Investigate setting Electron's proxy from user setting

[ForceConstant]

• VSCode Version: 1.43.2
• OS Version: Ubuntu 18.04

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Set proxy from OS, and in settings.json, but still can't browse or install extensions. Looking at log I get ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

[vscodebot]

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

• Extension proxy support (#12588)
• Save Proxy Credentials (#32566)

[chrmarti]

Where do you set it in the OS?

Does code --proxy-server=... work? (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/network#_proxy-server-support)

[ForceConstant]

I have the HTTP_PROXY, and HTTPS_PROXY set in environment variables. And I have set it in the network settings in ubuntu. I also tried to code --proxy-server="http://my.proxy.ip:80" still no go.

[chrmarti]

@ForceConstant What's in the dev console (Help > Toggle Developer Tools) when you use --proxy-server=...?

/cc @deepak1556

[ForceConstant]

So it turns out that I had the syntax a little wrong on the --proxy-server option. I had the http:// in the url. And now it works. Thanks. But why doesn't the extensions part use setting.json info?

[chrmarti]

We are not in control of the settings Chromium's network implementation is using. The only way to set that is through the OS settings (although I'm not sure which ones on Linux, @deepak1556 do you know?) or through the command line option.

@deepak1556 is there a way for us to set the proxy server on Chromium when the user sets one in our settings.json?

[deepak1556]

@chrmarti its achievable using the setproxy api from electron https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/docs/api/session.md#sessetproxyconfig , it allows for the same set of configuration you would expect from --proxy-server, --proxy-pac-url, --proxy-bypass-list

By default chromium and electron should pick the system proxy configuration if the platform supports it.

@ForceConstant does chromium browser on your system allow setting proxy via chrome://settings/system ?

[chrmarti]

Setting the proxy on the session now if the http.proxy setting is not empty. Previously the setting only affected extensions. This should make it easier to use.

[rebornix]

@chrmarti can you provide details about what to test and how?

[chrmarti]

The best I currently have is:

• Start a local proxy and follow its access log:

PROXY_CONTAINER=`docker run -d -p 3128:3128 minimum2scp/squid`
docker exec $PROXY_CONTAINER tail -F /var/log/squid/access.log

• Set setting http.proxy to http://localhost:3128.
• Test extension search and install and check for VS Code updates and verify that these requests show up in the proxy's log.

Testing this now I don't see the update check, the download of VS Code and extensions. Reopening for investigation.

[deepak1556]

@chrmarti for something unrelated, I was using https://github.com/joaomoreno/proxy-containers/tree/master/basic-auth and was able to verify that proxy settings are respected through settings.json and env variables. Tried exactly the same steps as above only the containers are different.

[chrmarti]

@deepak1556 Thanks, wasn't aware of that. I ended up coming up with my own container for the policy issue in auth.html from last week: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-proxy-agent/tree/master/tests/test-http-auth-proxy.

[JarrettSpiker]

How can I request that this:

Setting the proxy on the session now if the http.proxy setting is not empty. Previously the setting only affected extensions. This should make it easier to use.

Be added to the documentation (unless I am missing it)? This page https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/network#_legacy-proxy-server-support seems to state explicitly that http.proxy will not be respected by VSCode, and is there only for extensions and the CLI.

It is very helpful that VSCode also respects the http.proxy configuration, I just want to make sure I am using things as-intended, and not relying on functionality which may break in the future.