Failed to run 'elixir' command error in vs code

freewebwithme · April 28, 2020, 2:47am

Using vs code and installed ElixirLS: support and debugger.
And I got an error popped up on start up says

Failed to run ‘elixir’ command. ElixirLS will probably fail to launch. Logged PATH to Development Console.

I think elixir command is in current path

which elixir
/home/user/.asdf/shims/elixir

and

echo $PATH
...........:/home/user/.asdf/shims:.....................
What is my problem?

axelson · April 28, 2020, 2:53am

Can you show the full error output? Also what operating system are you using?

NobbZ · April 28, 2020, 7:19am

How do you start VScode?

It might have a different view to your PATH than your shell, especially if you start it from a graphical environment rather from the terminal.

Please check the PATH logged into the console as explained by the error.

Please also check if the error persists when starting VScode from within a terminal that already is in the projects folder if you do not already open it that way. Depending on your operating system/flavor of it, you might need to run one of vscode . or code ..

freewebwithme · April 28, 2020, 2:40pm

full error output is this.

Failed to run ‘elixir’ command. ElixirLS will probably fail to launch. Logged PATH to Development Console.

and I am using manjaro linux

freewebwithme · April 28, 2020, 2:46pm

Yes you are right. Starting vs code from gui only shows error, and starting fro terminal using code . works fine

NobbZ · April 28, 2020, 3:00pm

You probably add asdf only to the PATH in your shells RC file.

To make it available to your GUI as well you neet to add it to your .Xprofile or whatever is read by your GUI.

cblavier · July 6, 2020, 12:51pm

How can you do it under MacOS ?

Facundo · November 25, 2020, 12:13pm

Same problem for me with Gui on Mac & zsh.
No luck adding $HOME/.asdf/shims to PATH neither on $HOME/.zshenv nor $HOME/.zprofile

lukaszsamson · November 26, 2020, 10:45am

$HOME/.zshrc works for me

NobbZ · November 26, 2020, 2:45pm

Your GUI does not care about settings in .zshenv and .zprofile, both of them are used by zsh only.

Though if your installed version of Elixir-LS is recent enough (I think it became added in 0.3.0 or 0.4.0), then asdf should be found by it if $HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh exists.

github.com

elixir-lsp/elixir-ls/blob/3c1085bc90f47141d1286cfabddc834bf3127c51/apps/elixir_ls_utils/priv/launch.sh#L14


#
# Running this script is a one-time action per project launch, so we opt for
# code simplicity instead of performance. Hence some potentially redundant
# moves here.
# First order of business, see whether we can setup asdf-vm
did_relaunch=$1
asdf_vm="${HOME}/.asdf/asdf.sh"
if test -f "${asdf_vm}"
then
  # asdf-vm does not support the plain posix shell. Figure out
  # which one we need and relaunch ourselves with that.
  case "${did_relaunch}" in
    "")
      if which bash >/dev/null
      then
        exec "$(which bash)" "$0" relaunch
      elif which zsh >/dev/null

Facundo · November 26, 2020, 3:12pm

I saw that as well.

However asdf.sh is not there:

ls ${HOME}/.asdf/
  installs/      plugins/      repository/      shims/      tmp/

I did try creating a link

ln -s /usr/local/opt/asdf/asdf.sh asdf.sh

But failed miserably because the script points to directories relative to the original asdf.sh

I have asdf’s lastest version. And, BTW, this started happening to me in a newly migrated Mac (now) using Big Sur

lukaszsamson · November 26, 2020, 5:45pm

Does your integrated terminal in vscode have the necessary envs? I guess thats what vscode uses to launch elixir-ls

NobbZ · November 26, 2020, 6:52pm

Try a local user install as described by asdf rather than some package manager that installs system wide.

Facundo · November 29, 2020, 11:33pm

Thanks @NobbZ
Installed asdf again from sources –not using brew- and it works smoothly.

@lukaszsamson my integrated terminal is zsh and loads every other terminal outside of VSCode.

Nefcairon · October 6, 2021, 6:10pm

Hello,

I am using VS Code via Windows 10/WSL (erlang/elixir installed via asdf) and I also get

Failed to run ‘elixir’ command. ElixirLS will probably fail to launch. Logged PATH to Development Console.

I even do not know where/what this “Development Console” is (google didn’t help).

Is someone able to help me?

Facundo · October 7, 2021, 3:42pm

Click on View → Terminal
Select output tab
Then select ElixirLS from the dropdown

wdiechmann · October 8, 2021, 10:09am

@Facundo I can confirm that! Just <upgraded> my MacBook Air M1 to BigSur - and the next thing I noticed was that ElixirLS fails to start in VSCode

my .zshrc is good as is my asdf local elixir 1.12.0

I may have installed asdf with brew first - but my current installation is tucked away safely in $HOME/.asdf

Tried iex from CLI only to learn that elixir wasn’t the issue at all - erl was! (Note: I run all my workbench stuff in containers which is probably why I haven’t noticed)

Once I got my asdf global erlang 24.1 out of the way - all was good in VSCode on macOS BigSur land

thepeoplesbourgeois · January 31, 2022, 2:50am

Actually, “development console” in that error refers to ~~Chromium’s~~ ~~Electron’s~~ VSCode’s development tools console, which is under the Help menu header on MacOS, and… might be in a similar enough part of the Windows menu if you dig around for it a bit, @Nefcairon.

wallyfoo · February 2, 2022, 1:02pm

This ended up being the solution for me here on Groundhog’s Day, 2022. I forgot to set my global erlang asdf.

Rectified, relaunched, resplendent.

jmnda · March 9, 2022, 5:20pm

Setting erlang and elixir globally solve the issue for me as well
asdf global erlang <your_version>
asdf global elixir <your_version>