VSCode CodeQL update breaks the CodeQL CLI installation either in Windows or WSL (Linux on Windows)
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Stale
- Tech stack
- typescript, vscode
- Domain
- devtools
Research direction
Reproduce the installation flow by installing the VSCode CodeQL extension in Windows and WSL, then compare the globalStorage distribution folders shown in the report. Start with the QL toolbar download path and verify that updating one environment does not make the other look for the wrong distribution directory.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Describe the bug
VSCode allows opening WSL folders and working with them from Windows. VSCode has native support for running extensions in this scenario and allows to select which extensions installed in Windows should also be installed in WSL:

However VSCode CodeQL extension shares some global state, because installing the extension in WSL breaks the installation on Windows and reinstallation of it in Windows breaks it in WSL.
Version
All of them, it bugs me already for a while.
To reproduce
- Install VSCode CodeQL extension in VSCode in Windows. Make sure the CodeQL CLI is downloaded and installed (I usually click on the QL toolbar button to trigger it.). See it succeeded. Close the VSCode window.
- Open your WSL Linux terminal and run
code .It opens VSCode with the current WSL folder opened. - Go to extensions, search for the CodeQL extension and click
Install in WSL. Click QL button in the toolbar to trigger CodeQL CLI download. See it succeeded. - Close VSCode. Open the VSCode in Windows (Note that you need to open a folder in Windows, otherwise it opens the last known session, i.e. the WSL one.). Click on QL button in toolbar and see that VSCode fails to find CodeQL CLI path.
Expected behavior
Updating CodeQL in WSL doesn't break it in Windows. It is completely independent from the version in Windows or updated together.
Additional context
It looks like CodeQL extension generates incremental folder names for the CLI installation. So when my Windows installation is put to c:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\github.vscode-codeql\distribution30\ folder, the WSL installation is put into ~/.vscode-server/data/User/globalStorage/github.vscode-codeql/distribution31/. When I open VSCode in Windows it fails to find CodeQL CLI with a message WARNING: Expected to find a CodeQL CLI executable at c:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\github.vscode-codeql\distribution31\codeql\codeql.exe but one was not found. Will try PATH.. Note the distribution31 in the path.
Related to https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/issues/1380
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 539
- Forks
- 240
- Avg merge
- 2d 6h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 29
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
More from github/vscode-codeql
-
bug VSCode
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 68/100
github/vscode-codeql#4471 · 1 comment ·
-
bug enhancement VSCode
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 68/100
github/vscode-codeql#592 · 2 comments ·
-
enhancement VSCode
Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 55/100
github/vscode-codeql#4432 · 1 comment ·
-
bug VSCode
Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 52/100
github/vscode-codeql#4356 ·
-
bug VSCode
Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 64/100
github/vscode-codeql#4339 · 1 comment ·
All issues in github/vscode-codeql
Similar issues
-
bot:ai-assisted component:compact-js status:untriaged
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 84/100
midnightntwrk/midnight-sdk#403 ·
-
bug
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 78/100
joinmarket-webui/jam#1496 · 1 comment ·
-
Tech
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 68/100
opencrvs/opencrvs-core#13865 ·
-
bug
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 68/100
linagora/twake-calendar-frontend#1377 · 1 comment ·
-
Difficulty 1/5 Under an hour Newbie friendliness 72/100
EclipseFdn/open-vsx.org#13385 · 1 comment ·