Allow changing machine-specific `settings.json` location

[phil-blain]

The machine specific settings.json is saved at ~/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json. I would like to be able to configure that path. Specifically, I would like to be able to store that file outside the ~/.vscode-server folder.

The reason is that I want to track that file (with Git) along with my other dotfiles, but since my home directory is too small to keep the VSCode server there (especially with several extensions), ~/.vscode-server is actually a symlink to another filesystem location where I have more space than I do in my home. So I can't track ~/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json along with the other dotfiles in my home, because Git can't track files located on separate filesystems in the same repository. (Note that I just learned of the remote.SSH.serverInstallPath setting, so I could use that instead of a symlink, but I would still not be able to track the machine-specific settings.json anyway.)

An alternative to being able to configure the path to the machine-specific settings.json would be to keep that file someplace else, e.g. in ~/.config/vscode-server/settings.json, and add a symlink to it in ~/.vscode-server/data/Machine/, but that setup would be broken if I have to reinstall the server for some reason, as then the whole ~/.vscode-server folder is deleted and recreated, so my symlink would have to be manually recreated (a step which is bound to be forgotten!).

So it would be nice to be able to configure the path to the settings file.

Another option would be to follow the platform-specific canonical location for configuration files, i.e.

• ~/.config on Linux
• ~/.config or ~/Library on macOS
• %LOCALAPPDATA% or %APPDATA% on Windows

[phil-blain]

In fact, the exact locations above seem to be used for the user settings.json in "regular" VSCode (not via Remote - SSH)...

[vscode-triage-bot]

This feature request is now a candidate for our backlog. The community has 60 days to upvote the issue. If it receives 10 upvotes we will move it to our backlog. If not, we will close it. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!

[phil-blain]

tanhakabir do you know the reason whey the standard locations I mentioned above where not chosen for the machine-specific settings.json?

[tanhakabir]

Right now we save the data for the VS Code servers and user data in the same spot. And we only have the setting remote.SSH.serverInstallPath to change where that whole set of data lives. We would need to add another setting for only the user data (aka settings) lives.

[vscodenpa]

This feature request has not yet received the 10 community upvotes it takes to make to our backlog. 10 days to go. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding

[vscodenpa]

🙁 In the last 60 days, this feature request has received less than 10 community upvotes and we closed it. Still a big Thank You to you for taking the time to create this issue! To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!