How to shared terminal state and variables between dependent vscode tasks - vscode-tasks

Question

I am using VS Code tasks to run a python script, and I need to first activate a specific Conda environment. So I can reuse the conda activate function in multiple tasks, I would like to activate a specific conda environment in one task and then run scripts in other tasks with the "conda activate" task as a dependency.
However, the following example doesn't appear to work as I expected. When I activate a conda environment in the dependent task, the main task can't "see" the activated environment. I set "panel"="shared", but that doesn't seem to make a difference in my case.
For example
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "activate_myEnv",
"type": "shell",
"command": "eval \"$(conda shell.bash hook)\" && conda activate myEnv && which python",
"presentation": {
"echo": true,
"reveal": "always",
"focus": false,
"panel": "shared",
"showReuseMessage": true,
"clear": false
}
},
{
"label": "which_python",
"dependsOn": ["activate_myEnv"],
"type": "shell",
"command": "which python",
"presentation": {
"echo": true,
"reveal": "always",
"focus": false,
"panel": "shared",
"showReuseMessage": true,
"clear": false
}
},
}
When I run the which_python task, the ouptut is:
> Executing task: eval "$(conda shell.bash hook)" && conda activate myEnv && which python <
/home/blaylock/anaconda3/envs/myEnv/bin/python #<-- myEnv is successfully activated
Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.
> Executing task: which python <
/home/blaylock/anaconda3/envs/base/bin/python #<-- But the second task reverts to the base conda environment.
Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.
Maybe I misunderstood what "panel"="shared" (which is the default) does, but I expected my second task to recognize that I have changed conda environments.
Edit
In this a more simplistic example, I have set variable a in one task, and try to print it in a subsequent task, but the value isn't known...
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "set_var_a",
"type": "shell",
"command": "a=5 && echo a=$a",
},
{
"label": "echo_a",
"dependsOn": ["set_var_a"],
"type": "shell",
"command": "echo a=$a",
}
}
The oupt of running the echo_a task
> Executing task: a=5 && echo a=$a <
a=5
Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.
> Executing task: echo a=$a <
a=
Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.
Again, I would have expected the second task to recognize variables set in the dependent task.