VSCode Extension: Publish a no-server version without bundled binary

[darkyzhou]

I'd like to suggest publishing an additional extension variant without the bundled rust-analyzer binary, for two main reasons:

1. Reduce download size and time
2. Enable support for architectures not officially supported by VSCode (e.g., RISC-V and Loong64 on VSCodium)

Currently, users on these alternative architectures cannot install the extension due to architecture restrictions, even if they have rust-analyzer installed on their system manually.

Would it be possible to publish such a "no-server" variant alongside the current extension?

[lnicola]

How would that be different from https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-analyzer/releases/download/2024-11-25/rust-analyzer-no-server.vsix?

[darkyzhou]

I think there are a few differences:

1. The .vsix requires manual download and installation, which is less user-friendly than having it available in the extension registry
2. I'm not sure whether auto-updating will work correctly with the manually installed no-server variant

P.S. For "publishing" I actually meant publishing to Open VSX registry, which VSCodium is configured to use by default

[lnicola]

Does OpenVSX support Loong64? Extensions have to specify their platform, which is how the marketplace knows which version to send. Last time I checked, only x86, x64 and arm were available.

[lnicola]

Oh, I see, you want a different extension that's marked as portable. That would technically work, but it's more involved because of.. bureaucratic reasons.

[darkyzhou]

Yes, that's exactly my concern...

While having two separate extensions does feel a bit awkward, I was thinking maybe just publishing the no-server variant to Open VSX would be sufficient.