59694fb72e
Closes #1756
301 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
301 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
<!-- START doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
|
|
<!-- DON'T EDIT THIS SECTION, INSTEAD RE-RUN doctoc TO UPDATE -->
|
|
# FAQ
|
|
|
|
- [Questions?](#questions)
|
|
- [How can I reuse my VS Code configuration?](#how-can-i-reuse-my-vs-code-configuration)
|
|
- [Differences compared to VS Code?](#differences-compared-to-vs-code)
|
|
- [How can I request a missing extension?](#how-can-i-request-a-missing-extension)
|
|
- [How do I configure the marketplace URL?](#how-do-i-configure-the-marketplace-url)
|
|
- [Where are extensions stored?](#where-are-extensions-stored)
|
|
- [How is this different from VS Code Codespaces?](#how-is-this-different-from-vs-code-codespaces)
|
|
- [How should I expose code-server to the internet?](#how-should-i-expose-code-server-to-the-internet)
|
|
- [How do I securely access web services?](#how-do-i-securely-access-web-services)
|
|
- [Sub-paths](#sub-paths)
|
|
- [Sub-domains](#sub-domains)
|
|
- [Multi-tenancy](#multi-tenancy)
|
|
- [Docker in code-server container?](#docker-in-code-server-container)
|
|
- [How can I disable telemetry?](#how-can-i-disable-telemetry)
|
|
- [How does code-server decide what workspace or folder to open?](#how-does-code-server-decide-what-workspace-or-folder-to-open)
|
|
- [How do I debug issues with code-server?](#how-do-i-debug-issues-with-code-server)
|
|
- [Heartbeat File](#heartbeat-file)
|
|
- [How does the config file work?](#how-does-the-config-file-work)
|
|
- [Blank screen on iPad?](#blank-screen-on-ipad)
|
|
- [Isn't an install script piped into sh insecure?](#isnt-an-install-script-piped-into-sh-insecure)
|
|
- [How do I make my keyboard shortcuts work?](#how-do-i-make-my-keyboard-shortcuts-work)
|
|
- [Differences compared to Theia?](#differences-compared-to-theia)
|
|
- [Enterprise](#enterprise)
|
|
|
|
<!-- END doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
|
|
|
|
## Questions?
|
|
|
|
Please file all questions and support requests at https://www.reddit.com/r/codeserver/.
|
|
|
|
The issue tracker is **only** for bugs and features.
|
|
|
|
## How can I reuse my VS Code configuration?
|
|
|
|
The very popular [Settings Sync](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Shan.code-settings-sync) extension works.
|
|
|
|
You can also pass `--data-dir ~/.vscode` to reuse your existing VS Code extensions and configuration.
|
|
|
|
Or copy `~/.vscode` into `~/.local/share/code-server`.
|
|
|
|
## Differences compared to VS Code?
|
|
|
|
`code-server` takes the open source core of VS Code and allows you to run it in the browser.
|
|
However, it is not entirely equivalent to Microsoft's VS Code.
|
|
|
|
While the core of VS Code is open source, the marketplace and many published Microsoft extensions are not.
|
|
|
|
Furthermore, Microsoft prohibits the use of any non-Microsoft VS Code from accessing their marketplace.
|
|
|
|
See the [TOS](https://cdn.vsassets.io/v/M146_20190123.39/_content/Microsoft-Visual-Studio-Marketplace-Terms-of-Use.pdf).
|
|
|
|
> Marketplace Offerings are intended for use only with Visual Studio Products and Services
|
|
> and you may only install and use Marketplace Offerings with Visual Studio Products and Services.
|
|
|
|
As a result, we cannot offer any extensions on the Microsoft marketplace. Instead,
|
|
we have created our own marketplace for open source extensions.
|
|
It works by scraping GitHub for VS Code extensions and building them. It's not perfect but getting
|
|
better by the day with more and more extensions.
|
|
|
|
These are the closed source extensions presently unavailable:
|
|
|
|
1. [Live Share](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/services/live-share)
|
|
- We may implement something similar, see [#33](https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/33)
|
|
1. [Remote Extensions (SSH, Containers, WSL)](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release)
|
|
- We may reimplement these at some point, see [#1315](https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1315)
|
|
|
|
For more about the closed source parts of VS Code, see [vscodium/vscodium](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium#why-does-this-exist).
|
|
|
|
## How can I request a missing extension?
|
|
|
|
Please open a new issue and select the `Extension request` template.
|
|
|
|
If an extension is not available or does not work, you can grab its VSIX from its Github releases or
|
|
build it yourself. Then run the `Extensions: Install from VSIX` command in the Command Palette and
|
|
point to the .vsix file.
