@grconrad/vscode-binaries

vscode-binaries

This project exists to bundle VS Code binaries for Mac and Linux x64 in an npm package that can be scanned and hosted in a non-public artifact repository for use in CI environments where networking is restricted (specifically for running integration tests of VS Code extensions that require launching VS Code).

Its version will match the version of VS Code releases it contains for these two platforms.

Note: VS Code source is found at microsoft/vscode.

Anyone can download platform-specific versions of VS Code at any time from the public VS Code download site. However, it's common for CI environments to exist behind a firewall where outbound network access is limited to internal endpoints such as private artifact repositories.

This project allows VS Code binaries to be brought into such an environment, with relevant dependencies mentioned as devDependencies in package.json so that package scanners can do their job properly (checking for licenses, security vulnerabilities, etc.) and projects that build VS Code extensions can get the needed VS Code binary.

Consuming

Consume this package as a dev dependency (add it to devDependencies). When this package is installed, its postinstall script extracts the appropriate binary based on the client platform.

Point to the binary inside bin/linux-x64 or bin/darwin when using vscode-test to run your extension integration tests.

Example:

    await runTests({
      vscodeExecutablePath: downloadDirToExecutablePath(
        path.resolve(
          extensionDevelopmentPath,
          `node_modules/@grconrad/vscode-binaries/bin/${process.platform === "darwin" ? "darwin" : "linux-x64"}`
        )
      ),
      extensionDevelopmentPath,
      extensionTestsPath
    });

(See VS Code extension testing docs for more context.)

This setup should allow running vscode-test based integration tests of a VS Code extension on either a Mac or Linux x64 box.

Building and releasing

To build and publish a new version, do the following:

1. Set version. In package.json set version to target version of VS Code release (example: 1.39.2)
2. Clear out dependencies. In package.json remove everything from dependencies and devDependencies
3. Specify dependencies as dev dependencies. In vscode repo find the version tag, locate package.json (e.g. here), and copy all of its dependencies and devDependencies into our package.json devDependencies (overwrite)
4. Alphabetize. npx sort-package-json
5. Download the binaries. npm run build
6. Publish. npm publish (use --dry-run to see what would be published)