VS Code for Linux may be secretly hoarding trashed files

Linux users who installed Microsoft's Visual Studio Code as a Snap package may want to check to see whether files they sent to the trash with the app have actually been deleted. A handful of Linux-based developers have found large amounts of supposedly deleted data on their computers, in some cases consuming hundreds of …

[cyberdemon]

Snap

Needs to die.

That is all.

[DrewPH]

Re: Snap

So does VS Code.

[jake]

Re: Snap

Indeed. Why anyone uses either is beyond me.

We really need to start teaching kids how computers really work, before it's too late.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Snap

Joined the local HS robotics team this year to help them out. Guess what First promotes for programming. VS Code. Terrible.

[Alumoi]

Re: Snap

And take flatpack with it. Or whatever idiocy 'let's create a VM for each and every application' comes next.

[TrickParadox]

Re: Snap

I don't like Flatpak either, but at least it has the decency of actually being FOSS and not a trojan horse malware hijacking the Chromium distribution.

[_wojtek]

Re: Snap

Erm... flatpack is not creating "a VM" though.. just namespaces and cgroups? the obły difference is that they link statically everything to create complete "app bundle" (similar to applications on macOS) that works the same on all distributions...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Snap

And if the creator of said flatpack bundle decides he likes a pink theme, you're stuck with it, regardless of your default one. Just an example, mind you.

[Alumoi]

Re: Snap

OK, container. Are you happy now?

[heyrick]

Re: Snap

"Or whatever idiocy"

This. Oh so much this.

I have installed a little app that uses Python to act as a front end to the configuration of my Livebox (Orange France bundled router).

Because it is Python, it has set up one of those virtual thingummies.....which now contains over 700MB of libraries and crap.

And I'm not smart enough (I'm a Linux newbie) to say "just use what's installed normally" to see if anything goes wrong or if it works.

[K555]

Re: Snap

Maybe it does for many other reasons, but in this case isn't the bug that the package "sets the XDG_DATA_HOME environment variable equal to $SNAP_USER_DATA/.local/share."?

I'd not lay that one on Snap itself, but the package. Unless I've misunderstood.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Snap

It sounds like a bit of both. It sounds as if Snap is creating a new $SNAP_USER_DATA for each update to VSCode. It's not necessarily a s trash problem because whatever else gets written in there is abandoned on every update so even without the trash directory being in there it's going to keep filling the drive, just more slowly.

[An_Old_Dog]

12,000 Open Issues?!

Fewer features -> less code -> fewer bugs.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Simple

Copilot, fix all the VS Code issues

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Simple

# rm -rf /

Done!

[wolfetone]

Re: Simple

Won't work, you've commented it out.

Typical AI slop.

[cheekybuddha]

Re: Simple

Hmmm...

More likely AC means you're issuing the command from a root shell?

[MonkeyJuice]

Re: Simple

I think mister trollface there suggests this misunderstanding is intentional.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Yeah, Snap is a steaming pile of merde. Never again.

[that one in the corner]

Feature, not a bug

Still traumatised by memories of SourceSafe, a Microsoft coder, shunted to the Linux team (where MS sends all their "damaged goods" to keep them "away from the good stuff" in Windows - well, this is *is* MS) decided that the only safe way to make sure no versions were ever lost again was to keep it all...

[Bluck Mutter]

SOP: remove flatpak, snap, pulseaudio, pipewire..

If the desktop dies, it didn't deserve to live.

In fact the dependency of modern Linux desktops on all this is now do chronic that I am using in beta, Ubuntu (or Devuan) Server, fluxbox and tint2.

It's kinda nice: I use tint2 to display all my favourite apps (on a top bar) and customize the fluxbox config file so a right mouse click lists my least used apps.

Very easy to navigate... I hate menus hence my current use of Zorin (with the mobile skin) but Zorin 18 now has a dependency on pipewire so removing it kills Zorin.

Bluck

[_wojtek]

Re: SOP: remove flatpak, snap, pulseaudio, pipewire..

just because YOU don't use it doesn't mean others font (or find them useful for that matter)... you know... you can just... not use them (or anything that you don't like)? ;)

[heyrick]

Re: SOP: remove flatpak, snap, pulseaudio, pipewire..

I'd like to like to use PipeWire/PulseAudio...but on my machine it usually keels over dead after a few minutes (not a peep in dmesg), leaving me to use a standalone Bluetooth speaker. A recent kernel fix (Mint Cinnamon) caused it to die immediately, and a more recent kernel fix reverted that so now it is back to waiting for a little while before dying.

And I'm left wondering what the hell a driver for a decade old Intel audio chip is even doing in the kernel in the first place.

I don't go near Flatpak because the package manager has some ridiculous size, like 3.9GB or something, for all the packed software. Maybe that's worst case scenario, but it's not particularly helpful.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

VSCode for Java development is all but useless when dealing with multi-repo/package projects. It completely ignores the pom file dependencies, and resolves anything and everything that has been loaded into a global namespace as if it is valid for the code...