|
|
|
|
See below for installing an extension from the cli.
|
|
|
|
## How do I configure the marketplace URL?
|
|
|
|
If you have your own marketplace that implements the VS Code Extension Gallery API, it is possible to
|
|
point code-server to it by setting `$SERVICE_URL` and `$ITEM_URL`. These correspond directly
|
|
to `serviceUrl` and `itemUrl` in VS Code's `product.json`.
|
|
|
|
While you can technically use Microsoft's marketplace with these, please do not do so as it
|
|
is against their terms of use. See [above](#differences-compared-to-vs-code). These variables
|
|
are most valuable to our enterprise customers for whom we have a self hosted marketplace product.
|
|
|
|
## Where are extensions stored?
|
|
|
|
Defaults to `~/.local/share/code-server/extensions`.
|
|
|
|
If the `XDG_DATA_HOME` environment variable is set the data directory will be
|
|
`$XDG_DATA_HOME/code-server/extensions`. In general we try to follow the XDG directory spec.
|
|
|
|
You can install an extension on the CLI with:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
# From the Coder extension marketplace
|
|
code-server --install-extension ms-python.python
|
|
|
|
# From a downloaded VSIX on the file system
|
|
code-server --install-extension downloaded-ms-python.python.vsix
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
## How is this different from VS Code Codespaces?
|
|
|
|
VS Code Codespaces is a closed source and paid service by Microsoft. It also allows you to access
|
|
VS Code via the browser.
|
|
|
|
However, code-server is free, open source and can be ran on any machine without any limitations.
|
|
|
|
While you can self host environments with VS Code Codespaces, you still need to an Azure billing
|
|
account and you access VS Code via the Codespaces web dashboard instead of directly connecting to
|
|
your instance.
|
|
|
|
## How should I expose code-server to the internet?
|
|
|
|
Please follow [./guide.md](./guide.md) for our recommendations on setting up and using code-server.
|
|
|
|
code-server only supports password authentication natively.
|
|
|
|
**note**: code-server will rate limit password authentication attempts at 2 a minute and 12 an hour.
|
|
|
|
If you want to use external authentication (i.e sign in with Google) you should handle this
|
|
with a reverse proxy using something like [oauth2_proxy](https://github.com/pusher/oauth2_proxy)
|
|
or [Cloudflare Access](https://teams.cloudflare.com/access).
|
|
|
|
For HTTPS, you can use a self signed certificate by passing in just `--cert` or
|
|
pass in an existing certificate by providing the path to `--cert` and the path to
|
|
the key with `--cert-key`.
|
|
|
|
If `code-server` has been passed a certificate it will also respond to HTTPS
|
|
requests and will redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS.
|
|
|
|
You can use [Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/) to get a TLS certificate
|
|
for free.
|
|
|
|
Again, please follow [./guide.md](./guide.md) for our recommendations on setting up and using code-server.
|
|
|
|
## How do I securely access web services?
|
|
|
|
code-server is capable of proxying to any port using either a subdomain or a
|
|
subpath which means you can securely access these services using code-server's
|
|
built-in authentication.
|
|
|
|
### Sub-paths
|
|
|
|
Just browse to `/proxy/<port>/`.
|
|
|
|
### Sub-domains
|
|
|
|
You will need a DNS entry that points to your server for each port you want to
|
|
access. You can either set up a wildcard DNS entry for `*.<domain>` if your domain
|
|
name registrar supports it or you can create one for every port you want to
|
|
access (`3000.<domain>`, `8080.<domain>`, etc).
|
|
|
|
You should also set up TLS certificates for these subdomains, either using a
|
|
wildcard certificate for `*.<domain>` or individual certificates for each port.
|
|
|
|
Start code-server with the `--proxy-domain` flag set to your domain.
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
code-server --proxy-domain <domain>
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Now you can browse to `<port>.<domain>`. Note that this uses the host header so
|
|
ensure your reverse proxy forwards that information if you are using one.
|
|
|
|
## Multi-tenancy
|
|
|
|
If you want to run multiple code-servers on shared infrastructure, we recommend using virtual
|
|
machines with a VM per user. This will easily allow users to run a docker daemon. If you want
|
|
to use kubernetes, you'll definitely want to use [kubevirt](https://kubevirt.io) to give each
|
|
user a virtual machine instead of just a container.
|
|
|
|
## Docker in code-server container?
|
|
|
|
If you'd like to access docker inside of code-server, mount the docker socket in from `/var/run/docker.sock`.
|
|
Install the docker CLI in the code-server container and you should be able to access the daemon!
