VS Code listens to random port when opened

[DavSanchez]

• VSCode Version: 1.33.1
• OS Version: macOS 10.14.4

I have realised that some VS Code functionality seems to begin listening to a random port whenever it's opened. Apparently it is for WebSockets requests.

$ sudo lsof -PiTCP -sTCP:LISTEN
COMMAND     PID  USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
# Other process
# Other process
Code\x20H 14404 ****   37u  IPv4 0xcc5f858ae8e4fa6d      0t0  TCP localhost:27741 (LISTEN)

$ ps -p 14404
  PID TTY           TIME CMD
14404 ??         0:04.32 /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper --nolazy --inspect=27741 /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/bootstrap-fork --type=extensionHost

My question is, is this normal? I thought it could be due to some extension, but I tried disabling all extensions and reloading VS Code and the issue persists.

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

Thank you!

[jrieken]

Yeah, that's the extension host process and it enabling the inspector protocol. We use this to profile extensions when the extension host process becomes unresponsive.

You can double check by looking at this message on the dev console. It should be the same port as lsof prints.

[vscodebot]

We have a great developer community over on slack where extension authors help each other. This is a great place for you to ask questions and find support.

Happy Coding!