vscode: vscode://file// links no longer working

Type: Bug

All of a sudden, vscode://file// links are no longer working.

Expected behavior:

I click open a link like vscode://file//path-to-a-file-that-really-exists and it then VS Code opens the file. This has always worked for me.

Actual behavior:

I click open a link like vscode://file//path-to-a-file-that-really-exists and it then VS Code becomes focused, but it does not open the desired file.

Please note that I have verified that the file really does exist in the specified path.

VS Code version: Code 1.84.0 (Universal) (d037ac076cee195194f93ce6fe2bdfe2969cc82d, 2023-11-01T11:30:19.406Z) OS version: Darwin arm64 23.0.0 Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Apple M1 (8 x 24)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on 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 video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled
Load (avg)	3, 3, 3
Memory (System)	16.00GB (0.14GB free)
Process Argv	–disable-extensions --crash-reporter-id f43891bf-1e90-4f74-a11c-73425109d857
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions disabled

A/B Experiments

vsliv368:30146709
vsreu685:30147344
python383cf:30185419
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vslsvsres303:30308271
vserr242cf:30382550
pythontb:30283811
vsjup518:30340749
pythonptprofiler:30281270
vshan820:30294714
vstes263:30335439
vscoreces:30445986
vscod805:30301674
binariesv615:30325510
bridge0708:30335490
bridge0723:30353136
vsaa593:30376534
pythonvs932:30410667
py29gd2263:30880072
vsclangdf:30486550
c4g48928:30535728
dsvsc012cf:30540253
pynewext54:30695312
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
282f8724:30602487
89544117:30613380
2i9eh265:30646982
showlangstatbar:30737416
03d35959:30757346
pythonfmttext:30731395
fixshowwlkth:30771522
showindicator:30805244
pythongtdpath:30769146
i26e3531:30792625
pythonnosmt12:30797651
pythonidxpt:30866567
pythonnoceb:30805159
asynctok:30869155
dsvsc013:30795093
dsvsc014:30804076
dsvsc015:30845448
pythontestfixtcf:30871695
pythonregdiag2:30871582
pythonmypyd1:30879173
pythoncet0:30874138
pythontbext0:30879054

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 8 months ago
Comments: 19 (7 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

vscode://file// links no longer working (fix #197319) — committed to microsoft/vscode by bpasero 8 months ago
Correct vscode open links The format of links for vscode is currently set to: vscode://file/{$file}:{$line} This leads to URIs such as: vscode://file//Users/example/git/example.php Howeve... — committed to andrewnicols/whoops by andrewnicols 8 months ago

Most upvoted comments

Yeah, there is changes needed in VS Code, esp. since now the behaviour is different between having the confirmation setting enabled or not.

I understand now how we are able to support even invalid URL like that because we process each path to open and normalise it, that probably removes the double slashes:

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/e35641909e4fb6ac143fc8fbc46075d3f13c782a/src/vs/base/common/extpath.ts#L269

Nevertheless, if you can change your tool to produce correct URLs, that would help people until the fix has landed 👍

bpasero on Nov 5, 2023

It’s worth noting that the documentation for this feature is not entirely clear.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/command-line#_opening-vs-code-with-urls

The documentation state:

Open a file

vscode://file/{full path to file}

vscode://file/c:/myProject/package.json

Open a file to line and column

vscode://file/{full path to file}:line:column

vscode://file/c:/myProject/package.json:5:10

However on a *nix-like system the {full path to file} would be /some/example/here making the documented URI vscode://file//some/example/here which we are now told is incorrect.

I would argue that this is therefore not a bug in the generating code, but actually in vscode (which is now fixed).

Whilst working around this in the generating code is possiblem I would suggest that it is not correct in the long term.

andrewnicols on Nov 16, 2023

/verified

Everything is working correctly now! I can’t say for sure that it is fixed because I could not reliably reproduce the bug before, but I trust that the change has solved the problem. Will follow up later if I encounter any other issues. thanks very much for your quick attention to this issue!

jonsterling on Nov 7, 2023

@bpasero Thanks! I’ve now fixed my tool to produce the correct links.

jonsterling on Nov 5, 2023