Extensions already installed on a Remote (ssh, wsl, devcontainer) suddenly disapeared while upgrading vscode to 1.76

[jvillemure]

Type: Bug

I use a non default profile settings for work (I used the feature since it was made available as an experimental setting). Since the upgrade to 1.76 I have experienced some unexpected behaviors when I use my work profile settings. One of those is that, in any remote setup, any extensions that were previously intalled on the remote, suddenly disapears from the extensions view and the IDE behaves accordingly as if the extension were not installed remotely. However, if I go in the ~/.vscode-server/extensions directory, I can see that all my remote extensions install folders are already there. This is the first time I experience this behavior, and seems to be specific to non default profile settings.

I did the same upgrade to 1.76 on my personal computer, using my default settings profile, and I did not experienced what I explained just above.

VS Code version: Code 1.76.0 (92da948, 2023-03-01T10:22:44.506Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045
Modes:
Sandboxed: No
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Remote OS version: Linux x64 5.15.0-58-generic

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11850H @ 2.50GHz (16 x 2496)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_renderer: enabled_on video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	15.73GB (1.12GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id c5a1a827-bcc3-4406-8db9-b4ae3a1d12c9
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	Dev Container: milo-development-environment
OS	Linux x64 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
CPUs	11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11850H @ 2.50GHz (16 x 2495)
Memory (System)	7.62GB (5.23GB free)
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	WSL: Ubuntu
OS	Linux x64 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
CPUs	11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11850H @ 2.50GHz (16 x 2495)
Memory (System)	7.62GB (5.23GB free)
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: Aragorn2
OS	Linux x64 5.15.0-58-generic
CPUs	Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8160 CPU @ 2.10GHz (48 x 2099)
Memory (System)	125.77GB (24.94GB free)
VM	6%

Extensions (21)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
language-x86-64-assembly	13x	3.0.0
Bookmarks	ale	13.3.1
language-gas-x86	bas	0.0.2
file-icons	fil	1.0.29
codespaces	Git	1.13.10
remotehub	Git	0.52.0
vscode-drawio	hed	1.6.6
better-shellscript-syntax	jef	1.4.2
vscode-boost-jam	mlo	0.0.2
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.1.0
remote-containers	ms-	0.283.0
remote-ssh	ms-	0.99.2023030315
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.84.0
remote-wsl	ms-	0.76.1
vscode-remote-extensionpack	ms-	0.24.0
azure-repos	ms-	0.28.0
remote-explorer	ms-	0.3.2023021509
remote-repositories	ms-	0.30.0
remote-server	ms-	1.1.2023022709
conanlight	Son	1.4.0
vscode-icons	vsc	12.2.0

(1 theme extensions excluded)

A/B Experiments

vsliv368cf:30146710
vsreu685:30147344
python383:30185418
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vslsvsres303:30308271
pythonvspyl392:30443607
vserr242:30382549
pythontb:30283811
vsjup518:30340749
pythonptprofiler:30281270
vshan820:30294714
vstes263:30335439
pythondataviewer:30285071
vscod805:30301674
binariesv615:30325510
bridge0708:30335490
bridge0723:30353136
cmake_vspar411:30581797
vsaa593cf:30376535
pythonvs932:30410667
cppdebug:30492333
vsclangdf:30486550
c4g48928:30535728
dsvsc012:30540252
azure-dev_surveyonecf:30548226
pyindex848:30662994
nodejswelcome1:30587005
3biah626:30602489
pyind779:30671433
89544117:30613380
pythonsymbol12:30671437
2i9eh265:30646982
showlangstatbar:30672706
vsccsb:30677849
funwalk2cf:30676044

[sandy081]

This is because of this feature - https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_76#_profiles-in-remote-workspaces - We now also support in remote workspaces which means that your extensions on the remote are also scoped per profile. All current extensions are part of default profile and there are no remote extensions scoped to the non default profile.

[jvillemure]

That seems like an anti feature, if I wanted per remote custom settings I could already do this with the remote settings.json.

When I use my work profile I would expect it to replace (most settings) from the user settings.json.

With new per remote profile settings feature, does it mean I would now need to copy my hole custom work settings profile to any and all remote I use? I use several remotes: SSH, WSL, devcontainers, and I create new remotes from time to time. I wouldn't be pleased to learn that I would now need to copy my custom work profile to all and any eventual remotes I use. Moreover, I would often open my settings file to change some defaults when I install extensions, or try new features when new vscode versions are released, or sometimes I just find out the some specific combinations of settings just better suit me (after trying them); if we now have independent settings profiles per remote, then keeping consistent user settings across a several number of remotes become unmanageable. For instance, if I change my preference about using "editor.insertSpaces" then I would previously change it in 2 places: my defaut settings profile and my work profile; that's ok for me and is reasonable. I don't think its reasonable to deduplicate settings anymore than the number of settings profiles. Especially, it is not uncommon these days to create new remotes (both at workplace and personal computer): new SSH targets, new WSL distros, and most especially creating devcontainers.
(Remark: On the other hand, I'd expect that setting profiles would usually stay constant in time: one for personal use and one for each workplace, in particular the more profile I use, the more efforts I have to deploy to keep my user preferences in sync, so I really aim to keep the number of profile I use to the lowest, that is two).

[sandy081]

@jvillemure Only remote extensions are scoped per profiles and remote settings are not. Remote settings are applied across all profiles because they are remote machine settings.