Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884

Tyriar · 2016-03-08T20:58:22Z

Config is stored in ~/.config/Code[ - <quality>]/User. To match platform conventions (lowercase and hyphens for everything) as well as to keep consistency with the cli code[-<quality>] I propose we change the settings directory one of:

~/.config/code[-<quality>]/user
~/.vscode[-<quality>] (see Why are settings and keybindings not in the same directory as extensions? #3883)
~/.code[-<quality>] (to prevent using 'vs' showing up in the OSS build as it is now)

If we moved this it would probably require some discovery/migration on first launch of a newer version.

The below is a living document.

Proposed folder structure

Notes:

I don't think we should be encouraging the use of admin rights within vscode, instead a permissions elevation dialog would probably be better than allowing a specific place for root user data Use specific user data directories when running as root #5561
I want to clean up the whole code vs vscode thing in this change; only official builds should carry the visual studio branding, that should carry over to the config directories consistently as well.
The CLI args --user-data-dir and --extensions-dir will need to be adjusted for this, something like --config-dir and --cache-dir would probably be better.

Windows

Old

Settings:                %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\settings.json
Keybindings:             %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\keybindings.json
Snippets:                %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\snippets\
Workspace storage:       %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\User\workspaceStorage\
Chromium user data:      %APPDATA%\Code[ - Variant]\
Extensions:              %USERPROFILE%\.vscode[-variant]\extensions\

New

Settings:                %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\settings.json
Keybindings:             %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\keybindings.json
Snippets:                %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\snippets\
Workspace storage:       %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\workspaceStorage\
Chromium user data:      %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\userdata\
Extensions:              %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\extensions\

Notes:

Note that %APPDATA% is roaming and %LOCALAPPDATA% is local, meaning extensions will not be carried across multiple machines until a solution is devised for Persist an extensions manifest file #15442. An extension manifest, eg. %APPDATA%\Microsoft\[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]\extensions.json which automatically installs extensions is my thinking of solving this problem.

Linux

Old

Settings:                $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/settings.json
Keybindings:             $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/keybindings.json
Snippets:                $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/snippets/
Workspace storage:       $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/User/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data:      $HOME/.config/Code[ - Variant]/
Extensions:              $HOME/.vscode[-variant]/extensions/ (not moving)

New

Settings:                $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/settings.json
Keybindings:             $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/keybindings.json
Snippets:                $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/snippets/
Workspace storage:       $XDG_CACHE_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data:      $XDG_CACHE_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/userdata/
Extensions:              $XDG_CACHE_HOME/[vs]code[-variant]/extensions/

Notes:

Thanks to @ollie27 and others for calling out the XDG Base Directory Specification, see that document for fallbacks to the environment variables.
$XDG_CACHE_HOME would be best for extensions provided there is an extensions manifest in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME Persist an extensions manifest file #15442.
Maybe extensions should live in $XDG_DATA_HOME?

Mac

Old

Settings:                $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/settings.json
Keybindings:             $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/keybindings.json
Snippets:                $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/snippets/
Workspace storage:       $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/User/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data:      $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code[ - Variant]/
Extensions:              $HOME/.vscode[-variant]/extensions/ (not moving)

New

Settings:                $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/settings.json
Keybindings:             $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/keybindings.json
Snippets:                $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/snippets/
Workspace storage:       $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/workspaceStorage/
Chromium user data:      $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/userdata/
Extensions:              $HOME/Library/Application Support/[Visual Studio ]Code[ - Variant]/extensions/

Notes:

Is there a similar standard for dividing cache and config files on Mac? http://stackoverflow.com/a/5084892/1156119

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

bpasero · 2016-03-09T06:19:26Z

I wonder if we should do this before GA. Besides the summary, I also do not like that we have 2 folders, one for application data and one for extensions. Ideally we have one folder for both.

Tyriar · 2016-03-09T07:26:20Z

It was a little confusing when I was writing my script that automates my config to discover there were 2 config folders. If this is going to be done I vote for ~/.code[-<quality>] so that it matches the executable name.

bpasero · 2016-03-09T08:18:21Z

I am more worried about the migration than finding a name :)

felixfbecker · 2016-03-10T11:57:33Z

I also don't get why there are two folders. Afaik .vscode only includes one subfolder, extensions. Why not simply put settings in .vscode aswell?

I also like .vscode more than .code, Visual Studio stuff is also in .vs and it is less ambiguous.

Tyriar · 2016-03-11T01:51:24Z

While fiddling with the config directories it might be worth tackling a portable version at the same time #329

bpasero · 2016-03-11T14:49:29Z

Not for GA.

bpasero · 2016-03-13T18:50:59Z

Btw the largest chunk of stuff in app date is created by Chrome itself and is used for local storage, index db, etc. It would be easy to migrate and move our settings out of that folder, I am worried about migrating the rest...

