How do you update VS Code in the best way?

Tooling VS Code
1

Hi,
I realise that this is just a generic VS Code question, and got nothing with Julia to do. But then I figured this is something people do often enough that several probably knows the answer, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a publicly accessible note on how this is done in case someone else struggles.

This sounds like a stupid question (probably because it is), but how do you update VS Code to the latest version? (I saw the VS Code talk at JuliaCon, and wanted to try using some of the new features, and figured I should update everything while I am at it)

This is what I have tried:

  • I am on Ubuntu, and trying the software manager I could automatically update it, but only to the 1.57 May version, not the latest 1.59 July version.
  • Next, I tried simply downloading it from Visual Studio Code July 2021. When I tried to run the file I got a note:
    image
    and when I tried to run it anyway, seemingly nothing happened (and when I against started VS Code, it was still only 1.57)
  • Next I went to this page: Update Visual Studio | Microsoft Learn (admittedly for windows, but didn’t find anything for Linux). It says “If you are currently using a different version of Visual Studio, you can either install Visual Studio versions side-by-side, or uninstall previous versions of Visual Studio”. The first alternative seems messy, and the second overly complicated. If the second is what people actually do, it still seems doable, but I wanted to check with others first.
  • The instructions also suggests that within VS Code there might be a notification about an update, but I have received no such notification for 1.59.
  • Finally, it suggests that you can “Check for Updates” within VS Code. I click on this, but it just takes me to another page for downloading VS Code, which yields similar problems as earlier.

At this point it feels like I have spent too much effort trying to figure out something which should be trivial. But I really have no idea how to proceed.

Basically, how do other people do it? Surely some of us have managed to update their VS Code to the latest version?

2

Hmmm. That is strange. I have never encountered these difficulties with Ubuntu. Typically, I download from this link. Have you tried to uninstall VScode before installing the update?

3

Yeah, I think just deleting VS Code and then reinstalling it would work, but it just felt weird as a strategy to do whenever I wanted a new version, and I wanted to check with others first whenever there was a better way.

Yes, clicking that link just gives me the message displayed, and if I try to go through with it anyway, nothing happens.

4

Small update. I uninstalled VS Code, but was unable to install it from the file (getting the exact same message). The only way to install it in the end (and with the latest version) was by installing some program manager called “snap”, and from this install the latest VS Code version. Unfortunately this also means I can only start VS Code from the terminal, by using this package, and can’t e.g. have a symbol in the sidebar to click on when I want to start it.

I will leave this open for now, in case there’s more feedback on whenever there’s a way of updating it without installing/uninstalling it.

5

I believe that my installation has always just updated whenever I close the program… there is possibly a check-box for auto-update then? That strikes me as the simplest and fastest way :slight_smile: