Pass objects with commands.executeCommand when remote

[chrmarti]

I have the Docker extension installed remotely in Remote-SSH and am invoking a command in the local Remote-Containers extension with the context menu in a view of the Docker extension with a single object as the selection. Currently the selected object is not passed along. Is there anything we can do here? Maybe allow sufficiently simple objects?

[jrieken]

Currently the selected object is not passed along.

I assume that a custom tree, right? That should always pass the corresponding element around

[chrmarti]

Placing a breakpoint in CommandService.executeCommand shows a handle:

[jrieken]

So, just to make sure I am seeing the whole picture: The tree data provider is in one extension host and the command (implementation) in another. Is that right?

[chrmarti]

Correct, the Docker extension runs on the remote extension host and provides the tree data. The command is from the Remote-Containers extension running on the local extension host.

[jrieken]

Very trick, maybe not possible, because the objects never leave the extension host. Only identifiers/placeholders are send to the renderer and then looked up for command dispatch.

[chrmarti]

Maybe if the objects have a toJSON() (or some other name to disambiguate) method?

[jrieken]

What would we do if these objects are huge? The motivation from them staying in the extension host is

• performance, like don't send data that isn't needed in the UI
• data must be serializable
• data isn't needed

I see how the last two aren't always valid (can be worked around) but I am not a big fan of us holding arbitrary amount of data in the UX.

[chrmarti]

We could set an upper-bound to the stringified size. If we require the extension to support it with toJSON() or similar the extension can tune it to be minimal. And we would only do this for commands that are on a different extension host.

[alexr00]

Let's see how often anyone actually wants this. Right now we have exactly one real use case and there are several downsides.

[mrmachine]

I am trying to use remote-containers and remote-ssh together, to do work inside a container running on a remote host. When I first open VS Code on the remote host via SSH, then view the container list in the Docker extension, then right click and Attach Visual Studio Code (to a specific container), VS Code brings up a list of ALL containers on the remote host which I must then further type to narrow and scroll to select from, even though I have already selected the container to which I want to attach (by right click).

[chrmarti]

This currently limits functionality when connected with Remote-WSL/-SSH. Affected commands:

• Attach to container from Docker viewlet.
• Inspect volume from Docker viewlet.
• Attach to container from Kubernetes viewlet.

Reopening for consideration.

[stardiviner]

upvote this issue.

[CoopTang]

Any idea on a fix for this? This disrupts my workflow and requires me to use my Mac when I need to debug a pod, and it would be nice to not have to constantly switch back and forth when developing.

[chrmarti]

There was some concern about serializing large objects. Maybe the receiving extension could declare (statically or dynamically) which properties on the selected objects it needs?

[VSCodeTriageBot]

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