Things I Learned #3: VS Code, extensions, and the command line

In my last TIL post, I talked about using VS Code to perform a diff by using

code --diff file1 file2

BTW, the --diff can be shortened to just -d.

In this edition of Things I Learned, I want to talk a little more about using Visual Studio Code from the command line. There are several good command-line arguments I've learned about recently.

TIL

The first argument is one that lets you output your list of installed extensions

code --list-extensions

If you want the versions, tack on

--show-versions

Here's the output when I run it

Getting a list of installed extensions in Visual Studio Code

You can also install an extension by

code --install-extension publisher.extension

So, to install the Vim extension, it would look like this:

code --install-extension vscodevim.vim

If you want to avoid any prompts, you can add

--force

You can remove an extension using

code --uninstall-extension publisher.extension

If you're having problems with Visual Studio Code, you can start it with all extensions disabled, too:

code --disable-extensions