Remote-SSH: Fails to discover WSL SSH

[UnicodeTreason]

• VSCode Version: 1.37.0-insider
• Local OS Version: Windows 10 1803
• Remote OS Version: N/A
• Remote Extension/Connection Type: SSH

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Have Remote-SSH installed
2. Connect to Host
3. VSCode fails to find any SSH with error "An SSH installation couldn't be found"
4. I checked the Remote - SSH Output and can't even see it attempting to look for WSL SSH
   Got error from ssh: spawn ssh ENOENT
   Testing ssh with C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe -V
   Got error from ssh: spawn C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe ENOENT
   Testing ssh with C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe -V
   Got error from ssh: spawn C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe ENOENT
   Testing ssh with C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe -V
   Got error from ssh: spawn C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe ENOENT
   Finding installed ssh failed: ssh installation not found
   ssh installation not found

Which is unexpected as the documentation here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/troubleshooting#_installing-a-supported-ssh-client

Specifically states it'll use WSL SSH

These closed issues also make it look as though it WAS added recently:
#359
#448

[Chuxel]

@roblourens Did the update to dynamically find the SSH client on Windows include a WSL check or did that get cut/missed?

[roblourens]

Yeah I missed that entirely. Can you suggest how I should discover/invoke WSL ssh?

Also would have to figure out how config files will work. WSL ssh would not look at windows' ssh config files by default and vice versa.

[davidwin]

Enabling the WSL ssh would be awesome, since it should make it possible to take advantage of ControlMaster on Windows. We rely on WSL ssh heavily for a homegrown remote development solution, and connection multiplexing really helps to make things zippy.

[Chuxel]

@roblourens I've got a PR out to update docs in the mean time.

You should be able to detect WSL SSH with the following command line call:

where wsl && wsl which ssh

Non-zero exit means it's not there.

[UnicodeTreason]

Thanks for jumping onto this one guys, saves us having to run two SSH configurations.

[diablodale]

Additional test case as this is implemented...

• Force usage of WSL ssh

I tried three alternate settings.json of

  "remote.SSH.path": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe ssh"
  "remote.SSH.path": "\\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu-18.04\\usr\\bin\\ssh"
  "remote.SSH.path": "/usr/bin/ssh"

They all failed with the Remote - SSH output log reporting for each their location...

Testing ssh with C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe ssh -V
Got error from ssh: spawn C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe ssh ENOENT
The specified path C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe ssh is not a valid SSH binary

I have a very little tested workaround to force WSL ssh. Use a settings.json of

  "remote.SSH.path": "c:/njs/ssh.bat"

with an ssh.bat of

@echo off
set v_params=%*
set v_params=%v_params:\=/%
set v_params=%v_params:c:=/mnt/c%
REM set v_params=%v_params:"=\"%
C:\Windows\system32\wsl.exe ssh %v_params%

[diablodale]

Hello. A regression in use of the setting remote.SSH.path to use WSL occurred in VSCode Windows release 1.37.0; where no problem existed in the previous 1.36.x. Putting it in this issue as it is highly related to this discussion.

The setting remote.SSH.path no longer accepts correctly a path like c:/njs/ssh.bat
In 1.37 on Windows, the setting must be with backslashes.

Setup

Version: 1.37.0 (system setup)
Commit: 036a6b1d3ac84e5ca96a17a44e63a87971f8fcc8
Date: 2019-08-08T02:33:50.993Z
Electron: 4.2.7
Chrome: 69.0.3497.128
Node.js: 10.11.0
V8: 6.9.427.31-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18362

Repo

1. Setup the ssh.bat file in a directory, and VSCode remote.SSH.path as in Remote-SSH: Fails to discover WSL SSH #937 (comment)
2. Run and connect using Remote SSH

Result

The connection fails. In the Remote SSH output window is the error

[10:35:33.341] Install and start server if needed
[10:35:33.404] > 
[10:35:33.405] Got some output, clearing connection timeout
[10:35:33.903] > �]0;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\cmd.exe�
[10:35:33.912] >
...
[10:35:33.920] > 'c:' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
> operable program or batch file.

Expected

No error and a successful connection

Workaround

Change the setting of the path to use backslashes

"remote.SSH.path": "c:/njs/ssh.bat"    <--- fails

"remote.SSH.path": "C:\\njs\\ssh.bat"    <--- works