Understand settings in vscode

Understand settings in vscode

My notes on basics of vscode is here

Settings in vscode are documented here


Default settings
  User Settings
    Workspace settings
      Folder settings

There is a corresponding settings.json file for each

Settings downstream overrides the settings upstream


1) File/Preferences/Settings
Or
2) ctrol-shift-p (Search for settings)

what is \AppData\Roaming\Code

Search for: what is \AppData\Roaming\Code


%APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json

Multi-root work spaces are described here


/your-work-space-dir/workspace-name.code-workspace


UI
or
JSON


ctrl-shift-p
Preferences: Open work space settings
You will UI

3 Options:

User|workspace|folder

Go to workspace (if you like for workspace only)
Workbench
Settings Editor
Go from UI to JSON

vscode default settings vs user settings

Search for: vscode default settings vs user settings

where are the default settings workbench.setting for vscode kept?

Search for: where are the default settings workbench.setting for vscode kept?


"workbench.settings.openDefaultSettings": true

Default settings cannot be edited

That is good

This requires opening the settings.json in the appdata/user/code.. settings.json file

Usually this directory is not opened in vscode

Method 1:

1. ctrl-shift-p

2. Preferences: Open Settings (JSON).

3. This is different from "Preferences: Open work space settings". This will bring up the UI editor. then you can go through UI (user/workspace/folder) settings editors. (Notice there is no JSON at the end of that command)

This will open the user settings json file

Method 2:

1. ctrl-shift-p

2. Preferences: Open Workspace Settings

3. This will open the UI to see user/workspace/folder settings.

Although you can see the workspace settings this second method will not EXACTLY show you the json file neither for the user setting or the workspace setting


default settings json
//Preferences: open Default settings (JSON)

user settings json
//Preferences: open settings (JSON)

workspace settings json
//You have to manually open this file
//No direct mechanism
//unless it is a single rooted workspace
//.vscode/settings.json
//or
//work-space-dir/workspace-name.code-workspace

folder settings json
//.vscode/settings.json


Change the workbench editor to JSON from UI
then
ctrl-shift-p
Preference: Open work space settings

if you do this couple of thins are a result

The file/preferences/settings will open the "user" settings.json (No explicit way to go to workspace or folder settings from here.

So this menu item behaves like "Show me the user settings" for this vscode irrespective of work space. This is equivalent to "Preferences Open settings (JSON)"

Preferences: Open workspace settings will show the settings.json for that work space or .code-workspace as json

Preferences: Open Folder Settings will also correctly show the right settings.json file

You may want to know how to switch between UI and JSON


{
   "folders": [
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\i\\spark\\examples\\src\\main"
      },
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\data\\code\\pyspark"
      }
   ],
   "settings": {
      "workbench.settings.editor": "json"
   }
}

You will need this to go back to UI, as there is UI option available


{
   "folders": [
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\i\\spark\\examples\\src\\main"
      },
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\data\\code\\pyspark"
      }
   ],
   "settings": {
      "workbench.settings.editor": "ui"
   }
}


{
    "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Light+",
    "editor.suggestSelection": "first",
    "vsintellicode.modify.editor.suggestSelection": "automaticallyOverrodeDefaultValue",
    "python.jediEnabled": false,
    "terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe",
    "[python]": {}
}


{
   "folders": [
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\i\\spark\\examples\\src\\main"
      },
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\data\\code\\pyspark"
      }
   ],
   "settings": {
      "workbench.settings.editor": "json"
   }
}


{
    "python.pythonPath": "C:\\satya\\i\\python374\\python.exe"
}


//A Javascript object: because of {} 
{
   //property: folders is an array of js objects
   "folders": [
      //A js object with property path
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\i\\spark\\examples\\src\\main"
      },
      //A js object with property path
      {
         "path": "C:\\satya\\data\\code\\pyspark"
      }
   ],

   //Property settings pointing to a js object
   //which has one property set to json
   "settings": {
      "workbench.settings.editor": "json"
   }
}


//A js object
{
   attribute:value,
   attribute:value,
   attribute:[{a:b, c:d}, {}] //A list of js objects
}

In command palette the command is called: Preferences: Configure language specific settings

This will open up a language picker

This is a case where the user settings is open. The left hand side here is the option opening the default settings as well in tandem. Not sure how useful that is.

You can use intellisense to see what options are there for each language 


{
  "[typescript]": {
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
    "editor.formatOnPaste": true
  },
  "[markdown]": {
    "editor.formatOnSave": true,
    "editor.wordWrap": "on",
    "editor.renderWhitespace": "all",
    "editor.acceptSuggestionOnEnter": "off"
  }
}

There are advantages to working with an editor/IDE that is general purpose and programmable. However as you tailor it for your needs by downloading a variety of extensions, how to configure each tool and each extension, it turns out can be messy. It is messy enough in vscode that it took me all day to parse out how to work with and reason settings in vscode.

What follows is a summary of understanding settings in vscode and a detailed journal containing my findings along with key useful URLs.

1. At the outset vscode has 4 levels of settings. Default, User, Workspace, and folder. Each lower level setting overrides the upper level setting.

2. Default settings are readonly and they come with vscode installation. It is the super set of all settings. When these default settings are opened in vscode they showup as "defaultSettings.json". It is unnecessary to know where these are located. Perhaps in the installation directory of vscode.

3. User settings override the default settings to your liking, the installed user. These settings work irrespective of the workspaces that are opened or the folders that are opened. These are settings specific to your own installation and your instance of vscode as opposed to the vscode to the rest of the world or other users in a multiuser environment.

4. vscode when you open is a collection of workspaces. Each workspace is a collection of folders. You can consider a workspace as a project containing one or more distinct root folders. Each workspace can have its own settings file which overrides the user settings.

5. There are also folder level settings that can override the workspace itself.

6. One question arises where these files are located. The attached journal goes into the details of these locations. But for now the user settings.json lives in a location that is specific to a logged in user. This changes from OS to OS. There is a way to have vscode open this file without paying attention to its locality and then look where this file is. Similarly the workspace and the folder. For these later items this file could be in the .vscode subdirectory but not always. Just know that it is safe to open these files through vscode then following a directory path.

7. There are multiple ways to get to the settings files. through the command pallette (ctrl-shift-p) or the menu item File/Preferences/Settings option.

8. The attached journal will show you key URLs where these settings are documented at Microsoft VScode documentation site.

9. There are 2 kinds of settings editors in vscode: ui, json. Those are their respective names. you can switch between them. The best way to locate the settings.json and open it as a file is to use the option "json" as the editor. With that option vscode always opens the right json file. You just have to know how to go back to the "ui" option as that is sometimes easier to see what the options are

10. when a settings.json is open, there is a way to see always the defaultsettings.json side by side to know the json signature for the options. See the journal how to do that.

11. Finally as this is all JSON, the journal has a few guidelines on howto "understand" a JSON file (a javascript object with attributes that are values or lists of other primitives or other javascript objects)

Key Microsoft URLs to understand VSCode settings follow

The primary settings documentation is here

Multiroot Vscode settings are here

Access your workspace settings through UI editor

Swtich to json editor (See above how to do this)

Use command palette (ctrl-shift-p): preferences: settings....(there is one option here per one of the 4 settings)

You can open each settings.json this way correctly. take a note of where each settings.json is located (if that is important to you)

Make or verify the suggested changes in the settings.json

when done you may want to switch back to the ui editor by accessing the workspace settings.json and "edit" the line back to "ui" editor from json.