VS Code - Tip & Tricks

Start VS Code in a specific profile

VS Code doesn’t have a setting for a default profile.

The only way to start VS Code in a specific profile is via CLI.

Via CLI

• Manually open VS Code with the profile you want

  code --profile MyProfile
  

• Tell the shell to automatically pass the argument for you

  # .zshrc
  VSCODE_PROFILE=Fedora
  function code {
    /usr/bin/code "$@" --reuse-window --profile $VSCODE_PROFILE
  }
  

  [!TIP] I also pass in --reuse-window argument.

  code ~/.zshrc
  

  [!WARNING] By doing this, our code will always start with extra --profile argument.

  It may break default behavior of code:

  • We can no longer use code subcommands, e.g. code tunnel, code serve-web

Via GUI

Linux - Fedora - Gnome

In GNOME and other freedesktop.org-compliant desktop environments, such as KDE and Unity, applications are added to the desktop’s menus or desktop shell via desktop entries, defined in text files with the .desktop extension (referred to as desktop files). The desktop environments construct menus for a user from the combined information extracted from available desktop entries.

Desktop files may be created in either of two places:

• /usr/share/applications/ for desktop entries available to every user in the system
• ~/.local/share/applications/ for desktop entries available to a single user

How can I add an application to the GNOME application menu? | StackExchange

The desktop entry of VS Code is stored at /usr/share/applications/code.desktop.

Add the argument to Exec field.

Exec=/usr/share/code/code  --profile Fedora --unity-launch %F