Creating multiple output channels by the same name results in an inability to select all but the last one

[TomasHubelbauer]

• VSCode Version: 1.23.0

Steps to Reproduce:

Create an extension which does this in its activate method:

const chan1 = window.createOutputChannel('Rustup');
chan1.show();
chan1.appendLine('Channel 1');
const chan2 = window.createOutputChannel('Rustup');
chan2.show();
chan2.appendLine('Channel 2');

Once started up, the extension creates two output channels with the same name (without a warning or a runtime error). The latter channel is shown and the output channel switcher doesn't allow selecting the former one, it always switches to the latter one.

There is a couple of ways this could be fixed:

1. Throw a runtime error while trying to open up a channel with the same name again (this is risky as multiple extensions can create the same channel name and I don't know if VS Code prefixes the channel names internally or if this would open up a way to crash another extension).

2. Show already existing channel by the given name. This is my preference as it would make it simple to create channels on demand and just call createOutputChannel each time without having to keep track of whether the channel is already created. There is no API for enumerating (even own) channels, so this would be a behaviour that much nicer.

[vscodebot]

(Experimental duplicate detection)
Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Allow extensions to create file based output channel (#41672)
• Allow folding in output channels (#36609)
• Should the output channel picker group logs smarter? (#42401)
• Output Channel - Highlight (#37666)

[TomasHubelbauer]

In terms of @vscodebot's suggestions:

• Allow extensions to create file based output channel  #41672 This is not a duplicate
• Allow folding in output channels #36609 This is not a duplicate
• Should the output channel picker group logs smarter? #42401 This is not a duplicate
• Output Channel - Highlight #37666 This is not a duplicate