No permalink to latest VSCode distributable

[hashhar]

I basically need a permalink to the latest VSCode distributable.

I was trying to write a Python installation script which will download the latest release, unzip it, make symlinks, copy a VSCode.desktop I have written (here as a fork of VSCode) into /usr/share/applications to register a launcher into Unity and GNOME.

I have stumbled upon an issue though. Since no releases are being done (not the source files, the actual installation zipballs which are downloaded from the website) I cannot use the GitHub Releases API (I wrote a preliminary proof of concept here).

I also wasn't able to trigger a click on the download page. (I can do it with Mechanize but that is a dependency and I want the script to be as self sustained as possible).

So how do I go about this? I basically need a permalink to the latest VSCode distributable.

[egamma]

@joaomoreno, @bgashler1?

[hashhar]

And would any of you be kind enough to review the python script and tell me if it is a feasible way to distribute the package. PS: I have tested it by hardcoding the Linux-x64 download link and it seems to go without a hitch on Ubuntu GNOME 15.10, Kali Linux 2.0 and Mint.

[bgashler1]

@hashhar here are the static links that always point to the latest VS Code distribution. We are also going to add these links to download confirmation pages so people can restart their downloads if they don't automatically start (see #1019 ).

osx: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=620882
win: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=623230
linux64: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=620884
linux32: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=620885
winzip: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=623231

[hashhar]

Thanks a lot. I can now get back to finishing the installation scripts.

[hashhar]

The script is now live at https://github.com/hashhar/vscode-universal-installer