Fix VS Code Remote SSH Root Directory Creation Bug

Have you ever found yourself scratching your head when working with VS Code's Remote SSH feature on an Ubuntu server, especially when using a privileged user with tools like Roo-Code? You create a new file, and poof, the file has the correct ownership, but any parent directories that needed to be created suddenly belong to root? It’s a peculiar issue that can lead to a cascade of permission problems, forcing you to manually run chown -R commands more often than you'd like. This article dives deep into this specific bug, exploring its potential causes, and offering a clear, actionable solution to ensure your directories are created with the right user permissions, every single time.

The Puzzling Case of Root-Owned Directories

Let's set the scene: you're comfortably coding on your local machine, connected via VS Code to a remote Ubuntu server. You're using a user account that has sudo capabilities, which is fairly common for server administration tasks. You then use Roo-Code, a handy extension, to create a new file. This action, which often involves creating necessary parent directories, reveals an inconsistent behavior. While the files themselves are created with your SSH user's ownership, the directories that Roo-Code creates along the way are inexplicably owned by root. This isn't just a minor annoyance; it can break workflows, especially if subsequent operations rely on the user having write permissions within those newly created directories. Imagine trying to save configuration files or deploy code into a directory that your user can't even write to – it’s a recipe for frustration. The core of the problem lies in how different parts of the VS Code extension and the underlying operating system handle file system operations. When an extension needs to create files and directories, it can interact with the remote system in various ways. Some interactions are managed directly by VS Code's powerful remote development infrastructure, while others might fall back to more basic, lower-level system calls. It's within this distinction that our bug likely resides, creating a silent but persistent headache for users operating in privileged SSH environments.

This inconsistency is particularly thorny because it only affects directories. Files are saved correctly, suggesting that VS Code's own workspace APIs are indeed working as intended, performing operations under the context of the connected SSH user. But when the extension itself needs to pre-emptively create directories before saving a file, it seems to be taking a different route, one that doesn't benefit from VS Code's remote file system management. This fork in the road leads to commands being executed in a context that, due to the privileged nature of the user or the server's configuration, defaults to root ownership for directory creation. The implication is that while the vscode-server process running on the remote machine might be initiated under your SSH user, certain operations, especially those not explicitly routed through VS Code's APIs, could be subject to inherited permissions or even triggered with elevated privileges under specific circumstances. Understanding this nuance is key to diagnosing and fixing the issue, transforming a mysterious bug into a solvable technical challenge. The goal is to ensure that all file system operations initiated by the extension, whether it's creating a directory or saving a file, consistently respect the ownership of the SSH user, regardless of the specific action being performed.

Unraveling the Root Cause: A Tale of Two File System Calls

To truly understand why this is happening, we need to peek under the hood at the code. After a thorough analysis, the most plausible explanation for this discrepancy lies in the differing methods used for directory creation versus file saving within the Roo-Code extension. It appears that directory creation leverages Node.js's raw fs.mkdir() function, a direct interface to the operating system's file system. This is evident in the src/utils/fs.ts file, where a simple await fs.mkdir(dirsToCreate[i]) call is used to create the necessary directories. On the other hand, when it comes to saving files, Roo-Code utilizes VS Code's own robust workspace API, specifically updatedDocument.save(). This API is designed to work seamlessly within the VS Code environment, especially in remote scenarios. It acts as an intermediary, ensuring that file operations are handled correctly by the remote VS Code server and, crucially, are executed with the appropriate user context – in this case, your SSH user.

This divergence is the likely culprit. The fs.mkdir() call, being a more low-level operation, doesn't inherently know about or respect the VS Code remote context. It executes the command as the process that invoked it. If the vscode-server process, or the environment it's running in, has any elements of elevated privilege (perhaps due to how the SSH session was initiated, or a user's shell profile configured with sudo prompts), then fs.mkdir() will happily create directories as root. Meanwhile, the document.save() operation, channeled through VS Code's workspace API, is managed by the vscode-server in a way that preserves your SSH user's identity. This creates the bizarre scenario where files are owned by you, but the directories they reside in are owned by root. It’s like building a house where the walls are built by the owner, but the foundation is laid by someone else entirely, and that