Install code-server (VS Code for web) on Linux with Nginx

VS Code is the code editor of choice for many. However, when we want to do quick edits on some files on a remote server, and there is no access to VS Code, it becomes a bit of a hassle.

Also, sometimes VS Code is not accessible on a particular system and we might still want to be able to access local files and folders using VS Code.

This is where code-server is invaluable.

Installation

Initially, before installing code-server it’s helpful to see if all requirements are met.

To do this, run

curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --dry-run

The output of this will tell if everything is fine.

To install code-server, run

curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh

Configuration

The configuration file is in

~/.config/code-server/config.yaml

This file should be created, if not already there.

The contents of this file should be

bind-addr: 127.0.0.1:1234
auth: password
password: <Your complex password>
cert: false

Choose the port according to what is available. The password should be complex e.g. at least 12 characters long with a mix of alphabets, numbers and special characters.

Nginx configuration

Since we want to run code-server on https behind Nginx, the nginx configuration file can be

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;

    server_name     code.yourdomain.com;
    server_tokens off;

    ssl_certificate <path to ssl cert>;
    ssl_certificate_key <path to ssl key>;

    error_log       /var/log/nginx/vs-code-server_error.log;
    access_log      /var/log/nginx/vs-code-server_access.log;

    location / {
      proxy_pass http://localhost:1234/;
      proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
      proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header Connection upgrade;
      proxy_set_header Accept-Encoding gzip;
    }
}

After saving this file, ensure nginx is tested

nginx -t

and reloaded

nginx -s reload

Running code-server

If code-server needs to be run only occasionally, the command is

code-server

This runs it in the foreground and Ctrl+C stops it.

If it has to be run continuously in the background and should also restart on reboot, the command is

sudo systemctl enable --now code-server@$USER

Test it from the browser

Now that both code-server is running and nginx has been reloaded, going to https://code.yourdomain.com should show VS Code running in the browser.

Uninstall code-server

To uninstall code-server completely, delete everything in the /usr/lib/code-server folder.

Kill all code-server processes using

kill -9 code-server