# Start REPL: The terminal process failed to launch: Path to shell executable "\\bin\\sh" does not exist

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/start-repl-the-terminal-process-failed-to-launch-path-to-shell-executable-bin-sh-does-not-exist/97298>\
**Category:** VS Code\
**Created:** [April 10, 2023, 10:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/start-repl-the-terminal-process-failed-to-launch-path-to-shell-executable-bin-sh-does-not-exist/97298 "2023-04-10T10:19:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Salmon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/salmon/32/22968_2.png) [@Salmon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Salmon)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/start-repl-the-terminal-process-failed-to-launch-path-to-shell-executable-bin-sh-does-not-exist/97298/1 "2023-04-10T10:19:45Z")

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Hi,  
since today I cannot launch a REPL from VSCode on windows anymore. It fails with the error:  
`The terminal process failed to launch: Path to shell executable "\bin\sh" does not exist. `  
I interpret this as the julia extension not being able to launch a terminal, although I am not sure what exactly goes wrong since the command “Terminal: Create new terminal” works fine. Possibly there is some setting that now automatically assumes that the user is on a linux OS? ( the path “\bin\sh” seems to indicate this)

I think the problem started after a vscode update. I initially updated Julia using `UpdateJulia.update_julia("1.9")`. After restarting vscode to acccess the new version, it automatically installed an update that seemed to have broken things.

I have found a number of results upon looking up this error, but so far nothing that seemed to be out of place for me. Most results are referring to providing a path for the terminal executable, but that seems to be specified correctly for me.

Some more pointers:

- When I use remote-ssh into another machine (linux) and start a REPL from there, it works fine.
- Starting a julia session manually in a normal terminal and connecting to the REPL works as usual.
- I have tried reinstalling the extension to no avail.

Has anyone had this problem before?  
Cheers

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Salmon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/salmon/32/22968_2.png) [@Salmon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Salmon)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 10:21am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/start-repl-the-terminal-process-failed-to-launch-path-to-shell-executable-bin-sh-does-not-exist/97298/2 "2023-04-14T10:21:02Z")

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I have figured out the problem. There was a setting about persistent settings which I had overlooked. Looks like vscode synced my setting from another computer and tried to find the shell in /bin/sh.  
Disabling persistent sessions or selecting a different shell seems to solve the problem