Error "end of central directory record signature not found" while installing ionide-fsharp in vscode

Question

I have installed VS Code version 1.8.1. Machine is Windows 7, 64 bit. While installing ionide-fsharp extension, I am getting error "end of central directory record signature not found". It seems version 1.7.2 of VS Code works, however this issue probably seems fixed for version 1.8.0 see this git link. Any idea on how to get the extn installed?

Thanks

Collinsia

Answer 1

Found a workaround for this. Downloaded '.vsix' file of ionide-fs from this link. In VS Code Extensions tab, there is an option 'Install from VSIX'. That worked. So in case anyone is unable to install from vscode extensions tab directly(i.e. from Marketplace), they may try this way of installing an extension.

Just for information, I was getting the same error for version 1.7.2 of vscode as well while trying to install from Marketplace.

Collinsia

As an alternative one can check that the extension is not being installed behind corporate proxy, changing to a public network (if possible) and reinstalling may solve the issue. It did for me. – Hebbe

Answer 2

I was able to resolve this problem by eliminating the following folders.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Code\CachedExtensionVSIXs
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Code\CachedData

Attempting to directly download and install the VSIX produced the same issue, thus I presume vscode ignores the download if a VSIX is already cached.

Aleydis

I could hug you – Methodical

Answer 3

Seems there were bugs that exist in past versions, due to the embedded browser and other reasons; these have since been fixed.

The above solution seems a common way to install a troublesome plugin.

However, there is a long standing reason for this error, running out of disk space. As of v1.54.1 (2021/03) and it turns out this can happen if your disk/home folder can run out of space during download OR install.

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/118711

Fulks

Answer 4

I had this issue on a laptop that I had migrated my settings from a previous one and maybe had some corrupted vscode files or something. I uninstalled vscode and then manually deleting the roaming code folder completely.

• C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Code

Then after a reinstall and I was able to install the extension afterwards.

Lyontine

Answer 5

Had a similar problem with a specifix extension in windows. Here is what worked for me:

• Download the extension file (a .vsix extension)
• Open powershell in admin mode (rigth click, run as admin )
• In terminal go to folder location of downloaded .vsix fil
• Run: code --install-extension <YourExtensionFileName>.vsix

Frottage