Allow to open vscode:// urls in remote

[jaredp]

• VSCode Version: 1.54.3, Commit: 2b9aebd5354a3629c3aba0a5f5df49f43d6689f8
• Local OS Version: macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H524)
• Remote OS Version: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
• Remote Extension/Connection Type: SSH

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open a project in VSCode remote that has a file at absolute path /my/file/path.js
2. Click on a link (in Chrome, on Mac machine running vscode) with url "vscode://file/my/file/path.js"
3. Get error modal in open VSCode window with title "Path does not exist", body: "The path '/my/file/path.js' does not seem to exist anymore on disk."

Does this issue occur when you try this locally?: No
Does this issue occur when you try this locally and all extensions are disabled?: No

This is following the vscode:// schema feature described in https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/command-line#_opening-vs-code-with-urls

[chrmarti]

You'd need a vscode-remote://.../my/file/path.js URL. The difficulty is the authority part (...), that is internal to the Remote-SSH extension.

[jaredp]

I can figure out the ... part, but Chrome is giving me Failed to launch 'vscode-remote://ssh+devserver/my/file/path' because the scheme does not have a registered handler.

When I try vscode://vscode-remote/ssh-remote+devserver/my/file/path, I think I run into microsoft/vscode#108257.

However, vscode://file/my/file/path.js does route to the right vscode remote window, whose workspace root is /my/file on the remote host. By comparison vscode://file/other/file/path.js (outside the vscode remote window's workspace root) tries to open the file from the local disk in a new window.

So it looks like vscode's already routing the open-file request to the right window/workspace. Current behavior is broken because vscode's confused as to whether it's trying to open remote or local, and will thus always error.

[Timmmm]

This appears to be solved now, however the URL schema is still completely undocumented and as far as I can tell there's no way to discover it from existing open files.

I eventually gave up trying to figure it out and just looked at what other people have done.

It seems to be:

• vscode://vscode-remote/wsl+CONTAINER_NAME/path/to/file
• vscode://vscode-remote/ssh-remote+[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/path/to/file:ROW:COL

Note the row and column numbers are required for files, otherwise it assumes it is a directory and creates a new instance of VSCode. If you just add :1:1 unconditionally then it won't open folders successfully so unfortunately you do need to know in advance if the target is a file or a folder. Also if you do open a folder it replaces an existing instance of VSCode rather than opening a new one.

So yeah it basically doesn't work very well for folders but it works for files!

[alejoar]

This appears to be solved now, however the URL schema is still completely undocumented and as far as I can tell there's no way to discover it from existing open files.

I eventually gave up trying to figure it out and just looked at what other people have done.

It seems to be:

• vscode://vscode-remote/wsl+CONTAINER_NAME/path/to/file
• vscode://vscode-remote/ssh-remote+[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/path/to/file:ROW:COL

Note the row and column numbers are required for files, otherwise it assumes it is a directory and creates a new instance of VSCode. If you just add :1:1 unconditionally then it won't open folders successfully so unfortunately you do need to know in advance if the target is a file or a folder. Also if you do open a folder it replaces an existing instance of VSCode rather than opening a new one.

So yeah it basically doesn't work very well for folders but it works for files!

This worked for me when using locatorJS

[pjeby]

Additional bit of info: you can get the remote to open in a new window by adding ?windowId=_blank to the end of the URL.

[markNZed]

I would like to open links on a remote dev container (docker container) No doubt, if this is possible, it requires something magical in the URL as there is an SSH to the remote machine and then a connection to the remote container. Any help with this is much appreciated - ideally I want a link in a MD file to open another MD file in a new tab (I do not want to launch a new VSCode instance). Thanks