Vscode: Configure Explorer to show and distinguish generated/derived/related files

[craxal]

VS Code lets you exclude files and folders from the Explorer with the files.exclude setting. This is useful for hiding generated or ignored files while you're working. Sometimes, however, it's useful to see if your workflow is generating the expected files and folders.

I'd like a feature that lets me configure rules for a new setting, perhaps something like files.generated or files.derived. Files and folders that match a rule would appear "faded" or "grayed out" in the Explorer, indicating that they are distinct from the source code. VS Code should also warn me before directly editing a "generated/derived" file, since I should be editing the source file it came from. Another setting could toggle this feature, determining whether generated/derived files are treated the same way excluded files are.

Alternatively, this feature could be tied into the existing files.exclude setting by adding the above-mentioned setting to toggle how excluded files are treated.

[octref]

Curious if you also exclude generated files in .gitignore? We also have feature requests for dimming files matching .gitignore.

[craxal]

Following up. Has there been any discussion on this feature?

[RTSchriner]

@isidorn I see you moved this to backlog. Any updates on this? I came over to VS Code from Atom. I love VS Code but this is a feature I really miss from Atom. Thanks!

[ABNW]

Same here, would really appreciate having the files dimmed in some manner.

[yfernando]

+1

[danielrussellLA]

+1

[craxal]

An example that comes to mind: In C# projects, resource files and XAML files often have auto-generated .cs files associated with them. Visual Studio's Solution Explorer visualizes this relationship by nesting the generated files under their parent source file. I often have closely related files in my TypeScript projects, and I'd love to somehow inform VS Code that my files have this kind of relationship.

[akhil-m]

+1

[dariogriffo]

+1

[rokcarl]

My use case is that I have secrets.env where I store all my secrets. Obviously I don't commit this file, so it's in .gitignore. But because of that, I can't edit this file in VS Code because it doesn't show up at all.

[C0DEF52]

In my case I have Unity project and I develop shaders. Often I need to look for some implementation in standard shaders pack provided with each Unity version. I keep this pack in ignored folder because it is needed only for me but not for other team members and I can't find anything within these files while they are ignored. As a workaround I temporary enable the folder in .gitignore by commenting it. But it is not convenient.

[ronbravo]

One interesting work around I found is that in VsCode's file browser, if you right click and create the file or directory you need (ex: right click -> create file -> .gitignore), it will show up. Not the best solution especially if things are nested but gives a quick and dirty way to do it.

[koliyo]

Same here. Using generated files that I want to see in my VS Code project, but not commit to git repository. Something like files.include or files.generated would be very helpful!

[jpdejavite]

:+1:

[aesyondu]

I also want this but I don't know how to implement it exactly. Obviously most of the time I don't want search to be polluted with node_modules but sometimes I want to be able to search inside for debugging purposes. Same deal with log files generated by web frameworks.