Tyriar · 2016-04-20T17:44:45Z

@bpasero what are your thoughts on getting this in for April? My experience with playing around with user data to date is that it seems fairly contained and can be moved without any issues.

The reason I want to do this soon is I'd like to have a set root user data dir as one is required to run under sudo (#5561). That would mean that instead of:

~/.vscode
~/.config/Code
~/.config/Code-Root

We could have

~/.vscode
~/.vscode/user-data
~/.vscode/user-data-root

For migration something like this should work in main.js:

if the regular config dir does not exists
  if the old config dir does exist
    copy the old config dir to the new location

Permanently move the user data to a sub-folder of the config directory for the current variant of code. For example: - ~/.config/Code -> ~/.vscode/user-data - ~/.config/Code\ -\ OSS -> ~/.vscode-oss/user-data - ~/.config/Code-Development -> ~/.vscode-oss-dev/user-data Fixes #3884

bpasero · 2016-04-21T06:24:36Z

@Tyriar happy to accept a PR on such a change and migration.

bpasero · 2016-04-21T06:28:32Z

@Tyriar ah nice, did not see your PR until now!

bpasero · 2016-04-21T08:56:18Z

Given my feedback, I am not suggesting to do this so late in the milestone.

OJFord · 2023-03-26T22:27:02Z

They also seem worried about breaking backwards compatibility for every program that uses Electron. Not much that can be done about that.

Well, you can very easily get very close: respect it if the env vars are set, just don't use the default values if they're not.

Technically it's still a compatibility break for the affected users, but it's hard to imagine anyone being unhappy about it, that they've explicitly set a location and hitherto had it ignored but now it's honoured.

SrEstegosaurio · 2023-04-09T13:42:46Z

Since 2016? Really? Please, if you support linux do it correctly at least. I hope this gets fixed at some point because filling the home dir with crap is not cool.

realitymolder · 2023-04-09T13:46:55Z

For anyone who stumbles into this, tl;dr is that the problem is inherited from Electron, which inherited it from Chrome.

Electron has has an issue for this: electron/electron#8124 However, upon reading the discussion, it seems unlikely they will ever fix it (hope I'm wrong tho 🤞 ). Firstly, the issue has been open since Dec 2016, with many comments, and no word on a fix. They also seem worried about breaking backwards compatibility for every program that uses Electron. Not much that can be done about that.

Still, it would be really nice if there was at least some workaround for this in VS Code.

Wouldn't it be possible to create a script on a major update of an electron app that will move the files to the new location and then change the paths in the new version?

piegamesde · 2023-04-10T20:41:56Z

Supposed backwards incompatibility is a straw man argument, plenty of applications have managed to migrate just fine in one way or another. One indeed has to be careful about compatibility and migration, and there are multiple different approaches with can be discussed. But people saying they can't do this because of backwards compatibility concerns are (almost) always wrong, IME.

wc7086 · 2023-04-19T10:45:49Z

It's hard to believe that this simple problem is still not on the agenda seven years later, and it's only going to get harder to fix as more people use vscode.

TomaszGasior · 2023-04-19T15:08:00Z

@wc7086 Please stop writing comments like that — this does not provide any value to solve the problem, and all the people subscribed to the topic need to get notification about that.

metov · 2023-04-19T22:40:46Z

@TomaszGasior What do you suggest people should do to increase the chances that this will be fixed?

realitymolder · 2023-04-19T23:09:22Z

@TomaszGasior What do you suggest people should do to increase the chances that this will be fixed?

True.
@TomaszGasior maybe some people don't understand that clear enough, but clearly some of the users of this app/ project (& there are several issues regarding this issue and its consequences. Even recently! #179774) are hurting and suffering from this continuous flaw.
I think that as developers, it is our duty to report and change this reality. Especially in one, if not, the most popular IDEs today.

ZerdoX-x · 2023-04-20T06:06:30Z

Anyways bumping won`t get the issue resolved faster. I would like to get notifications about the progress, not about amount of people who discover it. I guess I will unsubscribe from this issue because github zoomers don't understand what tickets are.

RokeJulianLockhart · 2023-04-21T20:47:28Z

@ZerdoX-x, you can subscribe to whether the issue is closed or reopened rather than unsubscribe entirely.

BrianL-STCU · 2023-08-23T21:58:28Z

Currently, VSCode alone stores a total of 1.6 GiB of just cache data in my roaming profile, making the morning login over my slow DSL connection extremely time-consuming.

