Table of Contents
Check if the Command is installed
Verify Your Terminal Shell
Update Your PATH Environment Variable
Restart VS Code or Reopen the Terminal
Home Development Tools VSCode How do I resolve 'command not found' errors in the VS Code terminal?

How do I resolve 'command not found' errors in the VS Code terminal?

Jul 04, 2025 am 12:50 AM

1. Confirm whether the command is installed 2. Check the terminal shell type 3. Update the PATH environment variable 4. Restart VS Code or terminal. When you enter a command in the VS Code terminal, you should first check whether the command has been installed correctly and can be verified through other terminals of the system; secondly, confirm the shell type used by VS Code and check its configuration file; then make sure that the path where the command is located has been added to the PATH environment variable, and manually add and reload the configuration if necessary; finally close and reopen the terminal or restart VS Code to make the changes take effect.

You type a command into the VS Code terminal, hit Enter, and instead of running, it says "command not found." It's frustrating, especially if you know that command works elsewhere. The issue usually isn't with VS Code itself — more often than not, it has to do with your environment setup, shell configuration, or PATH variables.

Here are some common causes and how to fix them.


Check if the Command is installed

This might sound obvious, but before diving into complex debugging, make sure the command you're trying to run is actually installed on your system.

  • If you're using npm , try reinstalling the package globally:
     npm install -g <package-name>
  • For Python tools like black or flake8 , use pip:
     pip install <tool-name>

If you're unsure whether it's installed, try running the command in another terminal (like Terminal.app on macOS or CMD/PowerShell on Windows). If it still doesn't work there, then the tool just isn't available on your system yet.


Verify Your Terminal Shell

VS Code uses the system's default shell by default, but sometimes it ends up using something else — like an older version or a misconfigured one.

To check which shell you're using:

 echo $SHELL

Or just open a new terminal tab and see what prompt appears.

Common shells include:

  • Bash
  • Zsh
  • Fish
  • PowerShell (Windows)

Each shell may have its own config files ( ~/.bashrc , ~/.zshrc , etc.). Make sure the command path is included in the correct config file for your current shell.


Update Your PATH Environment Variable

Even if the command is installed, VS Code might not be able to find it because it's not in your PATH.

To check where your command lives:

 which <command-name>

If this returns nothing, your shell doesn't know where the command is located.

You can temporarily test by adding it manually:

 export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/command

But to make it stick, edit your shell config file (eg, .bashrc , .zshrc ) and add that line at the end.

Then reload the config:

 source ~/.zshrc # or .bashrc depending on your shell

Restart VS Code or Reopen the Terminal

Sometimes changes aren't picked up until you restart the terminal session — or even the whole editor.

Try closing and reopening the terminal panel in VS Code. If that doesn't help, fully quit and relaunch VS Code.

Also, if you're using a dev container or remote SSH connection, make sure the PATH and installations are done inside that environment too.


That should cover most cases. Sometimes it's just a missing package, other times it's a PATH issue hiding in your shell config. Once you verify each step, these errors usually go away quickly.

The above is the detailed content of How do I resolve 'command not found' errors in the VS Code terminal?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Statement of this Website
The content of this article is voluntarily contributed by netizens, and the copyright belongs to the original author. This site does not assume corresponding legal responsibility. If you find any content suspected of plagiarism or infringement, please contact admin@php.cn

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool

Undress AI Tool

Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress

Undresser.AI Undress

AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover

AI Clothes Remover

Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io

Clothoff.io

AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap

Video Face Swap

Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1

Notepad++7.3.1

Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version

SublimeText3 Chinese version

Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1

Zend Studio 13.0.1

Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6

Dreamweaver CS6

Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version

SublimeText3 Mac version

God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

How to set a default formatter in vscode settings? How to set a default formatter in vscode settings? Jun 27, 2025 am 12:01 AM

To set the default formatting tool in VSCode, you must first install extensions of the corresponding language, such as Prettier, Black or ESLint. 1. Open the settings and search for "DefaultFormatter", edit the settings.json file to specify the default formatting tools for each language, such as using "esbenp.prettier-vscode" to handle JavaScript, and "ms-python.black-formatter" to handle Python. 2. Optional global settings, but it is recommended to configure them separately by language. 3. Enable "FormatonSave"

