Provide access to VS Code API in extension uninstall lifecycle hook

[GabrielBB]

• VSCode Version: 1.20.1
• OS Version: Windows 10

Steps to Reproduce: Add this events to an extension code:

export function activate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
vscode.workspace.getConfiguration().update('test', 'some text', ConfigurationTarget.Workspace);
}

export function deactivate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
    vscode.workspace.getConfiguration().update('test', '', ConfigurationTarget.Workspace);
}

When it activates it updates but on deactivation it doesn't work. Im debugging and the code is running but with no effect. I also tried with ConfigurationTarget.Global.

[GabrielBB]

Well, for now, I’m gonna put the settings as global and remove them after plugin uninstall thanks to this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49205613/how-to-execute-code-when-user-uninstalls-your-vscode-extension/49211345#49211345

[GabrielBB]

I couldn't get it to work after extensions uninstall because the package "vscode" cannot be found when the uninstall hook executes my JS file with node. I read that this is the normal behavior, i cannot use the vscode api in the uninstall hook then...

[sandy081]

@GabrielBB Can you return the promise during deactivate and try?

export function deactivate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
    return vscode.workspace.getConfiguration().update('test', '', ConfigurationTarget.Workspace);
}

[GabrielBB]

@sandy081 Just tried it, doesn't work. What i noticed debugging is that VS Code is not even waiting for the event code to fully execute. When i put a breakpoint in the return, it only lasts like 2 seconds, then the thread is getting killed or something. So for now, we cannot clean settings in deactivation nor in uninstall (#35006 (comment)).

[sandy081]

What i noticed debugging is that VS Code is not even waiting for the event code to fully execute. When i put a breakpoint in the return, it only lasts like 2 seconds, then the thread is getting killed or something.

@alexandrudima Are you aware of this?

[GabrielBB]

@sandy081 @alexandrudima I forgot to tell that this is happening while changing workspaces or closing VS Code. I don’t know about other deactivation scenarios, like when closing a file with an extension that was activated when that file was opened

[alexdima]

This is as designed. The deactivate method is a place to clean up OS resources (kill spawned processes, etc.). It is not supported to initiate configuration edits and other such things. The reason is that the window renderer process does not wait for the extension host process. It goes down as soon as the user presses x.

[GabrielBB]

@alexandrudima Understood. Well, i don't have options then since the uninstall hook can't access the vscode api, basically developers can add settings but can't clean them (at least they clean it when a specfic file is closed) For now i'm manually going to the user settings json in your file system and editing it when the extension is uninstalled like this: https://github.com/GabrielBB/vscode-lombok/blob/master/src/uninstall.ts (Dirty solution lol) I will open a feature-request for vscodeapi in uninstall hook

[sandy081]

@GabrielBB Makes sense. Please update the current issue to support for such api in uninstall hook.