October 2018 (version 1.29) (opens new window)

Welcome to the October 2018 release of Visual Studio Code. There are a number of significant updates in this version that we hope you will like, some of the key highlights include:

• Multiline search (opens new window) - Search across files with regex multiline expressions.
• File icons in IntelliSense (opens new window) - Quickly distinguish file types in IntelliSense.
• Better macOS support (opens new window) - Full screen mode control and Mojave Dark Mode support.
• Collapsible stack frames (opens new window) - Collapse uninteresting stack frames to clearly see your code.
• Improved Loaded Scripts view (opens new window) - Displays related resources such as original source files.
• Updated extension samples (opens new window) - Uniform style and structure, README, and API usage.
• CI recipe for extensions (opens new window) - Azure Pipelines build recipe for extensions.
• Preview: Find All References (opens new window) - Find All References view shows reference search results.

If you'd like to read these release notes online, go to Updates (opens new window) on code.visualstudio.com (opens new window).
You can also check out this 1.29 release highlights video (opens new window) from Cloud Developer Advocate Brian Clark (opens new window).

The release notes are arranged in the following sections related to VS Code focus areas. Here are some further updates:

• Workbench (opens new window) - Platform specific end-of-line characters, highlight modified file tabs.
• Integrated Terminal (opens new window) - Split terminal cwd options, Cmd+Backspace to delete to start of line.
• Languages (opens new window) - Display CSS Specificity on hover, handle unknown CSS properties.
• Debugging (opens new window) - Multiple debug consoles, start with stop on entry, style console.log messages.
• Extension Authoring (opens new window) - Active terminal API, more control over custom views.

Multiline search (opens new window)

VS Code now supports multiline search! Same as in the editor, a regex search executes in multiline mode only if it contains a \n literal. The Search view shows a hint next to each multiline match, with the number of additional match lines.

This feature is possible thanks to the work done in the ripgrep (opens new window) tool to implement multiline search.

Show line numbers in search (opens new window)

We've added a setting search.showLineNumbers which will display the line number for each match in the Search view.

Disable search and replace preview (opens new window)

There is a new setting search.useReplacePreview which allows you to disable the preview diff that appears when doing a search/replace in the Search view.

Use global .gitignore file in search (opens new window)

Git allows you to configure a global gitignore file using the core.excludesfile config property. By default, search does not respect the global gitignore file, but you can now change this by enabling the new setting search.useGlobalIgnoreFiles.

macOS full screen support (opens new window)

A new setting window.nativeFullScreen was introduced that, if set to false, will enable full screen mode for VS Code that does not use the native macOS full screen feature. This has the advantage that entering full screen mode will not create a macOS space on the desktop. By default, VS Code will still use macOS native full screen.

New default for files.eol: auto (opens new window)

The files.eol end of line setting now has a new default value auto. When set to auto, the end of line character for new files is specific to the operating system. It is \r\n on Windows and \n on macOS and Linux. You can also still explicitly set file.eol to \n or \r\n.

Symbol order in Breadcrumbs (opens new window)

There is a new setting that controls how symbols in the Breadcrumbs picker are ordered: breadcrumbs.symbolSortOrder.

Allowed values are:

• position - position in the file (default)
• name - alphabetical order
• type - symbol type order

The example below shows the Breadcrumbs symbol list ordered by name:

Breadcrumbs and preview editors (opens new window)

When middle clicking items in the Breadcrumbs navigation, they now open in a new editor and don't reuse the preview editor. This behavior now matches middle clicking files in the Explorer.

Workbench navigation commands (opens new window)

Four commands are added to improve workbench navigation:

• workbench.action.nextSideBarView: Go to next view in Side Bar.
• workbench.action.previousSideBarView: Go to previous view in Side Bar.
• workbench.action.nextPanelView: Go to next Panel.
• workbench.action.previousPanelView: Go to previous Panel.

By default, the commands do not have keyboard shortcuts.

Two context keys, sideBarFocus and panelFocus were also added. This allows using the same keybinding for different commands in different Workbench areas:

[
  { "key": "cmd+]", "command": "workbench.action.nextEditor" },
  { "key": "cmd+[", "command": "workbench.action.previousEditor" },
  {
    "key": "cmd+]",
    "command": "workbench.action.nextSideBarView",
    "when": "sideBarFocus"
  },
  {
    "key": "cmd+[",
    "command": "workbench.action.previousSideBarView",
    "when": "sideBarFocus"
  },
  {
    "key": "cmd+]",
    "command": "workbench.action.nextPanelView",
    "when": "panelFocus"
  },
  {
    "key": "cmd+[",
    "command": "workbench.action.previousPanelView",
    "when": "panelFocus"
  }
]

Markdown snippet improvements (opens new window)

The built-in Markdown snippets, such as those for links and code blocks, now use the currently selected text by default. This allows you to create keybindings (opens new window) that turn the currently selected text into a link or header:

{
  "key": "cmd+k",
  "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet",
  "when": "editorTextFocus",
  "args": {
    "langId": "markdown",
    "name": "Insert link"
  }
}