Code-server: Feedback on 2.preview.1-vsc1.36.1

[fbartels]

Hi, just took the preview release for a short spin and wanted to provide some feedback.

1. the filename of the archive has changed
   just a minor thing, but it meant that I had to adapt my update script (running the binary through systemd directly on my host).

The old filenames were code-serverversion-linux-x64.tar.gz
New filename is code-serverversion-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

1. parameter for version has changed
   The current release uses the capital letter V, but the preview uses the small v to show version information.

2. server does not report unknown options
   Related to 2. In my update script I print the version information, but running ´code-server -V´ did not complain about an unknown option, but instead started code-server. The current release does complain about unknown options.

3. file system provider for vscode-remote not available
   In the preview I cannot browse my filesystem, but instead get the above error message. error persisted when downgrading (because of caching). had to clear my cache to get functionality with the old version back.

[sr229]

1. server does not report unknown options
   Related to 2. In my update script I print the version information, but running ´code-server -V´ did not complain about an unknown option, but instead started code-server. The current release does complain about unknown options.

That sounds bad. @code-asher I don't think this is intended and I was able to replicate the issue as well.

[sr229]

@fbartels try out a daily build and see if any new changes fixes anything.

[fbartels]

Hi @sr229,

thanks for your feedback. Your build behaves in the same way to me as the preview above.

[code-asher]

Thanks for the feedback! :confetti_ball:

1. Ah, yeah, I thought this might cause some pain. :cactus:
   Basically now to detect the architecture I'm using uname -m and
   it returns x86_64 instead of x64 like Node's os.arch(). My
   thinking was that x86_64 is _technically_ more correct so it
   would be wiser to use that. Since v2 isn't backward compatible
   with v1's arguments it didn't seem too bad to break scripts.

2. This is because we just inherit the actual VS Code options now
   and VS Code uses a lowercase v. I think directly using VS Code's
   options will be better in the long run for us in terms of
   maintenance and compatibility.

3. I had the same thought but the new version just delegates the
   option handling to VS Code and apparently this is how it behaves.
   It seems this is on purpose:
   https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/59806

4. We definitely need to have better caching behavior. I think
   using ETags would solve this?

[deansheather]

ETags are a good solution. You can use the etag package to generate an ETag based off of fstat metadata, without needing to hash the file.

[fbartels]

With https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases/tag/2.preview.4-vsc1.37.0 I am not able to work again with code-server.

Just to sum up the original points:

1. yes, I do agree that the filename now better reflects the actual architecture. just mentioned it as this is a change to the current state.

2. ok, its of course a pity that the syntax has changed here, but using the same syntax as vscode if a good reason for this change. and since its a new major such changes are definitely acceptable.

3. then it seems the better place to complain about this is the "upstream" project :-D

4. directly works now after the upgrade to the latest preview.