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Add ability to load development-only environment variables #22

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Merged
yCodeTech merged 6 commits into from
Feb 6, 2026
+88 −2
Merged

Add ability to load development-only environment variables #22

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0a79426
chore: add `.env` to `.gitignore` to exclude environment variables file
yCodeTech Feb 4, 2026
9254b98
feat: add util function to load dev environment variables from .env
yCodeTech Feb 4, 2026
fff3c40
fix: duplicate output channel.
yCodeTech Feb 6, 2026
0f7a937
fix: validate and sanitize the dev env variable
yCodeTech Feb 6, 2026
1956191
fix: validate and sanitize the dev env variable (#24)
yCodeTech Feb 6, 2026
d9d0830
fix: initialise `errorMsg` variable as an empty string.
yCodeTech Feb 6, 2026
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions .gitignore
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ node_modules
package-lock.json
*.vsix
.vscode/settings.json
.env
5 changes: 4 additions & 1 deletion src/extension.ts
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -5,9 +5,12 @@ import * as vscode from "vscode";
import {Configuration} from "./configuration";
import {logger} from "./logger";
import {ExtensionData} from "./extensionData";
import {addDevEnvVariables} from "./utils";

const extensionData = new ExtensionData();
logger.setupOutputChannel();
addDevEnvVariables();

const extensionData = new ExtensionData();
let configuration = new Configuration();

const disposables: vscode.Disposable[] = [];
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11 changes: 10 additions & 1 deletion src/extensionData.ts
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Expand Up @@ -94,11 +94,20 @@ export class ExtensionData {
* Set the extension discovery paths into the extensionDiscoveryPaths Map.
*/
private setExtensionDiscoveryPaths() {
// Get the DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH env variable if it exists.
const devUserExtensionsPath = process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH;

// The path to the user extensions.
//
// On Windows/Linux/Mac: ~/.vscode[-server|remote]/extensions
// On WSL: ~/.vscode-[server|remote]/extensions
const userExtensionsPath = isWsl ? path.join(vscode.env.appRoot, "../../", "extensions") : path.join(this.extensionPath, "../");
//
// Because the extensionPath is created from __dirname and retrieves where this extension
// is located, in extension testing/development mode, this path will point to the local
// development path, not the actual user extensions path. So we use the custom
// DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH env variable to override it.
const userExtensionsPath =
devUserExtensionsPath || (isWsl ? path.join(vscode.env.appRoot, "../../", "extensions") : path.join(this.extensionPath, "../"));

this.extensionDiscoveryPaths.set("userExtensionsPath", userExtensionsPath);
// The path to the built-in extensions.
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73 changes: 73 additions & 0 deletions src/utils.ts
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@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
import * as fs from "node:fs";
import * as path from "node:path";
import * as jsonc from "jsonc-parser";
import {logger} from "./logger";
import {window} from "vscode";
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -237,3 +238,75 @@ export function mergeArraysBy<T>(primaryArray: T[], secondaryArray: T[], key: ke

return merged;
}

/**
* Add development environment variables from a local .env file located in the project root.
*/
export function addDevEnvVariables() {
// Try to load the local .env file from the project root.
try {
process.loadEnvFile(path.join(__dirname, "../../.env"));
} catch (error) {
// Ignore errors if the .env file doesn't exist
}

// Validate the loaded environment variables
validateDevEnvVariables();
}

/**
* Validate and sanitize the `DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH` environment variable.
* Removes invalid paths from the environment with logged errors.
*/
function validateDevEnvVariables() {
// Validate DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH if it was loaded
if (process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH) {
// Trim whitespace and resolve the path to an absolute path
let devPath = path.resolve(process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH.trim());

let stats: fs.Stats;
let errorMsg: string = "";
let errorData: Error;

// Get the file system stats for the path to check if it exists.
// statSync throws an exception if the no file system data exists for the path,
// so we catch it to handle errors gracefully.
try {
stats = fs.statSync(devPath);
} catch (error) {
const nodeError = error as NodeJS.ErrnoException;
const errorCode = nodeError.code || "UNKNOWN";

// Handle specific file system errors with user-friendly messages.
const errorMessages = {
ENOENT: "Path from env variable 'DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH' does not exist",
EACCES: "Permission denied accessing path from env variable 'DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH'",
UNKNOWN: "Unknown error accessing the path from env variable 'DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH'",
};

errorMsg = `${errorCode}: ${errorMessages[errorCode]}: "${devPath}". Removing from environment.`;

errorData = error as Error;

delete process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH;
}

// If stats has data AND the path is NOT a directory
if (stats && !stats.isDirectory()) {
errorMsg = `DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH is not a directory: "${devPath}". Removing from environment.`;
}

// If there was an error...
if (errorMsg.length > 0) {
// Delete the environment variable to prevent issues later on and log the error.
delete process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH;
logger.error(errorMsg, errorData);
}
// Otherwise, if there are no errors...
else {
// Update the environment variable with the sanitized path and log a success message.
process.env.DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH = devPath;
logger.info(`Loaded DEV_USER_EXTENSIONS_PATH: "${devPath}"`);
}
}
}