System integration, default shell, and host commands

[BobyMCbobs]

It is possible to run host commands when inside the Flatpak container, however the user must run flatpak-spawn --host bash.

Currently, vscode-oss just uses the standard user's shell contained in the Flatpak container.

To add some integration to the vscode-oss, it would be nice to have the default shell launch flatpak-spawn --env=COLORTERM=truecolor --env=TERM=xterm-256color --host /bin/sh -c "\$(getent passwd \$USER | cut -d: -f7)".

Some extensions also rely on host binary for such things as linting code (e.g PHP), etc...; This would also enable such functionality which simply isn't possible in it's current form.

As an example, an app which does this currently is GNOME Builder.

[TingPing]

This is largely a discussion to have upstream (or in some extension) not a packaging issue.

[dAnjou]

Hi @TingPing, can you elaborate why this is an upstream issue? What @BobyMCbobs said sounds like a packaging issue.

For example in my setup I can't access java for some reason even though I clearly have it installed:

[BobyMCbobs]

For example in my setup I can't access java for some reason even though I clearly have it installed

@dAnjou, this is because Flatpak has a contained environment for each app. Apps aren't able to access all of the programs on your host. You may be able to access it in your /run/host/usr/bin/java, otherwise try the command which I said about (flatpak-spawn --env=COLORTERM=truecolor --env=TERM=xterm-256color --host /bin/sh -c "\$(getent passwd \$USER | cut -d: -f7)").

[TingPing]

Flatpak is a sandbox, it can't be not-sandboxed.

If you want to execute commands they either run on the host (flatpak-spawn --host) or they get packaged into the sandbox.

There is nothing that this package can do. The application should be designed to understand running commands in different contexts and support flatpak directly.

[springbov]

I'm posting what I've found here as a note for any other unwary traveler asking such questions.

What wasn't immediately clear to me when reading this, is that it is possible to run an un-sandboxed shell inside of the flatpak build of vscode-oss.

I found that editing my settings.json file I could change my default shell to run the commands mentioned by BobyMCbobs and TingPing to run an unsandboxed shell.

It's hacky and I don't trust it. If you are concerned more about having an OSS build and less about sandboxing I'd personally look at vscodium instead.

{
    "terminal.integrated.shell.linux": "flatpak-spawn",
    "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux": [
        "--env=COLORTERM=truecolor",
        "--env=TERM=xterm-256color",
        "--host",
        "/bin/sh",
        "-c",
        "$(getent passwd $USER | cut -d: -f7)"
    ]
}