code-server/README.md

code-server ·

code-server is VS Code running on a remote server, accessible through the browser.

Try it out:

docker run -it -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 -v "$PWD:/home/coder/project" codercom/code-server

• Consistent environment: Code on your Chromebook, tablet, and laptop with a consistent dev environment. develop more easily for Linux if you have a Windows or Mac, and pick up where you left off when switching workstations.
• Server-powered: Take advantage of large cloud servers to speed up tests, compilations, downloads, and more. Preserve battery life when you're on the go since all intensive computation runs on your server.

Getting Started

Run over SSH

Use sshcode for a simple setup.

Docker

See the Docker one-liner mentioned above. Dockerfile is at /Dockerfile.

To debug Golang using the ms-vscode-go extension, you need to add --security-opt seccomp=unconfined to your docker run arguments when launching code-server with Docker. See #725 for details.

Binaries

1. Download a binary. (Linux and OS X supported. Windows coming soon)
2. Unpack the downloaded file then run the binary.
3. In your browser navigate to localhost:8080.

• For self-hosting and other information see doc/quickstart.md.
• For hosting on cloud platforms see doc/deploy.md.

Build

• If you also plan on developing, set the OUT environment variable. Otherwise it will build in this directory which will cause issues because yarn watch will try to compile the build directory as well.
• For now @coder/nbin is a global dependency.
• Run yarn build ${vscodeVersion} ${codeServerVersion} in this directory (for example: yarn build 1.36.0 development).
• If you target the same VS Code version our Travis builds do everything will work but if you target some other version it might not (we have to do some patching to VS Code so different versions aren't always compatible).
• You can run the built code with node path/to/build/out/vs/server/main.js or run yarn binary with the same arguments in the previous step to package the code into a single binary.

Known Issues

• Uploading .vsix files doesn't work.
• Creating custom VS Code extensions and debugging them doesn't work.
• Extension profiling and tips are currently disabled.

Future

• Stay up to date! Get notified about new releases of code-server.
• Windows support.
• Electron and Chrome OS applications to bridge the gap between local<->remote.
• Run VS Code unit tests against our builds to ensure features work as expected.

Extensions

At the moment we can't use the official VS Code Marketplace. We've created a custom extension marketplace focused around open-sourced extensions. However, you can manually download the extension to your extensions directory. It's also possible to set your own marketplace URLs by setting the SERVICE_URL and ITEM_URL environment variables.

Telemetry

Use the --disable-telemetry flag to completely disable telemetry. We use the data collected to improve code-server.

Contributing

Development

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vscode
cd vscode
git checkout <see travis.yml for the VS Code version to use here>
git clone https://github.com/cdr/code-server src/vs/server
cd src/vs/server
yarn patch:apply
yarn
yarn watch
# Wait for the initial compilation to complete (it will say "Finished compilation").
# Run the next command in another shell.
yarn start
# Visit http://localhost:8080

If you run into issues about a different version of Node being used, try running npm rebuild in the VS Code directory and ignore the error at the end from vscode-ripgrep.

Upgrading VS Code

We patch VS Code to provide and fix some functionality. As the web portion of VS Code matures, we'll be able to shrink and maybe even entirely eliminate our patch. In the meantime, however, upgrading the VS Code version requires ensuring that the patch still applies and has the intended effects.

To generate a new patch, stage all the changes you want to be included in the patch in the VS Code source, then run yarn patch:generate in this directory.

Our changes include:

• Change the remote schema to code-server.
• Allow multiple extension directories (both user and built-in).
• Modify the loader, websocket, webview, service worker, and asset requests to use the URL of the page as a base (and TLS if necessary for the websocket).
• Send client-side telemetry through the server and get the initial log level from the server.
• Add an upload service for use in editor windows and the explorer along with a file prefix to ignore for temporary files created during upload.
• Make changing the display language work.
• Make hiding or toggling the menu bar possible.
• Make it possible for us to load code on the client.
• Modify the build process to include our code.

License

MIT

Enterprise

Visit our enterprise page for more information about our enterprise offering.

Commercialization

If you would like to commercialize code-server, please contact contact@coder.com.