Path                                                                                                          Size    DirectorySize DirectorySizeOnDisk
----                                                                                                          ----    ------------- -------------------
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cacheddata                                                             503.2MB     527598178           544657408
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cachedextensionvsixs                                                   478.7MB     502000711           502038528
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cache                                                                  319.8MB     335383278           336080896
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cache\cache_data                                                       319.8MB     335383278           336076800
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\service worker\cachestorage                                            47.5MB       49801653            56680448
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cachedprofilesdata                                                     1.5MB         1586399             1593344
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cachedextensions                                                       739.8KB        757539              757760
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\service worker\scriptcache                                             737.2KB        754919              929792
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\dawncache                                                              544.4KB        557424              561152
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\gpucache                                                               544.4KB        557424              561152
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\user\globalstorage\ms-azuretools.vscode-azurefunctions\~4\net6.0\cache 248.2KB        254163              266240
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\user\globalstorage\ms-azuretools.vscode-azurefunctions\~3\net6.0\cache 141KB          144365              159744
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\code cache                                                             144               144               49152
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\cachedconfigurations                                                   72                 72               16384
c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\code\user\globalstorage\vscode-redhat-telemetry\cache                       0                   0                   0

MS Teams stores another 1.76 GiB, and Slack another 742 MiB (but at least that one has an excuse, it's not a Microsoft product).

From an old Microsoft Technet Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide:

Windows uses the Local and LocalLow folders for application data that does not roam with the user. Usually this data is either machine specific or too large to roam.

4 GiB of cache data is too much to sync at every login.

MurzNN · 2023-08-28T07:22:32Z

I created a separate issue about cache data #191434 but it's closed as a duplicate of this, so duplicating here my list of directories with cache data on Linux systems, that should be moved to $XDG_CACHE_HOME:

.config/Code/Cache
.config/Code/CachedConfigurations
.config/Code/CachedData
.config/Code/CachedExtensionVSIXs
.config/Code/CachedExtensions
.config/Code/CachedProfilesData
.config/Code/Code Cache
.config/Code/DawnCache
.config/Code/GPUCache
.config/Code/Service Worker/CacheStorage
.config/Code/Service Worker/ScriptCache
.vscode-server/extensionsCache
.vscode-server/data/CachedExtensions
.vscode-server/data/CachedProfilesData
extensions cache data like .vscode-server/data/User/globalStorage/redhat.vscode-yaml/schemas_cache

MurzNN · 2023-08-28T07:23:48Z

Also, want to point to the more general Electron bug about using configuration folders as cache folders: electron/electron#8124

C0rn3j · 2024-02-09T00:36:43Z

@Tyriar On Linux $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is already used for most/all of the mentioned directories, not $HOME/.config - which is what it defaults to.

i.e. ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}

Would be nice to update the OP with the current paths, easy to test via:

mkdir -p "${HOME}/testdir"; export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="${HOME}/testdir"; code

blubberdiblub · 2024-02-09T06:45:20Z

@C0rn3j Note that one of the points of this folder structure problems is that $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config (or %APPDATA% on Windows) is not the correct place for some things, but they currently end up there anyway.

Some things should actually go into $XDG_CACHE_HOME (also $XDG_DATA_HOME and $XDG_STATE_HOME if I were concerned, but the cache separation is much more important) or $HOME/.cache (or %LOCALAPPDATA% on Windows), but they currently don't.

mcnesium · 2024-02-09T11:21:31Z

Stuff like window.zoomLevel should not go into settings.json because it is state and not config. If set up with home-manager, VScode is not able to write to that file and thus throws errors everytime you use ctrl + or crtl -.

minecraftchest1 · 2024-07-10T19:33:52Z

560 Upvotes. 30 or so separate linked issues. Perhaps this issue should be split up into several smaller tasks that can be worked on separately.

Separating out cache files (zero impact to end users. Symlinks can be used to work around the Electron bug.)
Defining a folder structure, deciding what goes where (This appears to already be mostly done, just needs to be all put in one place)
Working out a migration strategy for other files and folders. (Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884 (comment) would be a good place to start.)
Compiling a list of everything that needs to be changed. (I believe some work on this has been started, but got lost in all of the noise.)
Implementing new folder structure and migration.

Creating dedicated tickets for each of the items above would help reduce noise, make the tasks feel more manageable (increasing motivation), and help encourage community participation.

This is just my 2 cents.

thepkc · 2024-09-24T13:33:30Z

Any chance this could have someone working on it?

Volatus · 2024-09-25T15:51:02Z

I was hoping to take a stab at it but getting the local dev env working was too much of a hassle @thepkc

casperlehmann · 2024-11-09T20:52:53Z

As a Mac user, I would like to underline that the XDG convention is not just for Linux users -- we rely on it as well.

