Unable to alt-click file paths beginning with \\?\ on Windows 10

[connorskees]

• VSCode Version:

code-insiders --version
1.44.0-insider
ea935488ec0e5415d4205c1f33ba332fd417f85a
x64

• OS Version: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19592.1001]

Steps to Reproduce:

cd %userprofile% 
mkdir foo && cd foo
echo bar > baz
echo %userprofile%\foo\baz VS \\?\%userprofile%\foo\baz

When I hover the former in the integrated terminal, I am given the option to alt-click to follow the path, but this does not occur for the latter.

To verify that both paths are valid,

type %userprofile%\foo\baz
type \\?\%userprofile%\foo\baz

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

[RMacfarlane]

@connorskees I assume you mean within the integrated terminal?

[connorskees]

@RMacfarlane ah sorry for being unclear. Yes within the integrated terminal.

[Tyriar]

What does \\?\ mean?

[connorskees]

@Tyriar \\?\ allows for paths above 256 characters in length. The syntax also disables all string parsing on the path.

It is used by the Windows API in a few places, namely GetFinalPathNameByHandleA and CreateFileA. A few command line utilities I use use these functions to canonicalize paths.

[Tyriar]

Related: #21125

[connor4312]

@Tyriar one thing I found is that the literal string \\?\%userprofile%\foo\baz is linkified, but clicking on it tries to open the workspace folder as a file and shows the error notification "Unable to open '': File is a directory.". Echoing and clicking on the real path, though, works fine.

[Tyriar]

Nice find, it's being interpreted as a relative path.