[ExtensionDev] Expose API to get at file system locations

[SrTobi]

Some extension relay on hard coded paths that are not exposed by vscode. See for example code-sittings-sync. Those extension are broken in the insiders version. I see t two possible ways:

1. Just expose all paths used by vscode to extensions. Otherwise they will hard code them. No more security, just more messy code.
2. Expose if the extension is used by the insider version. There might be a way, but I have not found it yet. I thought about getting the version and check if it ends with -insiders, but I have not found a way to get this information either.

[egamma]

Interesting... the insider version should be considered as a separate product, with its own user settings and extensions folders. This enables a clean side-by-side install. Therefore, the code-sittings-sync extension is product specific, depending on whether it is installed in the insiders or the stable product it should sync the corresponding product settings.

An extension gets its path passed in the ExtensionContext of the activate call. From the extension path you can derive in which product the extension is installed.
/.vscode-insiders/extensions/ or .vscode/extensions/.

Having said this a workaround, an extension should not have to do this path math and we exposing API to avoid this.

[jrieken]

To recap, the paths we should expose

• extensions home folder, like /Users/jrieken/.vscode-oss-dev/extensions
• user config folder, like /Users/jrieken/Library/Application Support/code-oss-dev/User

I am unsure if we should also expose the individual files inside that folder like settings.json, keybindings.json cos that list isn't finite.

[jrieken]

@alefragnani for the bookmark extension I believe you need the user config folder. is that right? @SrTobi I am unsure if you only looking at sync'ing the user-level settings.json or also at others, like our keybindings.json and a potential future bookmarks.json etc

[alefragnani]

@jrieken exactly... thanks 👍

[Tyriar]

FYI #5570 is moving the user data directory to be a sibling of the extensions dir.

[jrieken]

@Tyriar so should we expose the parent folder of those two directories?