utils.pty;mandatory:=native,
-- 
2.55.0

Further information are available in Common Build Issues - Missing version increments.

github-actions · 2026-09-15T18:05:56Z

Test Results

51 files ±0 51 suites ±0 1h 0m 2s ⏱️ + 2m 41s
4 476 tests ±0 4 454 ✅ ±0 22 💤 ±0 0 ❌ ±0
11 517 runs ±0 11 363 ✅ ±0 154 💤 ±0 0 ❌ ±0

Results for commit f9c277a. ± Comparison against base commit 8b229d0.

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

danthe1st · 2026-10-02T20:36:21Z

@vogella Since you asked me to create this PR, is there anything else we should do?
(I only rebased it now)

vogella · 2026-10-02T22:21:42Z

@vogella Since you asked me to create this PR, is there anything else we should do? (I only rebased it now)

I review next weeek, ping me if I forget. Check, if possible the build error in betweeen and try to fix.

danthe1st · 2026-10-03T08:35:46Z

I review next weeek, ping me if I forget. Check, if possible the build error in betweeen and try to fix.

Looking at https://github.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform/runs/111035168999, it's 503 errors from GitHub (unless something else happened in Jenkins which I don't have the permission to see). I'll do another force push to trigger a rebuild.

danthe1st · 2026-10-07T17:37:29Z

@vogella Here's your reminder ping (even though it's just the middle of the week).

vogella · 2026-10-07T18:22:09Z

@vogella Here's your reminder ping (even though it's just the middle of the week).

Thanks

vogella · 2026-10-08T12:10:04Z

Sorry for the review delay. I tried it on Windows 11: a custom PowerShell path with arguments is saved and used for new local terminals, and Restore Defaults brings back cmd.exe via ComSpec.

A few points:

Default arguments leak to other programs. LocalLauncherDelegate.createTerminalConnector uses the default-shell arguments whenever PROP_PROCESS_ARGS is null, even if PROP_PROCESS_PATH names a different program. A custom "Show In" entry with empty arguments stores none, so with PowerShell plus -NoLogo as the default, a custom cmd.exe entry would start as cmd.exe -NoLogo. Could the default arguments only be used when no process path was given?
Unix preference keys on Windows. If preferences are carried over from Linux, Windows will now try to start /bin/bash. Separate Windows keys would avoid that.
Plain names are rejected. pwsh.exe fails validation, although the note names cmd.exe as the fallback. This could be a follow-up.
Small cleanups. The defaultShell() Javadoc still says it checks SHELL first. The ComSpec/SHELL selection is copied in both bundles. Keeping the original structure instead of extracting addShellCommandSection would shrink the diff.

danthe1st · 2026-10-09T16:06:54Z

Default arguments leak to other programs.

Done (this change also applies to Linux).

Unix preference keys on Windows

Do you think having two sets of preference keys for doing the same thing would be better? Alternatively, I could rename the constants and keep the actual preference names (possibly with a comment)?

Plain names are rejected

Yes, this is the same on Linux. If that should be changed, would another PR be better (since that is kinda new functionality)? If not, do you suggest just checking the PATH variable, splitting and checking for the existence of the program/shell in all such locations?

Small cleanups

I updated the Javadoc and kept the structure the same. The indentation of that code is still different due to me removing the condition and I had to rename some variables to avoid duplicates. If wanted, I could also keep it in a block ({}) without any condition but I don't really like the idea of introducing such artifacts in the code just to make reviewing the change easier.

danthe1st · 2026-10-09T18:41:56Z

(force pushing again because the build failed due to a timeout)

danthe1st mentioned this pull request Sep 15, 2026

Create a terminal settings default terminal executable setting - because On windows, cmd.exe is being chosen by default and it requires a custom env variable to change it #2117

Open

danthe1st force-pushed the terminal-windows-default-shell branch from 14df6bd to 0cd6d72 Compare October 2, 2026 20:35

vogella self-requested a review October 2, 2026 22:20

danthe1st force-pushed the terminal-windows-default-shell branch from 39a283e to 529c68f Compare October 3, 2026 08:36

danthe1st force-pushed the terminal-windows-default-shell branch 2 times, most recently from 5117195 to 91f5032 Compare October 9, 2026 16:08

allow specifying default local terminal shell on Windows systems

7a686bc

danthe1st force-pushed the terminal-windows-default-shell branch from cd2a06c to 7a686bc Compare October 9, 2026 18:42

Version bump(s) for 4.42 stream

f9c277a

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allow specifying default local terminal shell on Windows systems - #2932

allow specifying default local terminal shell on Windows systems#2932
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