Support nested .vscode folders

[stewartadam]

The problem

I'd like for VS Code to be able to recognize that a folder in my working tree is its own "root workspace" without having to actually make it a top-level folder in a multi-root workspace. I'd suggest doing so by checking for the presence of a .vscode folders in the working tree, and if found, exposing the respective nested launch tasks up at the workspace level on the debug pane:

Background

Background: it's common for Git repos to contain several projects either of varying types/languages, or multiple of the same language:

ex1, multi-language:

myproject/
    aspnet-web-server/
       `.vscode/`
        ... dotnet core stuff

    go-api-microservice/
       `.vscode/`
        ... go stuff

    react-client/
       `.vscode/`
        nodejs stuff ...

README.md
...

ex2, multiple C# projects:

myproject/
    server/
        aspnet-api-server/
           `.vscode/`
            ... functions project

        azfunc1/
           `.vscode/`
            azfunc1.csproj
            ... azfunctions stuff

        azfunc2/
           `.vscode/`
            azfunc2.csproj
            ... azfunctions stuff

    clients/
        console-app/
           `.vscode/`
            console-app.csproj
            ... dotnet core stuff

myproject.sln
README.md
...

It makes logical sense to open the top-level myproject folder in VS Code as the workspace; I get access to all the docs, readme, and other files that aren't necessarily within one of the individual project folders like console-app. But if I do so, none of the launch settings or debug tasks are discovered correctly. VS Code will try to create myproject/.vscode and might auto-detect one of the projects, but I still have to go add the rest manually.

Alternatives

Multi-root worksapces

You might say but that's what mutli-root workspaces are for! But that's the problem - I don't want multiple root workspaces, which flattens the directory structure. A multi-root workspace would look like:

aspnet-api-server/
    ...
azfunc1/
    ...
azfunc2/
    ...
console-app/
    ...

I lose access to easily edit other files in the directory tree (and the presentation of projects themselves lose their position in the tree)... Unless I add back the whole repo as one of the multiple roots on top of each project, but that seems like a silly workaround, doesn't really solve the positioning issue and I'd then have multiple files in the workspace tree pointing to the same file on disk.

Manually configure launch.json

A user could open each project folder in VS Code as an independent workspace, have it generate the appropriate .vscode/* launch and task configurations, then merge them all into myproject/.vscode when opening the repo folder as the top-level workspace. This is long, tedious, and error prone and also requires path replacements.

In short

I'd be wonderful if VS code would treat any nested folders with a .vscode folder present as one of the root workspaces, similar to the multi-root workspaces model. This wouldn't impose restrictions on which folders are opened as top-level/root workspaces, and still permit launching different types of nested projects.

[stewartadam]

Related to vscode-docs #3547 as well - workspace vs multi-root workspace is murky and essentially what I'm asking for is to break apart the concept of "multi-root" and just support multiple workspaces, root or not.

Suggestion: workspace remains the terminology for VS Code's concept of the workspace configuration (folders/paths added to the file tree, enabled extensions, etc) and workspaces are composed of 1+ projects. Projects could be configured as top-level (today's multi-root workspaces) or detected from the source tree (if this issue gets addressed).

[bpasero]

//cc @sandy081

[sandy081]

/duplicate

[sandy081]

#32693