Steps

1. mkdir foo

2. codehelper.exe foo

3. rename foo bar

   no notification

4. echo "hello" > bar\newfile

   2: foo\newfile
   

Reports 'foo' even though path is now 'bar'

If I map a sharepoint as drive and start VS Code over it, file watching fails.

Unfortunately I have not been able to successfully wire up VS Code's FileSystemWatcher so that events can be detected. The root issue is unclear since the underlying C# FileSystemWatcher works fine if I code up a demo app. Since I couldn't discover many examples demonstrating proper configuration and usage, I simply tried a variety of constructs...all to no avail. As I'm pushing the FileSystemWatcher Disposable into the ExtensionContext, it shouldn't get dereferenced by going out of scope before the events are fired. Hence, it's unclear why the events aren't firing.

Here's an example of various constructs I've tried:

public testFileSystemWatcher(): Disposable {
    // const pathFileExt = 'C:\\VST\\test_fileSystemWatcher.txt';
    // const pathFileExt = '**/txt';
    // const pathFileExt = '**/*.txt';
    const pathFileExt = '**\\*.txt';
    // const pathFileExt = 'C:\\VST\\test_fileSystemWatcher.txt';
    // const pathFileExt = 'C:\\VS\\VscExtensionSqlTemplateInjector\\src\\SqlTemplateGuidUtils.ts'
    // const pathFileExt = 'C:/VS/VscExtensionSqlTemplateInjector/src/SqlTemplateGuidUtils.ts'
    // const pathFileExt = '/src/SqlTemplateGuidUtils.ts'
    // const pathFileExt = '**/*.ts'
    // const pathFileExt = '**//*.ts'
    // const pathFileExt = '**\*.ts'
    // const pathFileExt = '**\\*.ts'
    const fileSystemWatcher: FileSystemWatcher = workspace.createFileSystemWatcher(pathFileExt);
    window.showInformationMessage(`Watching ${pathFileExt}`);
    
    fileSystemWatcher.onDidCreate(_ => {
        console.log(`Created ${_.fsPath}`);
    });

    fileSystemWatcher.onDidChange(_ => { 
        console.log(`Changed ${_.fsPath}`);
    });

    fileSystemWatcher.onDidDelete(_ => {
        console.log(`Deleted ${_.fsPath}`);
        fileSystemWatcher.dispose();
    });
    
    return fileSystemWatcher;
}

This C# test console fires created, changed, and deleted events:

class Program {

    static FileSystemWatcher fsw;
    static void Main(string[] args) {
        //fsw = new FileSystemWatcher(@"C:\VST\", "test_fileSystemWatcher.txt");
        fsw = new FileSystemWatcher(@"C:\VST\", "*.txt");
        fsw.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
        Console.WriteLine($"Watching path {fsw.Path}    filter {fsw.Filter}");
        fsw.Changed += (s, e) => Console.WriteLine("File changed");
        fsw.Created += (s, e) => Console.WriteLine("File created");
        fsw.Deleted += (s, e) => {
            Console.WriteLine("File deleted");
            fsw.Dispose();
        };
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key to terminate application");
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

In my case I would like to detect changes to a file on a path different from the VS Code workspace. However, I haven't been able to get it to detect changes to files on any path.

I wonder if there might be something else going on here such as a permissions issue. But that seems unlikely since running VS Code under an machine-Admin account doesn't resolve it either.

From @gregvanl on April 7, 2016 17:37

• VSCode Version:0.10.11 stable, 0.10.14-insiders
• OS Version:Windows 7

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Follow the CSS transpiling section and create a tasks.json with 'node-sass' as the command.
2. Save tasks.json
3. Restart VS Code
4. Ctrl+Shift+B to Run Build Task

Rendering Complete, saving .css file...
Wrote CSS to ...

No .css file shows up in the Explorer

1. Restart VS Code in the same folder.

Now styles.css is displayed

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#5083

I have a moderately nested folder structure (7 levels or so) when I use gulp to del / copy / replace files the file list in VS Code is not updated fully. I would guess that it is updating before the operation is complete and missing some of the files (which files it shows and which it does not appears random). I have to use windows explorer to reassure myself that the files are there...