|
|
|
|
You can even make volume mounts work. Lets say you want to run a container and mount in
|
|
`/home/coder/myproject` into it from inside the `code-server` container. You need to make sure
|
|
the docker daemon's `/home/coder/myproject` is the same as the one mounted inside the `code-server`
|
|
container and the mount will just work.
|
|
|
|
## How can I disable telemetry?
|
|
|
|
Use the `--disable-telemetry` flag to completely disable telemetry. We use the
|
|
data collected only to improve code-server.
|
|
|
|
## How does code-server decide what workspace or folder to open?
|
|
|
|
code-server tries the following in order:
|
|
|
|
1. The `workspace` query parameter.
|
|
2. The `folder` query parameter.
|
|
3. The workspace or directory passed on the command line.
|
|
4. The last opened workspace or directory.
|
|
|
|
## How do I debug issues with code-server?
|
|
|
|
First run code-server with at least `debug` logging (or `trace` to be really
|
|
thorough) by setting the `--log` flag or the `LOG_LEVEL` environment variable.
|
|
`-vvv` and `--verbose` are aliases for `--log trace`.
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
code-server --log debug
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Once this is done, replicate the issue you're having then collect logging
|
|
information from the following places:
|
|
|
|
1. stdout
|
|
2. The most recently created directory in the `~/.local/share/code-server/logs` directory.
|
|
3. The browser console and network tabs.
|
|
|
|
Additionally, collecting core dumps (you may need to enable them first) if
|
|
code-server crashes can be helpful.
|
|
|
|
## Heartbeat File
|
|
|
|
`code-server` touches `~/.local/share/code-server/heartbeat` once a minute as long
|
|
as there is an active browser connection.
|
|
|
|
If you want to shutdown `code-server` if there hasn't been an active connection in X minutes
|
|
you can do so by continuously checking the last modified time on the heartbeat file and if it is
|
|
older than X minutes, kill `code-server`.
|
|
|
|
[#1636](https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1636) will make the experience here better.
|
|
|
|
## How does the config file work?
|
|
|
|
When `code-server` starts up, it creates a default config file in `~/.config/code-server/config.yaml` that looks
|
|
like this:
|
|
|
|
```yaml
|
|
bind-addr: 127.0.0.1:8080
|
|
auth: password
|
|
password: mewkmdasosafuio3422 # This is randomly generated for each config.yaml
|
|
cert: false
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Each key in the file maps directly to a `code-server` flag. Run `code-server --help` to see
|
|
a listing of all the flags.
|
|
|
|
The default config here says to listen on the loopback IP port 8080, enable password authorization
|
|
and no TLS. Any flags passed to `code-server` will take priority over the config file.
|
|
|
|
The `--config` flag or `$CODE_SERVER_CONFIG` can be used to change the config file's location.
|
|
|
|
The default location also respects `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`.
|
|
|
|
## Blank screen on iPad?
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately at the moment self signed certificates cause a blank screen on iPadOS
|
|
|
|
There does seem to a way to get it to work if you create your own CA and create a
|
|
certificate using the CA and then import the CA onto your iPad.
|
|
|
|
See [#1566](https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1566#issuecomment-623159434).
|
|
|
|
## Isn't an install script piped into sh insecure?
|
|
|
|
Please give
|
|
[this wonderful blogpost](https://sandstorm.io/news/2015-09-24-is-curl-bash-insecure-pgp-verified-install) by
|
|
[sandstorm.io](https://sandstorm.io) a read.
|
|
|
|
## How do I make my keyboard shortcuts work?
|
|
|
|
Many shortcuts will not work by default as they'll be caught by the browser.
|
|
|
|
If you use Chrome you can get around this by installing the PWA.
|
|
|
|
Once you've entered the editor, click the "plus" icon present in the URL toolbar area.
|
|
This will install a Chrome PWA and now all keybindings will work!
|
|
|
|
For other browsers you'll have to remap keybindings unfortunately.
|
|
|
|
## Differences compared to Theia?
|
|
|
|
[Theia](https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia) is a browser IDE loosely based on VS Code. It uses the same
|
|
text editor library named [Monaco](https://github.com/Microsoft/monaco-editor) and the same
|
|
extension API but everything else is very different. It also uses [open-vsx.org](https://open-vsx.org)
|
|
for extensions which has an order of magnitude less extensions than our marketplace.
|
|
See [#1473](https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1473).
|
|
|
|
You can't just use your VS Code config in Theia like you can with code-server.
|
|
|
|
To summarize, code-server is a patched fork of VS Code to run in the browser whereas
|
|
Theia takes some parts of VS Code but is an entirely different editor.
|
|
|
|
## Enterprise
|
|
|
|
Visit [our enterprise page](https://coder.com) for more information about our
|
|
enterprise offerings.
|