Run vscode tasks with nvm

README.md

Nvm does not work in vscode tasks, because tasks are run without a shell. .bashrc is not loaded and the nvm command is unknown.

My solution uses a wrapper script around /bin/bash that reads in the correct node version from .npmrc in the project folder.

#!/bin/bash

set -e

if [[ "$2" == nvm* ]]; then
    export NODE_VERSION=v$(cat .nvmrc)
    if [ -z "$NODE_VERSION" ]; then
        echo "$(pwd)/.nvmrc does not exist or is empty"
        exit 1
    fi
    CLEAN_CMD=$(echo $2 | sed -e 's/nvm/npm/g')

    /bin/bash -c "~/.nvm/nvm-exec $CLEAN_CMD"
else
    /bin/bash -c $@
fi

The wrapper script is configured as default shell using the terminal.integrated.automationShell.<os> setting in settings.json.

Example:

    "terminal.integrated.automationShell.linux": "<path>/nvm-shell.sh"

Instead of defining a tasks of type npm, the shell type is used instead:

    {
        "type": "shell",
        "command": "nvm run compile",
        "label": "npm-compile",            
        "problemMatcher": "$tsc",
        "isBackground": false,  
        "presentation": {
            "reveal": "always"
        },
        "group": {
            "kind": "build",
            "isDefault": true
        }
    }

Theoretically, it should be possible to configure this script per taks without the global configuration:

        "linux": {
            "options": {
                "shell": {
                    "executable": "<path>/nvm-shell.sh",
                    "args": []
                }
            }
        }

But that always returns an error 127 command nvm not found.

found this article which talks about similar approach

This works in vscode 1.85.1 (i use yarn, but the npm task matcher automatically detects that i guess?)

.vscode/tasks.json

        {
            "type": "npm",
            "script": "build",
            "path": "common/",
            "group": "build",
            "problemMatcher": [],
            "label": "npm: build - common",
            "detail": "yarn run build",
            "options": {"shell": {"executable": "${workspaceFolder}/../nvms.sh"}}
        },

nvmsh.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

## Runs NVM or NVS depending on which is available
## Source this script or call it with arguments to execute a task with the correct nvm/nvs env

## usage:
##
## Source inside a script:
## $ dir="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" >/dev/null 2>&1 && pwd )"
## $ source "$dir/path/to/nvms.sh"
##
## Run a command with nvm/nvs:
## path/to/nvms.sh command arg1 arg2 arg3

if [ -f ~/.nvm/nvm.sh ]; then
    . ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
    nvm use
else
    . ~/.nvs/nvs.sh
    nvs use
fi

if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
    # not sure why but it won't run yarn unless we find the exact location first...
    cmd="$(which $1)"
    shift
    exec "$cmd" "$@"
fi

https://stackoverflow.com/a/73426063/4859280, this solution is easy and works for me.