But what else can you expect from Microsquishy but AI SLOP that isn't fit for purpose?

Been back on Netbeans for a long time now...

[takno]

It's worse for Java than pretty much anything else. Given that Netbeans, Eclipse and IntelliJ all exist, there's not really much point in putting a lot of effort into Java. It's disappointing just how limited support is though.

[bsilva66]

The more I know about SNAP...

...the happier I am it only works on systemD infected distributions.

If I really need it, I can use appimage or flatpak - sometimes the best option for proton-qt, protontricks, et al. - but snap is heavy, badly designed, and clearly an endless pit of unfixable bugs. Clearly the worse possible option.

[JimmyPage]

Containers. What's the ****ing point.

"Use Docker" they said. "It'll protect you from OS updates".

I used Docker.

I ran a lovely container that run my PAN newsreader in a container freezing it in a known good state.

Come Debian 12->13 and guess what. Changes to Docker broke the container. Because apparently changing a host library can cause Docker to have to use it and if breaks the underlying container .... well guess who has to download the source into the container and recompile in a hilarious Saturday afternoon.

Apparently I am the odd one for expecting containers to survive OS updates and upgrades.

(The magic Google is "Debian 12->13 Changes to Docker broke the container"")

[heyrick]

Re: Containers. What's the ****ing point.

This is why they call it agile development. You have to be on your toes because the ethos is "live fast and break everything".

I fear the days when I get a notification that the version of PHP on the server is changing. It seems that backwards compatibility is an unknown concept these days.</rant>

[MicrosoftFreeZone]

I find SNAP a nightmare

I find SNAP a nightmare and have stopped using it.

Files you might want to backup are scattered all over the place whilst files which should have gone are still scattered.

[MonkeyJuice]

Re: I find SNAP a nightmare

I have run out of disk space 'uninstalling' snap packages. I don't care that it thinks CoW is the 'right thing', it should not poop itself under these conditions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Words Which Have No Meaning.......

Quote: "...whether files they sent to the trash with the app have actually been deleted...."

Hah....."deleted"......this is always a cause for amusement here at Linux Mansions.

Why so? I hear you ask:

(1) Backups.......go digging in places like IronMountain

(2) Those file copies you sent out as attachments to emails

(3) What about SharePoint?

(4) Those videos you posted to e.g. YouTube.....and everyone and their dog (or cat!) copied locally

(5) ......and on and on and on.............

So.....amusement here because THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "DELETED"!

Maybe we should get the dictionary out and think about "PRIVACY"??

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh......and see the word "Mandelson" in today's news......

.......maybe someone thought that twenty year old emails would be long gone......

......."deleted".........laff, laff, laff..................

[Ken Hagan]

Re: Words Which Have No Meaning.......

In the context of this article, "deleted" simply means "no longer cluttering up this machine". There is, or certainly should be, support for that concept.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Words Which Have No Meaning.......

@Ken_Hagan

Sure.......run DBAN against "this machine"......

.....but do not assume that everything has been destroyed.....and cannot return from elsewhere to haunt you!

[MonkeyJuice]

Re: Words Which Have No Meaning.......

...why would anyone assume that? the syscall is called unlink not enron_archive.

[Dave559]

It's a Big Storage conspiracy!

Clearly Microsith are in cahoots with Big Storage. They need a way to make you buy ever larger hard drives, just like the bloatier code needs faster processors game of old (of old? who am I kidding…).

(muses: Is it still a "hard drive" if it is an SSD and has no moving parts?)

[heyrick]

Re: It's a Big Storage conspiracy!

It acts like a drive and it's solid - may well hurt your foot if you drop it from high enough - so, yeah, "hard drive" still makes sense.

[BasicReality]

Snap, Flatpak, Appimage, RPM, DEB, build from source. So many options. Settle on one already, and not the first 3.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

So not Seriously Neurotic Application Package, not Farked Largely Atrocious Twit's Posterior Application Container Krap...

[JulieM]

This is why you shouldn't use Snap

Snap, Flatpak and the like are Trojan horses, designed for the explicit purpose of encouraging people to install pre-compiled software on their machines.

Do not fall for this!

If you need a package that is not in your distribution's repositories, the proper course of action is download the Source Code directly from the developer (who will treat you as an equal) and build it yourself.

ISTG one of these days I am going to lock myself in a room and not come out until I have written a tool for automatically determining dependencies, downloading them including any necessary -dev / -devel packages and building the package.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: This is why you shouldn't use Snap

Ah but you can only do that if you first download your developer's particular build system. Every package seems to have its own these days. Then you have to build that. It's turtles all the way down.

[rgjnk]

That took a while

A while back I wondered where my disk space was going and it turned out to be this. The bug was already raised.

Has been ongoing for a while though I think it gradually tidied up when the N+1 update gradually removed the older snaps.

[LateAgain]

Am I being naive ?

Surely if you actually remove old snap versions of something it actually deletes the storage ?