# More Info ## Table of Contents - [Getting all the Telemetry Out](#disable-telemetry) - [Extensions + Marketplace](#extensions-marketplace) - [Migrating from Visual Studio Code to VSCodium](#migrating) - [How do I run VSCodium in portable mode?](#portable) - [How do I press and hold a key and have it repeat in VSCodium?](#press-and-hold) - [How do I open VSCodium from the terminal?](#terminal-support) - [Gentoo overlay/ebuild](#gentoo-overlay) ## Getting all the Telemetry Out Even though we do not pass the telemetry build flags (and go out of our way to cripple the baked-in telemetry), Microsoft will still track usage by default. We do however set the default `telemetry.enableCrashReporter` and `telemetry.enableTelemetry` values to false. You can see those by viewing your VSCodium settings.json and searching for `telemetry`. The instructions [here](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_how-to-disable-telemetry-reporting) and [here](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_how-to-disable-crash-reporting) help with explaining and toggling telemetry. It is also highly recommended that you review all the settings that "use online services" by following [these instructions](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/telemetry#_managing-online-services). The `@tag:usesOnlineServices` filter on the settings page will show that by default: - Extensions auto check for updates and auto install updates - Searches within the app are sent to an online service for "natural language processing" - Updates to the app are fetched in the background These can all be disabled. __Please note that some extensions send telemetry data to Microsoft as well. We have no control over this and can only recommend removing the extension.__ _(For example, the C# extension `ms-vscode.csharp` sends tracking data to Microsoft.)_ ### Replacements to Microsoft Online Services When searching the `@tag:usesOnlineServices` filter, note that while the "Update: Mode" setting description still says "The updates are fetched from a Microsoft online service", VSCodium's build script [sets the `updateUrl` field](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/prepare_vscode.sh#L36) in `product.json` to that of VSCodium's own small [update server](https://github.com/VSCodium/update-api), so enabling that setting won't actually result in any calls to Microsoft servers. Likewise, while the descriptions for "Extensions: Auto Check Updates" and "Extensions: Auto Update" include the same phrase, VSCodium [replaces](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/prepare_vscode.sh#L42) the Visual Studio Marketplace with Open VSX, so these settings won't call Microsoft, either. ## Extensions + Marketplace The `product.json` file is set up to use [open-vsx.org](https://open-vsx.org/) as extension gallery, which has an [adapter](https://github.com/eclipse/openvsx/wiki/Using-Open-VSX-in-VS-Code) to the Marketplace API used by VS Code. Since that is a rather new project, you will likely miss some extensions you know from the VS Code Marketplace. You have the following options to obtain such missing extensions: * Ask the extension maintainers to publish to [open-vsx.org](https://open-vsx.org/) in addition to the VS Code Marketplace. The publishing process is documented in the [Open VSX Wiki](https://github.com/eclipse/openvsx/wiki/Publishing-Extensions). * Create a pull request to [this repository](https://github.com/open-vsx/publish-extensions) to have the [@open-vsx](https://github.com/open-vsx) service account publish the extensions for you. * Download and [install the vsix files](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-gallery#_install-from-a-vsix). * Modify the `extensionsGallery` section of the `product.json` file in your VSCodium installation to use the VS Code Marketplace as shown below. However, note that [it is not clear whether this is legal](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/31168). ```json "extensionsGallery": { "serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery", "itemUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items" } ``` See [this article](https://www.gitpod.io/blog/open-vsx/) for more information on the motivation behind Open VSX. ### Proprietary Debugging Tools The debugger provided with Microsoft's [C# extension](https://github.com/OmniSharp/omnisharp-vscode) as well as the (Windows) debugger provided with their [C++ extension](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-cpptools) are very restrictively licensed to only work with the offical Visual Studio Code build. See [this comment in the C# extension repo](https://github.com/OmniSharp/omnisharp-vscode/issues/2491#issuecomment-418811364) and [this comment in the C++ extension repo](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-cpptools/issues/21#issuecomment-248349017). A workaround exists to get debugging working in C# projects, by using Samsung's opensource [netcoredbg](https://github.com/Samsung/netcoredbg) package. See [this comment](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/issues/82#issue-409806641) for instructions on how to set that up. ### Proprietary Extensions Like the debuggers mentioned above, some extensions you may find in the marketplace (like the [Remote Development Extensions](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/remote-overview)) only function with the offical Visual Studio Code build. You can work around this by adding the extension's internal ID (found on the extension's page) to the `extensionAllowedProposedApi` property of the product.json in your VSCodium installation. For example: ```json "extensionAllowedProposedApi": [ // ... "ms-vscode-remote.vscode-remote-extensionpack", "ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl", // ... ], ``` In some cases, the above change won't help because the extension is hard-coded to only work with the official Visual Studio Code product. ## Migrating from Visual Studio Code to VSCodium VSCodium (and a freshly cloned copy of vscode built from source) stores its extension files in `~/.vscode-oss`. So if you currently have Visual Studio Code installed, your extensions won't automatically populate. You can reinstall your extensions from the Marketplace in VSCodium, or copy the `extensions` from `~/.vscode/extensions` to `~/.vscode-oss/extensions`. Visual Studio Code stores its `keybindings.json` and `settings.json` file in these locations: - __Windows__: `%APPDATA%\Code\User` - __macOS__: `$HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User` - __Linux__: `$HOME/.config/Code/User` You can copy these files to the VSCodium user settings folder: - __Windows__: `%APPDATA%\VSCodium\User` - __macOS__: `$HOME/Library/Application Support/VSCodium/User` - __Linux__: `$HOME/.config/VSCodium/User` To copy your settings manually: - In Visual Studio Code, go to Settings (Command+, if on a Mac) - Click the three dots `...` and choose 'Open settings.json' - Copy the contents of settings.json into the same place in VSCodium ## How do I run VSCodium in portable mode? You can follow the [Portable Mode instructions](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/portable) from the Visual Studio Code website. - **Windows** / **Linux** : the instructions can be followed as written. - **macOS** : portable mode is enabled by the existence of a specially named folder. For Visual Studio Code that folder name is `code-portable-data`. For VSCodium, that folder name is `codium-portable-data`. So to enable portable mode for VSCodium on Mac OS, follow the instructions outlined in the [link above](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/portable), but create a folder named `codium-portable-data` instead of `code-portable-data`. ## How do I press and hold a key and have it repeat in VSCodium (Mac)? This is a common question for Visual Studio Code and the procedure is slightly different in VSCodium because the `defaults` path is different. ```bash $ defaults write com.visualstudio.code.oss ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false ``` ## How do I open VSCodium from the terminal? - Go to the command palette (View | Command Palette...) - Choose `Shell command: Install 'codium' command in PATH`. ![](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2707340/60140295-18338a00-9766-11e9-8fda-b525b6f15c13.png) This allows you to open files or directories in VSCodium directly from your terminal: ```bash ~/in-my-project $ codium . # open this directory ~/in-my-project $ codium file.txt # open this file ``` Feel free to alias this command to something easier to type in your shell profile (e.g. `alias code=codium`). ## Gentoo ebuild/overlay There is an external Gentoo overlay with a working ebuild to install VSCodium, provided by [@wolviecb](https://github.com/wolviecb/). The overlay can be found [here](https://github.com/wolviecb/overlay).