Update remote settings when a setting from an extension that is running remotely is changed

[sbatten]

Once in devContainer with python extension installed via the devContainer config, I get prompted that IntelliCode support for Python requires a change of setting. I click the action to change the setting but this changes it in user settings, where it should likely apply to the devContainer settings.

from @sandy081

This can apply to those settings owned by extensions running remotely. We can change the strategy to update in remote machine if the setting belongs to an extension running remotely.

[Eskibear]

I'm from joelspadin-garmin/vscode-private-extension-manager#14 , which is marked as duplicated with this issue.

My experiments

I tested both Codespaces and local dev containers. According to my experiments, both machine and machine-overridable are affected. When using below API to update settings,

vscode.workspace.getConfiguration("foo").update("bar", "value", vscode.ConfigurationTarget.Global)

a) [OK] if foo.bar has already defined in your machine level settings.json

• e.g. /home/vscode/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json or /home/codespace/.vscode-remote/data/Machine/settings.json
• new value is correctly updated inplace.

b) [Buggy] if foo.bar is NOT explicitly defined in machine level settings.json

• "foo.bar": "value" is wrongly added in user level settings.json, the same as described in this issue, which I believe is an upstream bug.

[sandy081]

To verify:

• Write a sample extension that has a setting with scope machine or machine-overridable` and a command that executes following code

vscode.workspace.getConfiguration().update("setting", "value", vscode.ConfigurationTarget.Global)

• Install this extension on remote (You can use DevContainer and install as VSIX)
• Running above command shall update the setting in remote settings (Try when setting is written and not written in the file)