activation: extension sometimes gets activated for a workspace without any go code

[hyangah]

Reported externally.

It happens when I re-start VSCode, because the check whether go files exist (recursively) times out

Go extension activated on three of them (the fourth was a flat folder, pretty much), Dart on two of them (checks up to four-deep, instead of **/). Those were the only two that activated because of that timeout.

Relevant upstream issue - microsoft/vscode#73656

The python extension had "contains **/*.py" ahead ago and after receiving multiple complaints, they only have "onlanguage" (which causes confusion among students). Eventually, I found out that their workaround was to look for an empty file ("mspythonconfig.yaml" or sth -- confusing name, don't think it serves any other purpose) in root folder only..

[2021-11-15 10:56:42.759] [exthost] [info] Extension host with pid 828056 started
[2021-11-15 10:56:42.760] [exthost] [info] Skipping acquiring lock for /home/user/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/4bd77312219e9d8f35e159b7431dfc25.
[2021-11-15 10:56:43.909] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.microsoft-authentication, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onAuthenticationRequest:microsoft'
[2021-11-15 10:56:43.969] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension polymer.polymer-ide, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:plaintext'
[2021-11-15 10:56:44.017] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-python.python, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:python', root cause: ms-python.vscode-pylance
[2021-11-15 10:56:44.969] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-toolsai.jupyter, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:python'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.146] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension njpwerner.autodocstring, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:python'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.246] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.debug-auto-launch, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.274] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.git, startup: true, activationEvent: '*', root cause: vscode.github
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.506] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension bierner.emojisense, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.566] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension christian-kohler.path-intellisense, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.643] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ecmel.vscode-html-css, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.775] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension EditorConfig.EditorConfig, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.839] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension Equinusocio.vsc-material-theme, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.870] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension equinusocio.vsc-material-theme-icons, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:46.897] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:47.188] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension HookyQR.beautify, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:47.297] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension lostintangent.wikilens, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:47.454] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-vsliveshare.vsliveshare, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.314] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension oderwat.indent-rainbow, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.324] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension PKief.material-icon-theme, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.381] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-vscode.cpptools, startup: true, activationEvent: '*', root cause: platformio.platformio-ide
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.600] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension rusnasonov.vscode-hugo, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.755] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension stkb.rewrap, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.832] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode-icons-team.vscode-icons, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.962] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vsls-contrib.codetour, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:49.996] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vsls-contrib.gistfs, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:50.104] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vsls-contrib.gitdoc, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:56:50.894] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension Dart-Code.dart-code, startup: true, activationEvent: 'workspaceContainsTimeout:*/pubspec.yaml,*/*/pubspec.yaml,*.dart,*/*.dart,*/*/*.dart'
[2021-11-15 10:56:51.212] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension golang.go, startup: true, activationEvent: 'workspaceContainsTimeout:**/*.go'
[2021-11-15 10:56:53.209] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension codespaces-contrib.codeswing, startup: false, activationEvent: 'api', root cause: vsls-contrib.gistfs
[2021-11-15 10:56:55.758] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.github-authentication, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onAuthenticationRequest:github'
[2021-11-15 10:56:56.959] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.merge-conflict, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
[2021-11-15 10:56:56.965] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension dbaeumer.vscode-eslint, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
[2021-11-15 10:56:57.142] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension eamodio.gitlens, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
[2021-11-15 10:56:57.747] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
[2021-11-15 10:56:58.039] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.configuration-editing, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:jsonc'
[2021-11-15 10:56:58.047] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.json-language-features, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:jsonc'
[2021-11-15 10:56:58.269] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.typescript-language-features, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:jsonc'
[2021-11-15 10:56:58.503] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-toolsai.jupyter-renderers, startup: false, activationEvent: 'api', root cause: ms-toolsai.jupyter
[2021-11-15 10:57:00.055] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension ms-python.vscode-pylance, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:python'
[2021-11-15 10:57:22.264] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.github, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:57:22.277] [exthost] [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension platformio.platformio-ide, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
[2021-11-15 10:57:22.649] [exthost] [info] Eager extensions activated

Looking into the history of the Go extension, I found this rule was added by microsoft/vscode-go#2859 to address microsoft/vscode-go#2821

• User-visible impact

  • gopls is getting activated and starts scanning the folders. Not sure whether the gopls will complain or not.
  • unnecessary UI components popping up: welcome page, go status bar items.
  • nagging popups for tool installation

• Internal impact

  • spurious gopls update requests
  • spurious survey popup for users who do not develop in Go

• Workaround for affected users - explicitly enable/disable the go extension for the workspace based on need through the extension view.

[findleyr]

Per microsoft/vscode#73656 (comment), maybe we could try limiting the depth of our search. Frankly, if no go files are contained within a few layers of directories, we'd probably be better of not starting the extension (I assume it would be started when the first Go file is opened).

@hyangah how do you want to prioritize this?

[hyangah]

@findleyr's suggestion is reasonable and we can change this to Dart's approach (only look at only a couple of layers).

Reading the original issue microsoft/vscode-go#2821
I think the fix should've been just adding more "onCommand:..." commands instead of eager loading.

We should consider to drop this eager loading like Python - however, currently, gopls's initial package loading may not be prompt enough for a large project so we will continue to activate the extension if .go files are found in the top levels.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/366916 mentions this issue: package.json: limit file search scope for extension activation