When is ~/.vscode-remote/bin available?

[rubensa]

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I have some code in onCreateCommand to automatically install some VSCode extensions using code-server command.

This is working in VSCode using the ~/.vscode-server/bin/*/bin/code-server --install-extension ${extension} --force command and I think that, at some point, it was also available in Codespaces.

Now, it looks like in Codespaces, the command would be ~/.vscode-remote/bin/*/bin/code-server --install-extension ${extension} --force but, at the time onCreateCommand is executed, looks like ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder is not available. I can see only ~/.vscode-remote/data folder, despite when the container is fully initialized, the ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder is also there.

[54J4N]

@rubensa
The ~/.vscode-remote/bin directory in GitHub Codespaces is available only after the environment is fully initialized and the VS Code server starts. During the early initialization phase, like during onCreateCommand, this directory isn't accessible, for automated extension installation, use the extensions field in devcontainer.json, or delay your installation commands until after the environment setup completes.
For automatic extension installation-
Use devcontainer.json:

"extensions": [
    "ms-python.python",
    "ms-vscode.cpptools",
    "${extension}"
]

For seamless setup, add extensions in the extensions field of the devcontainer.json.

[ChandruMuthuswamy]

It seems like you're facing a timing issue where the ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder isn't available when the onCreateCommand is executed in your Codespaces environment.

Here are a few strategies to work around this problem:

Delay Execution:
You can delay the execution of the installation command until the ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder becomes available. A simple way to do this is to use a while loop that checks for the existence of the folder before running the installation command.

Bash code:
onCreateCommand: |
while [ ! -d "$HOME/.vscode-remote/bin" ]; do
echo "Waiting for VS Code Server to be initialized..."
sleep 2
done
$HOME/.vscode-remote/bin/*/bin/code-server --install-extension ${extension} --force

[rubensa]

Doing some test, looks like coder-server command does not install the extension in Codespaces (despite, if manually run, it says they are installed).

So the command would be ~/.vscode-remote/bin/*/bin/remote-cli/code --install-extension ${extension} --force but, again, this is not available by the time onCreateCommand is run in Codespaces.

@54J4N Thanks for your help. The thing is that the extensions to be installed, in my case, comes from two independent files (config outside devcontainer.json). I suppose I need to use postAttachCommand here, checking if extensions are already installed before trying to install them again (but it would be great if this would work as inside VSCode devcontainers where the command is already available by the time when onCreateCommand is executed). Do you know if there is more detailed info about execution order other than Understanding the codespace lifecycle?

@ChandruMuthuswamy Thanks for you suggestion but, as @54J4N suggest, looks like the ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder might be created in other Codespaces lifecycle as the wait loop keeps running for ever.

[54J4N]

@rubensa
I see ,
shift to postStartCommand and postAttachCommand in your devcontainer.json:

Update on devcontainer.json:

{
  "postStartCommand": "bash ./install-extensions.sh",
  "postAttachCommand": "bash ./check-and-install-extensions.sh"
}

I want to suggest you to check: https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces/managing-your-codespaces part of the documentation delves deeper into the specifics of how Codespaces operates, including advanced configuration and troubleshooting steps.

[rubensa]

@54J4N Thanks again for the info.

As for the update on devcontainer.json I'll say that the postStartCommand can't call the install-extensions.sh script as, based on my investigations, the ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder is only available at the time the postAttachCommand is called (but not in any other VSCode devcontainers lifecycle script).

[54J4N]

As for the update on devcontainer.json I'll say that the postStartCommand can't call the install-extensions.sh script as, based on my investigations, the ~/.vscode-remote/bin folder is only available at the time the postAttachCommand is called (but not in any other VSCode devcontainers lifecycle script).

Once create a script check-and-install-extensions.sh that checks if the extensions are already installed and installs them .

[rubensa]

I ended up creating a Task that is executed onFolderOpen that checks if specified extensions are already installed and installs them if not. This solution works both for Docker devcontainer and Codespaces. The downside is that it is always executed when the project folder is Opened.

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