My understanding is that a .vsix file will only contain the necessary js,ts,html and so on to run an extension to vcode itself, whereas codium will download a repo for vscode source and build a binary, uploading it to a release repo for MIT license options (telemetry, etc disabled). So it does not make sense to my understanding that the building of the binaries for vscode could be possible within an .vsix extension. Maybe I am mistaken though. I have never come across codium before and have only briefly looked at the GitHub page.
David Roderick

On Sat, 28 Jun 2025, 12:49 Hraban Ramm, <texml@fiee.net> wrote:

I just installed the latest version of VSCodium (https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases) on my Linux laptop and needed a while to get the extension from texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions/context to work.

Apparently, since 2024 or so, you can’t just symlink your own (or Hans’) code into ~/.vscode/extensions any more but "must" install via the marketplace or a .vsix file.

I tried the first method from: https://mehmetbaykar.com/posts/how-to-install-vscode-extension-from-your-custom-or-local-repo/
… but "vsce package" fails for me (might be a version mismatch of node.js, still investgating, but I hate that whole ecosystem…)

Finally I found out, just copying or symlinking does work, if there’s no "extensions.json" in ~/.vscode-oss/extensions before. Otherwise you must add the following entry manually to this file:
{
"identifier":{"id":"context development team.context"},
"version":"1.0.0",
"location":{"$mid":1,"path":"~/.vscode-oss/extensions/context","scheme":"file"},
"relativeLocation":"context"
}
@Hans:

Could you provide a .vsix file?

Does it make sense to run "mtxrun --script vscode --generate"?

Does it make sense to run "mtxrun --script vscode --lsfile"?

"mtxrun --script vscode --start" works only on Windows (if at all, at least not on Linux or MacOS).

WRT the latter: "start" is a Windows command. The OS version of VSC is called as "codium" instead of "code". The extension is not called "cdt.context" but "context development team.context", only the generated version has "cdt.context" but also doesn’t install:

codium --reuse-window --extensions-dir "/home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions"
--verbose --force --install-extension cdt.context

TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Request to start watching: /home/hraban/.config/VSCodium/User (excludes: <none>
, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>),/home/hraban/.config/VSCodium/User/settings.json (ex
cludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>)
INFO CLI main {
_: [],
diff: false,
merge: false,
add: false,
remove: false,
goto: false,
'new-window': false,
'reuse-window': true,
wait: false,
help: false,
'extensions-dir': '/home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions',
'list-extensions': false,
'show-versions': false,
'install-extension': [ 'cdt.context' ],
'pre-release': false,
'update-extensions': false,
version: false,
verbose: true,
status: false,
'prof-startup': false,
'no-cached-data': false,
'prof-v8-extensions': false,
'disable-extensions': false,
'disable-lcd-text': false,
'disable-gpu': false,
'disable-chromium-sandbox': false,
sandbox: false,
telemetry: false,
debugRenderer: false,
'enable-smoke-test-driver': false,
logExtensionHostCommunication: false,
'skip-release-notes': false,
'skip-welcome': false,
'disable-telemetry': false,
'disable-updates': false,
'use-inmemory-secretstorage': false,
'disable-workspace-trust': false,
'disable-crash-reporter': false,
'skip-add-to-recently-opened': false,
'open-url': false,
'file-write': false,
'file-chmod': false,
force: true,
'do-not-sync': false,
'do-not-include-pack-dependencies': false,
trace: false,
'trace-memory-infra': false,
'preserve-env': false,
'force-user-env': false,
'force-disable-user-env': false,
'open-devtools': false,
'disable-gpu-sandbox': false,
'__enable-file-policy': false,
'enable-coi': false,
'enable-rdp-display-tracking': false,
'no-proxy-server': false,
'no-sandbox': false,
nolazy: false,
'force-renderer-accessibility': false,
'ignore-certificate-errors': false,
'allow-insecure-localhost': false,
'disable-dev-shm-usage': false,
'profile-temp': false,
logsPath: '/home/hraban/.config/VSCodium/logs/20250628T133211'
}
Installing extensions...
TRACE Started scanning system extensions
TRACE Started scanning user extensions cr {
scheme: 'vscode-userdata',
authority: '',
path: '/home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions/extensions.json',
query: '',
fragment: '',
_formatted: 'vscode-userdata:/home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions/extensions.j
son',
_fsPath: null
}
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Started watching: '/home/hraban/.config/VSCodium/User'
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Request to start watching: /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vsc
ode/extensions (excludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>)
INFO Started initializing default profile extensions in extensions installation folder. file:///home/hraban/l
mtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Started watching: '/home/hraban/.config/VSCodium/User/settings.json'
DEBUG Using cached extensions scan result system file:///usr/share/codium/resources/app/extensions
TRACE Scanned system extensions: 91
INFO ComputeTargetPlatform: linux-x64
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Started watching: '/home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/exte
nsions'
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [raw] ["rename"] extensions.json.vsctmp
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [raw] ["change"] extensions.json.vsctmp
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [ADDED] /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions/exte
nsions.json.vsctmp
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [raw] ["rename"] extensions.json.vsctmp
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [raw] ["rename"] extensions.json
INFO Completed initializing default profile extensions in extensions installation folder. file:///home/hraban
/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Request to start watching: /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vsc
ode/extensions/extensions.json (excludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>)
TRACE Scanned user extensions: 1
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] >> normalized [ADDED] /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/
extensions/extensions.json.vsctmp
DEBUG User data changed
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] Started watching: '/home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/exte
nsions/extensions.json'
INFO ComputeTargetPlatform: linux-x64
TRACE resolveShellEnv(): skipped (VSCODE_CLI is set)
TRACE #1: https://open-vsx.org/vscode/gallery/cdt/context/latest - begin GET J0 {
original: {
   'X-Market-Client-Id': 'VSCode 1.101.24242',
   'User-Agent': 'VSCode 1.101.24242 (VSCodium)',
   'Content-Type': 'application/json',
   Accept: 'application/json;api-version=7.2-preview',
   'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip'
},
headers: [Object: null prototype] {
   'X-Market-Client-Id': 'VSCode 1.101.24242',
   'User-Agent': 'VSCode 1.101.24242 (VSCodium)',
   'Content-Type': 'application/json',
   Accept: 'application/json;api-version=7.2-preview',
   'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip'
}
}
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [DELETED] /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions/ex
tensions.json.vsctmp
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] [ADDED] /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/extensions/exte
nsions.json
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] >> normalized [DELETED] /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscod
e/extensions/extensions.json.vsctmp
TRACE [File Watcher (node.js)] >> normalized [ADDED] /home/hraban/lmtx/tex/texmf-context/context/data/vscode/
extensions/extensions.json
DEBUG User data changed
ERR #1: https://open-vsx.org/vscode/gallery/cdt/context/latest - error GET AggregateError [ECONNREFUSED]:
ERR Error while getting the latest version for the extension cdt.context. AggregateError [ECONNREFUSED]:
TRACE resolveShellEnv(): skipped (VSCODE_CLI is set)
TRACE #2: https://open-vsx.org/vscode/gallery/extensionquery - begin POST J0 {
original: {
   'X-Market-Client-Id': 'VSCode 1.101.24242',
   'User-Agent': 'VSCode 1.101.24242 (VSCodium)',
   'Content-Type': 'application/json',
   Accept: 'application/json;api-version=3.0-preview.1',
   'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip',
   'Content-Length': '236'
},
headers: [Object: null prototype] {
   'X-Market-Client-Id': 'VSCode 1.101.24242',
   'User-Agent': 'VSCode 1.101.24242 (VSCodium)',
   'Content-Type': 'application/json',
   Accept: 'application/json;api-version=3.0-preview.1',
   'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip',
   'Content-Length': '236'
}
}
TRACE #2: https://open-vsx.org/vscode/gallery/extensionquery - end POST 200 {
server: 'nginx',
date: 'Sat, 28 Jun 2025 11:29:34 GMT',
'content-type': 'application/json;api-version=3.0-preview.1',
'transfer-encoding': 'chunked',
connection: 'keep-alive',
'keep-alive': 'timeout=50',
vary: 'Accept-Encoding, Origin, Access-Control-Request-Method, Access-Control-Request-Headers',
'x-rate-limit-remaining': '14',
'x-content-type-options': 'nosniff',
'x-xss-protection': '0',
'cache-control': 'no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate',
pragma: 'no-cache',
expires: '0',
'strict-transport-security': 'max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains',
'x-frame-options': 'DENY',
'content-encoding': 'gzip',
'access-control-allow-origin': '*'
}
Extension 'cdt.context' not found.
Make sure you use the full extension ID, including the publisher, e.g.: ms-dotnettools.csharp
Failed Installing Extensions: cdt.context

Hraban
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