Code-server: [v2.1638-vsc1.39.2] Unable to start latest CS with HTTPS

[antofthy]

• code-server version: 2.1638-vsc1.39.2
• OS Version: Debian Buster Container (php-apache), running on a RHEL7 docker swarm

Description

Release notes state...

If you aren't doing SSL termination elsewhere you can directly give code-server a certificate with code-server --cert followed by the path to your certificate. Additionally, you can use certificate keys with --cert-key followed by the path to your key. If you pass --cert without any path code-server will generate a self-signed certificate.

code-server --help says...

--cert Path to certificate. If the path is omitted,
both this and --cert-key will be generated.

Neither of which has changed from the previous beta release 2.1523-vsc1.38.1

So I run with the same arguments that was working before...

PASSWORD=xxxx code-server .  --port 8443 --auth password --cert '' --disable-telemetry

But it fails to set up a HTTPS with self-signed certificate

info  Server listening on http://localhost:8443
info    - Using custom password for authentication
info    - Not serving HTTPS

Which brings us back to a point I made before in https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1052 , now closed.
How can you specify no path for --cert option without that option being the last option in the command line?

Assuming that is the problem, I made the --cert option the last option with nothing following...

PASSWORD=xxxxx code-server .  --port 8443 --auth password --disable-telemetry --cert

produces the same result

ASIDE: I have noted before that I no longer not need to specify --auth password as it is again the default, as it was for CS v1

[featherbear]

This behaviour is caused by this condition on vscode/src/vs/platform/environment/node/argv.ts#L184

String properties require an argument, so the condition fails and the key is not added.

Perhaps we could modify the process.argv in [node/cli.ts#L86] and prefix a dummy character so that the argument will be parsed - but that's probably error prone

[featherbear]

PR merged into October 2019 milestone

[code-asher]

Yeah it broke when we updated to VS Code 1.39.2. I ended up just manually checking the arguments for the existence of --cert. https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1101

Will have a new release out before the end of today.

[code-asher]

Although the "proper" solution would probably be to add a new type that can be either boolean or string and parse it accordingly.

[featherbear]

Might run in to lexical parsing issues though

[code-asher]

I did some testing and I think the only issue we have is if something like this is done:

code-server -- --cert

Where we're trying to open a directory called --cert. So we should probably only check up to a --.

I was also concerned about something like:
`` code-server --base-path "--cert" ```` Where the base path is literally--cert` but it seems the parser in this case still parses these as two options so it seems we're OK here.

There might be other scenarios I'm missing; do you have any thoughts?

[featherbear]

I did some testing and I think the only issue we have is if something like this is done:

code-server -- --cert

Where we're trying to open a directory called --cert. So we should probably only check up to a --.

I was also concerned about something like:

code-server --base-path "--cert"

Where the base path is literally --cert but it seems the parser in this case still parses these as two options so it seems we're OK here.

There might be other scenarios I'm missing; do you have any thoughts?

Yup, as long as it's enclosed it won't be matched.

But yeah, I think it's better to address the parsing than to monkey patch a fix

---

I think b8e6369fbeb6764bb3a00dd1245e7b5be748d22e introduces some unwanted rigidity into the software (_Checking on command line args_). Perhaps it should be extensible to allow all of the option flags to be set via environment variables

PR has been merged into vscode https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/commit/f2c1232c6f509aed2bdeb8b79e98cd3550ba31f1 and I believe that will break your check.
Any explicitly defined argument (cert) will now be passed into the returned arguments.

[code-asher]

Ahhh I see what you're saying. Thanks for the heads up on that PR!!

So we could just revert the aforementioned monkey-patch and then patch in the fix from https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/commit/f2c1232c6f509aed2bdeb8b79e98cd3550ba31f1 until it makes its way into code-server properly.

[antofthy]

So after all this...

How to you specify --cert with no argument? Especially if other options follow?

Give it a blank argument as I have done in the past? Or just a bad filename?
Or its a filename without a full path (starting with '/')?
Or does it know that if the next argument starts with a '--' is it an option and their is no argument?

It isn't just that it failed, it is also documenting how to specify no argument!

In my thinking adding an option of -cert-self-signed would make it clear,
without inconsistencies, or problems in trying to document it.

Tesing new release....
--cert '' is working as it did before in code-server2.1650-vsc1.39.2

[featherbear]

@antofthy You should be able to do either --cert (path omitted) or --cert '' (empty path).
The handling of arguments are done by vscode's argument parser

$> ./code-server --cert --port 1111
info  Server listening on https://localhost:1111
info    - Password is b6d827dd8816cea54a9169a9
info      - To use your own password, set the PASSWORD environment variable
info      - To disable use `--auth none`
info    - Using generated certificate and key for HTTPS

$> ./code-server --cert "" --port 2222
info  Server listening on https://localhost:2222
info    - Password is 1608e07b2adac35565001d46
info      - To use your own password, set the PASSWORD environment variable
info      - To disable use `--auth none`
info    - Using generated certificate and key for HTTPS