Debugging a script that invokes exiftool.exe hangs

[sba923]

System Details

System Details Output

### VSCode version: 1.53.2 622cb03f7e070a9670c94bae1a45d78d7181fbd4 x64

### VSCode extensions:
af4jm.vscode-m3u@1.0.0
akamud.vscode-javascript-snippet-pack@0.1.6
alefragnani.Bookmarks@13.0.3
Angular.ng-template@11.2.4
anseki.vscode-color@0.4.5
anweber.vscode-tidyhtml@1.10.0
austin.code-gnu-global@0.2.2
chenxsan.vscode-standardjs@1.4.0
christian-kohler.npm-intellisense@1.3.1
christian-kohler.path-intellisense@2.3.0
CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer@1.0.61
Damien.autoit@1.0.5
DavidAnson.vscode-markdownlint@0.39.0
DotJoshJohnson.xml@2.5.1
DougFinke.vscode-PSStackoverflow@0.0.2
ecmel.vscode-html-css@1.10.2
eg2.vscode-npm-script@0.3.16
esbenp.prettier-vscode@5.9.2
formulahendry.platformio@0.3.0
GrapeCity.gc-excelviewer@3.0.41
Gruntfuggly.todo-tree@0.0.199
hdg.live-html-previewer@0.3.0
HookyQR.beautify@1.5.0
humao.rest-client@0.24.4
infinity1207.angular2-switcher@0.3.3
ionutvmi.reg@1.0.2
jasonnutter.github-pr@1.0.0
leighlondon.eml@0.4.0
mechatroner.rainbow-csv@1.8.1
Mikael.Angular-BeastCode@10.0.3
ms-azure-devops.azure-pipelines@1.183.0
ms-dotnettools.csharp@1.23.9
ms-mssql.mssql@1.10.1
ms-python.python@2021.2.582707922
ms-toolsai.jupyter@2021.2.603412351
ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl@0.53.4
ms-vscode.azure-account@0.9.6
ms-vscode.cpptools@1.2.2
ms-vscode.powershell@2021.2.2
ms-vscode.vscode-typescript-tslint-plugin@1.3.3
msjsdiag.debugger-for-chrome@4.12.12
natewallace.angular2-inline@0.0.17
nobuhito.printcode@3.0.0
nrwl.angular-console@17.0.0
oderwat.indent-rainbow@7.5.0
platformio.platformio-ide@2.3.0
quicktype.quicktype@12.0.46
RandomFractalsInc.geo-data-viewer@2.3.0
redhat.java@0.75.0
tht13.html-preview-vscode@0.2.5
twxs.cmake@0.0.17
Tyriar.lorem-ipsum@1.2.0
VisualStudioExptTeam.vscodeintellicode@1.2.11
vitaliymaz.vscode-svg-previewer@0.7.0
vscjava.vscode-java-debug@0.31.0
vscjava.vscode-java-dependency@0.18.1
vscjava.vscode-java-pack@0.12.1
vscjava.vscode-java-test@0.28.0
vscjava.vscode-maven@0.27.1
yzane.markdown-pdf@1.4.4
yzhang.markdown-all-in-one@3.4.0
Zignd.html-css-class-completion@1.20.0
zovorap.ab-html-formatter@0.0.2


### PSES version: 2.3.0.0

### PowerShell version:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.1.2
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.1.2
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.19042
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Issue Description

When I run the following script under the PowerShell debugger within VScode, it hangs when launching exiftool.exe:

$exiftool = (Get-Command exiftool).Path
Write-Host ("'exiftool' is '{0}' (version {1}) {{MD5={2}}}" -f $exiftool, (Get-Item $exiftool).VersionInfo.ProductVersion, (Get-Filehash -Algorithm MD5 $exiftool).Hash)
$cmd = "{0} -DateTimeOriginal {1}" -f $exiftool, (Join-Path -Path $PSScriptRoot -ChildPath 'foobar.cr2')
Write-Host ("Invoking '{0}'" -f $cmd)
Invoke-Expression $cmd

Expected Behaviour

When running outside of the debugger (in a standalone PowerShell session, or in the VScode terminal), I get the expected results:

'exiftool' is 'c:\usr\wbin\exiftool.exe' (version 12.2.1.0) {MD5=4ECB5A8B4AA893F3ADFD48E8ACEBC669}
Invoking 'c:\usr\wbin\exiftool.exe -DateTimeOriginal S:\powershell\test\foobar.cr2'
Date/Time Original              : 2019:12:25 16:36:30

Actual Behaviour

When run via the debugger (F5 in VScode) the script hangs:

'exiftool' is 'c:\usr\wbin\exiftool.exe' (version 12.2.1.0) {MD5=4ECB5A8B4AA893F3ADFD48E8ACEBC669}
Invoking 'c:\usr\wbin\exiftool.exe -DateTimeOriginal S:\powershell\test\foobar.cr2'

Here's the version of exiftool.exe on my system:

exiftool.zip

Attached Logs

1614863299-c8495592-f210-48e1-a203-cc687e42687b1614861694455 - Copy.zip

[rjmholt]

This may well be a duplicate of #2559.

We did some investigation around that issue but weren't able to determine why exiftool.exe specifically interacts badly with the Integrated Console. Unfortunately, we're not likely to be able to prioritise such a specific bug before other issues we're currently working toward.

[sba923]

Even if not a exact duplicate this does look like it's a very close issue.

I was so convinced this could not be specific to exiftool that I didn't bother searching for that in the existing issues 😜

I do understand that this is very specific and thus low priority.

I'll start looking for workarounds... (all my photo/video related tooling relies on exiftool to extra e.g. the 'date taken' from DSLR RAW images...)

[rjmholt]

Honestly I'm perplexed as to why this occurs with exiftool. I did look into it with the last issue but couldn't see a good reason (it's basically a self-contained Perl script right?).

Anyway, if it's a bad PSReadLine interaction due to the idiosyncrasies of the Integrated Console, it might be something we can mitigate as we rework the integrated console.

[sba923]

As I had to work on my picture/video management scripts during the holidays, I was hit by this issue once again.

Would there be a way to detect that a script is running under the debugger, so that it could be prevented from running there? This way I would just be reminded that I must run the script outside of VScode?

[JustinGrote]

@sba923 yes, you can
$env:TERM_PROGRAM -eq 'vscode'

[sba923]

$env:TERM_PROGRAM -eq 'vscode'

I confirm this works, so I'm spreading this all around 😥

if ($env:TERM_PROGRAM -eq 'vscode')
{
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red ("This script uses 'exiftool'. It will hang if invoked from VScode.")
    Exit(1)
}

Anything I could do to help getting rid of this issue?

[SeeminglyScience]

Can you try just pressing any key when it appears stuck? Make sure the terminal is focused (click somewhere inside it) and just press enter. Please let me know if it continues after that.

[sba923]

yes it does continue, even after pressing Space or even a!!!

[SeeminglyScience]

Yeah that checks out. I think I know what's up, we'll get it fixed if it is what I think.