VS Code extension support for pnpm installed postgrestools

[mattpetersen]

The VS Code extension, upon startup, copies the postgrestools binary to a temporary location, and executes it from there. This is to prevent locking the file on the user's system while the VS Code extension is running.

✅ This works if the binary were installed via curl, since it downloads a standalone executable file.
✅ It also works if the binary were installed via npm, another recommended installation method.
❌ However, if the binary were installed via pnpm, copying the binary causes it to fail to execute from its new location.

The error we see is the following:

node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1228
  throw err;
  ^

Error: Cannot find module '~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/supabase.postgrestools/tmp-bin/global/5/.pnpm/@[email protected]/node_modules/@postgrestools/postgrestools/bin/postgrestools'
    at Function._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1225:15)
    at Function._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1055:27)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:220:24)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:170:5)
    at node:internal/main/run_main_module:36:49 {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: []
}

Node.js v22.14.0

We might be able to use pnpm link, although it would make the exit cleanup more involved since we'd have to remove the local node_modules folder.

Another solution would be to copy the executable to the same directory in which we found it, just with a new name. A new name is being used already, so this would be a pretty minimal change. We'd want to fail of course if such a file already exists.

I'm taking a look at this now - may open an MR tonight. Cheers!