Move
Provides language support for the Move programming language. For information about Move visit the
language documentation.
How to Install
- Open a new window in any Visual Studio Code application version 1.61.0 or greater.
- Open the command palette (
⇧ + ⌘ + P on macOS, or use the menu item View > Command Palette...) and
type Extensions: Install Extensions. This will open a panel named Extensions in the
sidebar of your Visual Studio Code window.
- In the search bar labeled Search Extensions in Marketplace, type Mysten. The Move extension
should appear as one of the option in the list below the search bar. Click Install.
- Open any file that ends in
.move.
Installation of the extension will also install a platform-specific pre-built move-analyzer binary in
the default directory (see here
for information on the location of this directory), overwriting the existing binary if it already exists.
The move-analyzer binary is responsible for the advanced features of this VSCode extension (e.g., go to
definition, type on hover). Please see Troubleshooting for situations when
the pre-built move-analyzer binary is not available for your platform or if you want to use move-analyzer
binary stored in a different location.
If you want to build and test Move code using the extension, you must install the sui binary on
your machine - see here for
instructions. The extension assumes that the sui binary is in your system path, but you can set
its custom location location using VSCode's settings (⌘ + , on macOS, or use the menu item Code >
Preferences > Settings). Search for the move.sui.path user setting, set it to the new location of
the sui binary, and restart VSCode.
Troubleshooting
If you are on Windows, the following answer assumes that your Windows user name is USER.
The move-analyzer language server is a Rust program which you can install manually provided
that you have Rust development already installed.
This can be done in two steps:
- Install the move-analyzer installation prerequisites for your platform. They are the same
as prerequisites for Sui installation - for Linux, macOS and Windows these prerequisites and
their installation instructions can be found
here
- Invoke
cargo install --git https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui move-analyzer to install the
move-analyzer language server in your Cargo binary directory, which is typically located
in the ~/.cargo/bin (macOS/Linux) or C:\Users\USER\.cargo\bin (Windows) directory.
- Copy the move-analyzer binary to
~/.sui/bin (macOS/Linux) or C:\Users\USER\.sui\bin
(Windows), which is its default location (create this directory if it does not exist).
What if I want to use a move-analyzer binary in a different location?
If you are on Windows, the following answer assumes that your Windows user name is USER.
If your move-analyzer binary is in a different directory than the default one (~/.sui/bin
on macOS or Linux, or C:\Users\USER\.sui\bin on Windows), you may have the extension look
for the binary at this new location using VSCode's settings (⌘ + , on macOS, or use the menu
item Code > Preferences > Settings). Search for the move.server.path user setting,
set it to the new location of the move-analyzer binary, and restart VSCode.
What if advanced features (e.g., go to def) do not work, particularly after re-install or upgrade
Assuming you did not specify a different location for the move-analyzer binary and that the
move-analyzer binary already exists in the default location (~/.sui/bin on macOS or Linux, or
C:\Users\USER\.sui\bin on Windows), delete the existing move-analyzer binary and reinstall the
extension.
What if everything else fails?
Check Sui Developer Forum to see if the problem
has already been reported and, if not, report it there.
Features
Here are some of the features of the Move Visual Studio Code extension. To see them, open a
Move source file (a file with a .move file extension) and:
- See Move keywords and types highlighted in appropriate colors.
- Comment and un-comment lines of code (
⌘ + / on macOS or the menu item Edit >
Toggle Line Comment).
- Place your cursor on a delimiter, such as
<, (, or {, and its corresponding delimiter --
>, ), or } -- will be highlighted.
- As you type, Move keywords will appear as completion suggestions.
- If the opened Move source file is located within a buildable project (a
Move.toml file can be
found in one of its parent directories), the following advanced features will also be available:
- compiler diagnostics
- go to definition
- go to type definition
- go to references
- type on hover
- outline view showing symbol tree for Move source files
- If the opened Move source file is located within a buildable project you can build and (locally)
test this project using
Move: Build a Move package and Move: Test a Move package commands from
VSCode's command palette