Since this is a big change, and we are likely not getting another chance at fixing it, I think it's important to get it right. Reading this discussion (and the current outline in the top post), I get the impression that you would like to clean .vscode out from everyone's home directories (thanks, appreciated), and you want to rely on the given platform standards for deciding on a solution.

From a Mac user perspective: I am convinced that you would find that most engineers reaching this thread are here because they want to be able to manage their setup on their own terms. We want to be able to source control our dotfiles, and we do that the same way that the Linux folk do it (e.g. using GNU Stow). So while Apple does have guidelines for where to store which pieces of data, that does not need to be the end all be all. It's just a recommendation, just like $HOME/.config is a recommendation for Linux.

Take this code, for example:

vscode/src/vs/platform/environment/node/userDataPath.js

Lines 98 to 103 in 1fd17c5

    
           case 'darwin': 
        
           	appDataPath = path.join(os.homedir(), 'Library', 'Application Support'); 
        
           	break; 
        
           case 'linux': 
        
           	appDataPath = process.env['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] || path.join(os.homedir(), '.config'); 
        
           	break;

Please, do use Apple's recommended standard path as a default, but allow us to set the same freedom as you would Linux, like this:

case 'darwin':
-	appDataPath = path.join(os.homedir(), 'Library', 'Application Support');
+	appDataPath = process.env['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] || path.join(os.homedir(), 'Library', 'Application Support');
	break;
case 'linux':
	appDataPath = process.env['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] || path.join(os.homedir(), '.config');
	break;

If there is proper separation between cache, data and config, I would not expect the Linux and Darwin setup to differ all that much, so if you got it working on Linux, synching the XDG functionality to Mac should just be a question of running a findAll: XDG) and copying it for the other platform.

klmcwhirter · 2024-11-17T00:15:42Z

Please be aware that many of us on Linux and perhaps macOS are still waiting for this to be addressed.

I totally agree with the content from #3884 (comment).

This is not about $HOME/.config ... we are looking for $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to be utilized.

Many apps are now adherent to the XDG standard as published at XDG Base Directory Specification.

Note this is also a helpful reference: XDG Base Directory at wiki.archlinux.org.

And please DO clean up the code / Code / vscode naming mess as you can - please just pick one. This creates more confusion for less skilled engineers than you realize.

FYI - (for what it is worth) I prefer vscode. I am sure there are a lot of opinions out there. I only feel strongly about the need for consistency though.

Similarly, although probably not relevant here, I would prefer vs or vstudio over deveng for Visual Studio proper.

Thanks.

Tyriar added debt Code quality issues linux Issues with VS Code on Linux labels Mar 8, 2016

weinand assigned bpasero Mar 8, 2016

bpasero mentioned this issue Mar 9, 2016

Why are settings and keybindings not in the same directory as extensions? #3883

Closed

bpasero changed the title ~~Code .config on Linux doesn't follow OS conventions~~ Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions Mar 9, 2016

bpasero added this to the March 2016 milestone Mar 9, 2016

bpasero modified the milestones: Backlog, March 2016 Mar 11, 2016

bpasero modified the milestones: April 2016, Backlog Mar 14, 2016

bpasero modified the milestones: Backlog, April 2016 Mar 30, 2016

Tyriar mentioned this issue Apr 20, 2016

Move user data to ~/.vscode[-variant]/user-data and automatically set root user data dir #5570

Closed

bpasero modified the milestones: April 2016, Backlog, May 2016 Apr 21, 2016

Tyriar unassigned bpasero Apr 21, 2016

bpasero mentioned this issue Apr 15, 2023

~/.config/Code is huge (> 1.5 GByte) #179774

Closed

vince-fugnitto mentioned this issue Apr 18, 2023

Theia apps: option to respect each operating system standards when chosing their user-level config folder path eclipse-theia/theia#1518

Open

bpasero mentioned this issue May 2, 2023

vscode cache (Indexed files) location is changable #173635

Closed

Tyriar added the feature-request Request for new features or functionality label May 17, 2023

Tyriar removed their assignment May 17, 2023

IllusionMH mentioned this issue May 24, 2023

Store cache files in %localappdata% on Windows #183344

Closed

deepak1556 mentioned this issue Aug 28, 2023

Cache files are stored by VS Code in the permanent storage on Linux instead of the location for cached data #191434

Closed

jaimergp mentioned this issue Nov 1, 2023

Store the state and database files in ~/.conda-store by default conda-incubator/conda-store#639

Merged

flyte mentioned this issue Apr 29, 2024

Mark cache directories with a CACHEDIR.TAG file to avoid backing up unnecessary data #211635

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Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884

Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884

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Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884

Revisit VS Code folder structure for app data, settings, extensions #3884

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Tyriar commented Mar 8, 2016 • edited Loading

Proposed folder structure

Windows

Linux

Mac

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