Clink in VSCode integrated terminal: CTRL+SPACE/Autocompletion doesn't work

[sewbacca]

Hello folks,
I want to use Clink inside the integrated terminal of VSCode, but autocompletion does not work correctly:

When hitting CTRL+SPACE nothing happens. Tab completion works as expected (I am using bash layout).
CTRL+SPACE works inside a cmd window and the new Windows Terminal. When I check what is received with SHIFT+ALT+? then I get:

C-@ : set-mark -- Set the mark to the cursor point.  If a numeric argument is supplied, sets the mark to that position

while in a cmd console window I get:

C-Space : clink-select-complete -- Perform completion by selecting from an interactive list of possible completions;
if there is only one match, insert it

C-@ is also received when I manually send \u0000 to the console:

{
	"key": "ctrl+space",
	"when": "terminalFocus",
	"command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendSequence",
	"args": {
		"text": "\u0000",
	}
}

So VSCode is not capturing CTRL+SPACE during terminalFocus

Any help is appreciated

[chrisant996]

It's a VSCode problem. Or at least, it's not caused by Clink.

You can use clink echo --verbose to see how keyboard input is received by Clink.

Outside of VSCode it reports the input as:

key event:  _C_ __  flags=0x00000008  char=0x0020  vk=0x0020  scan=0x0039  "Space"
"\e[27;5;32~"

• The _C means Ctrl is held.
• The 0x0020 means Space was pressed.

Inside of VSCode it reports the input as:

key event:  SC_ __  flags=0x00000018  char=0x0000  vk=0x0032  scan=0x0003  "2"
"\C-@"

• The SC means Shift and Ctrl are held -- which is inaccurate.
• The 0x0032 means the 2 key was pressed -- which is inaccurate.

Something upstream from Clink is forwarding inaccurate keyboard input to the embedded terminal inside VSCode. Probably it is going wrong inside VSCode's embedded terminal support. But it could potentially be going wrong somewhere else.

[chrisant996]

You could report the problem in the VSCode repo, or you could live with it and set a key binding for "\C-@": clink-select-complete in your .inputrc file.

[sewbacca]

Thanks for the workaround. I have created an issue in the VSCode repo. I'll get back to you once I've got an answer.

[sewbacca]

Seems to be an issue with xterm and VSCode tries it best to remap certain keystrokes for PowerShell.