Cross platform alternative to jest.jestCommandLine for fnm users

[nbolton]

Feature request

My issue is easily solved by workarounds (below), so I won't mind if this issue gets closed. While writing this issue, I actually discovered that the first workaround (Turn off 'Sync This Setting') works perfectly well, and considered not raising this issue at all, but decided to share for posterity/awareness.

Minor problem: For fnm users, the jest.jestCommandLine setting is useful only if you develop on one operating system. When trying to use fnm with this to manage Node versions, it's tricky, since fnm reqires you to eval the fnm eval command (which is done differently on each OS*). To solve this, I had to write a script, fnm-use (see end of issue) and call that before npm test --:

macOS:

"jest.jestCommandLine": "source fnm-use && npm test --"

Windows:

"jest.jestCommandLine": "fnm-use && npm test --"

Alternatively, just use the npm hard coded path instead of using fnm, but this only works on Windows (not macOS)...

"jest.jestCommandLine": "C:\\Users\\[username]\\AppData\\Local\\fnm_multishells\\20784_1693483119158\\npm.cmd test --",

Workarounds:

• Turn off 'Sync This Setting' for the jest.jestCommandLine and use the hard-coded npm path (as above).
• Turn off 'Sync This Setting' for the jest.jestCommandLine setting (and use my npm-use script below).
• I haven't tried this yet, but I imagine that the workaround is to just use nvm instead of fnm, as arguably this is a unique problem that fnm creates.
• Use the installed Node directly on the OS (instead of fnm) and install the required version of Node for the whole system. This is tricky if you work on different projects with different Node versions.
• Use the settings profiles feature on the VS Code Insider version.

Possible solution: Not sure if this is the best solution since Similar to how other Node-reliant extensions work (e.g. Sonarlint), have an extension setting for node itself:

  "sonarlint.pathToNodeExecutable": "C:\\Users\\[username]\\AppData\\Local\\fnm_multishells\\4224_1692713362372\\node.exe",

I also noticed that the sonarlint.pathToNodeExecutable setting is not sync'd by default, so it's not neccesary to turn off sync for that setting. Perhaps jest.jestCommandLine should not be sync'd by default so you don't need to add it to settingsSync.ignoredSettings.

Script source code

Windows Command Prompt (what Jest extension seems to use):
fnm-use.cmd

FOR /f "tokens=*" %%i IN ('fnm env --use-on-cd') DO CALL %%i
fnm use --version-file-strategy recursive

macOS script:
fnm-use.sh:

export PATH="/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/fnm:$PATH"
eval "`fnm env`"
fnm use --version-file-strategy recursive

[connectdotz]

Good investigation and I'm glad you figured out the workaround already.

It seems any path-specific settings would have the same cross-platform issue. Instead of each extension creating its own solution, I think the vscode profiles might provide the best bang for the buck... Just wondering if there are any issues (using profiles) with your use case?

[nbolton]

Just wondering if there are any issues (using profiles) with your use case?

Yes, I think there was... can't remember now. Something to do with working on 3 different computers IIRC? I develop for Windows, macOS, and Linux and sync my VS Code settings between all three computers.

[connectdotz]

Yes, I am sure you do want to turn off sync for these path-specific settings if you need to work on different OS. Close this issue, as vscode already has the mechanism to handle this. We should not reinvent the wheel.