Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884
Description
Config is stored in ~/.config/Code[ - <quality>]/User. To match platform conventions (lowercase and hyphens for everything) as well as to keep consistency with the cli code[-<quality>] I propose we change the settings directory one of:
~/.config/code[-<quality>]/user~/.vscode[-<quality>](see Why are settings and keybindings not in the same directory as extensions? #3883)~/.code[-<quality>](to prevent using 'vs' showing up in the OSS build as it is now)
If we moved this it would probably require some discovery/migration on first launch of a newer version.
The below is a living document.
Proposed folder structure
Notes:
- I don't think we should be encouraging the use of admin rights within vscode, instead a permissions elevation dialog would probably be better than allowing a specific place for root user data Use specific user data directories when running as root #5561
- I want to clean up the whole
codevsvscodething in this change; only official builds should carry the visual studio branding, that should carry over to the config directories consistently as well. - The CLI args
--user-data-dirand--extensions-dirwill need to be adjusted for this, something like--config-dirand--cache-dirwould probably be better.
Windows
Old
Settings: %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\settings.json
Keybindings: %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\keybindings.json
Snippets: %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\snippets\
Workspace storage: %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\workspaceStorage\
Chromium user data: %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\
Extensions: %USERPROFILE%\.vscode[-variant]\extensions\
New
Settings: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\settings.json
Keybindings: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\keybindings.json
Snippets: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\snippets\
Workspace storage: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\workspaceStorage\
Chromium user data: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\userdata\
Extensions: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\extensions\
Notes:
- Note that
%APPDATA%is roaming and%LOCALAPPDATA%is local, meaning extensions will not be carried across multiple machines until a solution is devised for Persist an extensions manifest file #15442. An extension manifest, eg.%APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\extensions.jsonwhich automatically installs extensions is my thinking of solving this problem.
Linux
Old
Settings: $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/settings.json
Keybindings: $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/keybindings.json
Snippets: $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/snippets/
Workspace storage: $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data: $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/
Extensions: $HOME/.vscode[-variant]/extensions/ (not moving)
New
Settings: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/settings.json
Keybindings: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/keybindings.json
Snippets: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/snippets/
Workspace storage: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/userdata/
Extensions: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/extensions/
Notes:
- Thanks to @ollie27 and others for calling out the XDG Base Directory Specification, see that document for fallbacks to the environment variables.
$XDG_CACHE_HOMEwould be best for extensions provided there is an extensions manifest in$XDG_CONFIG_HOMEPersist an extensions manifest file #15442.- Maybe extensions should live in
$XDG_DATA_HOME?
Mac
Old
Settings: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/settings.json
Keybindings: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/keybindings.json
Snippets: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/snippets/
Workspace storage: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/
Extensions: $HOME/.vscode[-variant]/extensions/ (not moving)
New
Settings: $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/settings.json
Keybindings: $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/keybindings.json
Snippets: $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/snippets/
Workspace storage: $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data: $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/userdata/
Extensions: $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/extensions/
Notes:
- Is there a similar standard for dividing cache and config files on Mac? http://stackoverflow.com/a/5084892/1156119