How do I view the Git history in VS Code? How do I view the Git history in VS Code? Jun 26, 2025 am 12:09 AM

Viewing Git history in VSCode can be achieved through the built-in Git extension. The specific steps are as follows: 1. Open the Git sidebar on the left, view the list of recent submissions and select a specific submission; 2. View the file modified by the submission and line-by-line differences in the right panel, and right-click the file to perform restore changes and other operations; 3. Right-click the file in the editor and select "Open Timeline", and use the timeline view to view the historical change record of the file. These steps allow you to easily track project changes without relying on external tools.

How do I download and install VS Code on my operating system? How do I download and install VS Code on my operating system? Jun 24, 2025 am 12:04 AM

TodownloadandinstallVisualStudioCode,firstchecksystemrequirements—Windows10 (64-bit),macOS10.13 ,ormodernLinuxdistributions—thenvisittheofficialwebsitetodownloadthecorrectversionforyourOS,andfollowinstallationstepsspecifictoyourplatform.Beginbyensuri

VSCode debugger for Java setup guide VSCode debugger for Java setup guide Jul 01, 2025 am 12:22 AM

The key steps in configuring the Java debugging environment on VSCode include: 1. Install JDK and verify; 2. Install JavaExtensionPack and DebuggerforJava plug-in; 3. Create and configure the launch.json file, specify mainClass and projectName; 4. Set up the correct project structure to ensure the source code path and compilation output are correct; 5. Use debugging techniques such as Watch, F8/F10/F11 shortcut keys and methods to deal with common problems such as class not found or JVM attachment failure.

How do I set up VS Code for Java development? How do I set up VS Code for Java development? Jun 29, 2025 am 12:23 AM

To use VSCode for Java development, you need to install the necessary extensions, configure the JDK and set up the workspace. 1. Install JavaExtensionPack, including language support, debugging integration, build tools and code completion functions; optional JavaTestRunner or SpringBoot extension package. 2. Install at least JDK17 and verify through java-version and javac-version; set the JAVA_HOME environment variable, or switch multiple JDKs in the status bar at the bottom of VSCode. 3. After opening the project folder, make sure the project structure is correct and enable automatic saving, adjust the formatting rules, enable code checking, and configure the compilation task to optimize the opening.

How to change the default terminal in vscode settings? How to change the default terminal in vscode settings? Jul 05, 2025 am 12:35 AM

There are three ways to change the default terminal in VSCode: setting through a graphical interface, editing settings.json file, and temporary switching. First, open the settings interface and search for "terminalintegratedshell" and select the terminal path of the corresponding system; secondly, advanced users can edit settings.json to add "terminal.integrated.shell.windows" or "terminal.integrated.shell.osx" fields and escape the path correctly; finally, you can enter "Terminal:SelectD through the command panel

How do I resolve 'command not found' errors in the VS Code terminal? How do I resolve 'command not found' errors in the VS Code terminal? Jul 04, 2025 am 12:50 AM

1. Confirm whether the command is installed 2. Check the terminal shell type 3. Update the PATH environment variable 4. Restart VSCode or terminal. When you enter a command in the VSCode terminal, you should first check whether the command has been installed correctly and can be verified through other terminals of the system; secondly, confirm the shell type used by VSCode and check its configuration file; then make sure that the path where the command is located has been added to the PATH environment variable, and manually add and reload the configuration if necessary; finally close and reopen the terminal or restart VSCode to make the changes take effect.

How do I change the font size in VS Code? How do I change the font size in VS Code? Jun 27, 2025 am 12:37 AM

To change the font size of VSCode, you can adjust, edit the JSON file, or use shortcut keys. First, enter the settings interface through "File>Preferences>Settings" (or Ctrl/Cmd,), search for FontSize and enter the numerical value to modify the font size globally; secondly, click the {} icon in the upper right corner to open the settings.json file, add "editor.fontSize": The numerical value can be precisely controlled, and you can also set the font sizes such as terminal, title, etc., such as {"terminal.integrated.fontSize":14,"title

See all articles