Have you noticed that disk space is filling up fast even when your Linux computer’s trash folder is empty? There’s a strong possibility that VS Code is responsible for it.
A not-so-recent issue in the Snap version of VS Code has cropped up again, and there’s no fix in sight.
An Absurd Bug
When you normally delete a file, it goes into the trash folder, located at ~/.local/share/Trash. GNOME has supported automated emptying of the trash at selected intervals through its settings for quite some time now.
So, let’s say you delete trash every seven days.
TL;DR:
When you delete in VS Code it stores the files in
Which isn’t automatically emptied by gnome like ~/.local/share/Trash
Updating the package also creates new copies of this directory under a new version, leaving orphaned files/directories which contain data that you deleted.
Honestly this should be treated as a security vulnerability as well as a general bug, no?
The lines get kind of blurry, it’s a bug that allows people executing code as your user(not sure the specifics of snap’s security) to see things that you thought you deleted.
This doesn’t give an attacker anything particularly useful. If they have that level of privileged already there are much more fruitful avenues of attack that don’t require digging through your trash.
Fair enough. I just operate under the assumption deleted means deleted, I’d never toss Auth keys in userspace but I could absolutely see myself placing them temporarily in scripts I’d delete later.