SSH Remote fails on the remote connection if the noclobber shell option is set

[cwwalter]

• VSCode Version: 1.52.1
• Local OS Version: MacOS
• Remote OS Version: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (Cori computing system at NERSC)
• Remote Extension/Connection Type: SSH

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Set noclobber in the remote .bashrc with set -o noclobber
2. Try to make a remote connection

If you have connected before, and a previous log file exists, then starring the remote process fails.

The connection fails because the server code assumes it can overwrite the existing file. This is demonstrated in my log file as follows. Here we see the server being started:

[01:13:06.508] > Starting server with command... /global/homes/c/cwalter/.vscode-server/bin/ea3859d4ba2f3e577a159bc91e3074c5d85c0523/server.sh --start-server --host=127.0.0.1 --enable-remote-auto-shutdown  --port=0  &> "/global/homes/c/cwalter/.vscode-server/.ea3859d4ba2f3e577a159bc91e3074c5d85c0523.log" < /dev/null

But since I have set noclobber, and the file exists, it can't overwrite it as shown here:

01:13:06.616] stderr> main: line 476: /global/homes/c/cwalter/.vscode-server/.ea3859d4ba2f3e577a159bc91e3074c5d85c0523.pid: cannot overwrite existing file
[01:13:06.616] stderr> main: line 475: /global/homes/c/cwalter/.vscode-server/.ea3859d4ba2f3e577a159bc91e3074c5d85c0523.log: cannot overwrite existing file

But, the script continues anyway and the remote connection fails. Before determining the root cause of this issue, I had noted that if I only deleted the log file in the server directory I could connect. This was puzzling but similar behavior was reported in #2828 and worked on by @roblourens . I suspect some of those people may also have either set the option or had it set for them.

The solution for this problem is for the script to either turn off the option locally or use the '>|' method. Searching older issues for noclobber it looks like the container extension already does this.

Does this issue occur when you try this locally?: NA
Does this issue occur when you try this locally and all extensions are disabled?: NA

[roblourens]

Good point, I can disable noclobber. Can you point me to the issue where you see this? I don't see it and would like to see what we did for containers

Searching older issues for noclobber it looks like the container extension already does this.

[cwwalter]

Thanks! That will help.

Actually I see now I accidentally misread the other issues.. they are actually turning it on, not off, in the container case. If you do an issue search for "noclobber" about 10 or so issues will come up, most related to containers. That isn't the point of those issues, but if you look in the logs posted in those issues you will see entries like this:

10713 ms] Start: Run in container: set -o noclobber ; mkdir -p '/home/gidev/.vscode-server-insiders/data/Machine' && { > '/home/gidev/.vscode-server-insiders/data/Machine/.writeMachineSettingsMarker' ; } 2> /dev/null

That is what I was seeing.

[joshspicer]

This doesn't seem to repro in the extension anymore with default settings.

To attempt to repro, I added set -o noclobber to the remote machine's .bashrc and was able to connect multiple times without error (either visible, or in the logs). Upon connection it does appear noclobber is set:

Please feel free to re-open if able to repro!