VS Code 0.10.8

From @isidorn on August 30, 2016 9:11

Might be expected.

1. Have a win VM on your mac, open vscode inside the win VM
2. In vscode open a repository which lives on a drive asociated with the mac
3. Notice file events are broken

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#11176

From @jmm on November 23, 2015 17:13

The Explore sidebar doesn't always reflect the current state of the file system, e.g. I add a file from outside of vscode and it doesn't appear in Explore. I frequently have the same problem with Atom (which I also have running and which may be consuming all of the watches), but at least in Atom's tree view I can collapse, expand a folder via keyboard commands to get it to refresh. Is there a way to do it in vscode? If not, I pose it as a feature request. Thanks!

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#506

Looks like a limitation from the C# FileWatcher.

Issue Type: Bug

after updating to version 1.43.0 VS Code stopped detecting changes.
symptoms :

• there are no open editor tab but the is a "1 UNSAVED " indicator in front of "OPEN EDITORS" in file explorer.

• changes made to the file is not detected and you can't save changes.

-after restarting VS Code every thing works properly but after a while the issue resurface again.

-on closing VS Code or folder, VS Code prompt for "Saving Unsaved Changes" and if you click "OK" all changes are saved. but "Save All" command(from File menu) does not detect unsaved changes and does not save them.

VS Code version: Code 1.43.0 (78a4c91400152c0f27ba4d363eb56d2835f9903a, 2020-03-09T19:47:57.235Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18363

When I rename a file, it will show [DELETED] and [ADDED] label instead of [RENAMED]

Instead of having a windows specific watcher in C#, we should try to build a cross platform file watcher using CoreCLR.

• VSCode Version: Code 1.17.2 (b813d12980308015bcd2b3a2f6efa5c810c33ba5, 2017-10-16T13:59:46.104Z)
• OS Version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.15063
• Extensions:

Steps to Reproduce:

0. Set VS Code as default app to open *.txt
1. Open Outlook 2013 (15.0.4971.1000)
2. Open Email in new window
3. Go to Actions -> Other Actions -> View Source
4. For about a second you will see the source in VS Code and then it disapears

Reproduces without extensions: Yes

There looks like there are 2 contributing factors to this issue:

1. VS Code auto closes tab when file is deleted.
2. VS Code doesn't keep Open handle on files, and Outlook deletes file as soon as it registers that no other app is holding it.

Comparing to other code editors:
Notepad and Notepad++ hold the handle and Outlook is not immediately deleting the file.
Notepad++ will ask you what to do if it detects that file is delted.

I'm trying to run a node command when a certain file change. The command is:
node customTool.js

But this fails..

Error: Cannot find module 'D:\Apps\Microsoft VS Code\customTool.js'
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:797:15)
at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:690:27)
at F
[error] unction.Module.runMain (internal/modul
[error] es/cjs/loader.js:1047:10)
at internal/main/run_main_module.js:17:1
[error] 1 {
code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
requireStack:
[error] []

VS Code is available for Windows ARM64 natively, which results in great performance. However, CodeHelper.exe is still x86, which uses emulation on Windows ARM64, resulting in slower performance.

It'd be great if CodeHelper.exe could be made available for Windows ARM64 natively. Currently, this module targets .NET Framework 4.5, which doesn't support ARM64. Therefore, it would first need to be upgraded to .NET 5.

I'm happy to help with upgrading if the team would like that, and I have some first work done in https://github.com/dennisameling/vscode-filewatcher-windows/tree/dotnet-5, which compiles just fine. The team would need to decide which deployment model they prefer (self-contained or framework-dependent), which may have a significant impact on binary size.

CC @joaomoreno who mentioned the wish for native ARM64 binaries in microsoft/vscode#98587

From @DerTolleEmil on December 18, 2015 13:15

I sometimes map a drive letter to a directory using the Windows subst command. However, when I open that drive in VSCode new files (or file/folder deletions outside of the editor) will not get detected. This will also lead to an inconsistent UI when using git because git works just fine but will eventually show deletions and new files that aren't visible in the editor's folder tree.

Opening a folder that is a soft link or a directory junction (both created by mklink.exe) works fine though.

This is on Windows 7 x64 by the way.

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#1450