environment variables are empty when executing tasks

[dominikschreiber]

Issue Type: Bug

After updating to VSCode March 2019 (stable, tested on macOS and on Windows), environment variables used in task definitions are no longer resolved, they are emptystring instead.

Consider the following tasks.json:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [{
    "label": "echo",
    "type": "shell",
    "command": "echo $HOME == ${env:HOME}",
    "problemMatcher": []
  }]
}

expected: /Users/me == /Users/me
actual: /Users/me ==

This renders all tasks unuseable that in any way rely on environment variables directly (e.g. starting a tomcat via ${env:CATALINA_HOME}/bin/startup.sh).

VS Code version: Code 1.33.0 (0dd516d, 2019-04-04T15:11:32.076Z)
OS version: Darwin x64 18.5.0

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8850H CPU @ 2.60GHz (12 x 2600)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled checker_imaging: disabled_off flash_3d: enabled flash_stage3d: enabled flash_stage3d_baseline: enabled gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on native_gpu_memory_buffers: enabled rasterization: enabled surface_synchronization: enabled_on video_decode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Load (avg)	2, 2, 2
Memory (System)	32.00GB (17.00GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (11)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
Bookmarks	ale	10.4.2
better-toml	bun	0.3.2
bracket-pair-colorizer-2	Coe	0.0.28
vscode-eslint	dba	1.8.2
vsc-material-theme	Equ	2.8.2
nasc-touchbar	fel	1.12.0
beautify	Hoo	1.4.11
java-properties	ith	0.0.2
vscode-jsp	pth	0.0.2
rust	rus	0.6.1
perforce	sle	3.1.0

(2 theme extensions excluded)

[sleutho]

Same on Windows 10. Breaks all my tasks (C++/make related tasks) and cripples VSCode as an IDE for me.

Version: 1.33.0 (user setup)
Commit: 0dd516d
Date: 2019-04-04T15:14:28.026Z
Electron: 3.1.6
Chrome: 66.0.3359.181
Node.js: 10.2.0
V8: 6.6.346.32
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.17763

[sleutho]

Duplicate of #71740

[vscodebot]

Thanks for creating this issue! We figured it's covering the same as another one we already have. Thus, we closed this one as a duplicate. You can search for existing issues here. See also our issue reporting guidelines.

Happy Coding!