3.12 FAQ

Q: I cannot see my R Objects in the global environment.
A: when you click on “R: (not attached)” on the bottom bar or type .vsc.attach() into the terminal, your objects should start showing up in your global environment.

Q: How to hide variables in OUTLINE view?
A: OUTLINE view by default shows all variables in the current R script, making it difficult to locate your true sections. To hide variables, go to command palette, type “Outline: Show”, there is a list of objects that you can choose to show or hide (you can choose to set this for workspace or the user). Here is my current setting:

{
  "outline.showArrays": false,
  "outline.showBooleans": false,
  "outline.showClasses": true,
  "outline.showConstants": false,
  "outline.showFields": false // this hides most variables you actually don't want to see
}

Note that some answers mention that you should use "outline.showVariables": false, but this does NOT work for me. Instead, I use "outline.showFields": false to hide most variables.

To set outline appearance for a specific language, you can use the following settings:

{
  "[r]": {
    "outline.showArrays": false,
    "outline.showBooleans": false,
    "outline.showClasses": true,
    "outline.showConstants": false,
    "outline.showFields": false
  },
  "[rmd]": {
    "outline.showKeys": false,
  }
}
  • Set outline.showKeys to false will prevent code chunks from being shown in the OUTLINE view of Rmd files.

Multiple language specific editor settings

You can now configure language specific editor settings for multiple languages at once. The following example shows how you can customize settings for javascript and typescript languages together in your settings.json file:

"[javascript][typescript]": {
  "editor.maxTokenizationLineLength": 2500
}

See HERE for a complete list of icons and their meanings in the OUTLINE view.

The following tables shows the icons that you most commonly see in the OUTLINE view.

Icon Name Symbol type
Methods and Functions method, function, constructor
Variables variable
Fields field
Words text
Constants constant
Classes class
Structures struct
Modules module
Properties and Attributes property
  • Constant applies to Quarto sections. Need to set "outline.showConstants": true, to show sections properly in the OUTLINE view.

R terminal launch error:

The terminal process "/Users/menghan/.local/bin/radian '--no-save', '--no-restore'" terminated with exit code: 1.

Check if can run

/Users/menghan/.local/bin/radian

if it starts fine, then it is an environment issue, i.e., missing PATH problem.

Fix: Add to settings.json:

"terminal.integrated.env.osx": {
  "PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/Applications/quarto/bin:${env:HOME}/.local/bin:${env:PATH}"
}

This expands the PATH for the integrated terminal in VS Code, so that it can find R and radian.

Explanation:

  • VS Code being launched from the Dock (launchd never reads ~/.zprofile), inheriting only the bare launchd PATH.

    launchd → VS Code (`PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin`)  →  radian   ❌ inherits that

    R exists in /usr/local/bin/R, but that is not in the launchd PATH. So radian cannot find R and fails to start.

  • Launching with code . from a terminal sidesteps the entire class of problem, since VS Code then inherits your real environment.

    Terminal.app  →  zsh -l  →  reads profiles, builds PATH  →  radian   ✅ inherits full PATH

    Changing terminal.integrated.env.osx adds the four directories to VS Code’s own PATH. But it is static. If you change your PATH in your shell profile (e.g., ~/.zprofile), VS Code will not see the change until you update terminal.integrated.env.osx again.

    If you’d rather have it self-maintaining, the alternative is pointing r.rterm.mac at a #!/bin/zsh -l wrapper that execs radian.

To let r.rterm.mac point to a wrapper script, create a file ~/.local/bin/radian-vscode:

#!/bin/zsh -l
exec /Users/menghan/.local/bin/radian "$@"

chmod +x it, and set "r.rterm.mac": "/Users/menghan/.local/bin/radian-vscode" in settings.json.

radian now inherits whatever your login files produce at the moment you open the terminal, so it stays correct on its own.

Reading it piece by piece:

  • #!/bin/zsh -l: VS Code launches this file; the kernel starts /bin/zsh with -l, making it a login shell, so it reads ~/.zshenv, ~/.zprofile, ~/.zlogin and builds your real PATH.
  • exec: replaces the zsh process with radian rather than spawning a child. No leftover shell wrapping your session, so q(), Ctrl-D, and signals behave exactly as they do now.
  • "\$@": forwards the --no-save --no-restore that the extension appends.

References: