Visual Studio Code
For the free distribution of the vscode codebase (without MS branding/telemetry) see VSCodium.
Installing Microsoft's Visual Studio Code
With Home Manager
If you are using Home Manager, you will want to modify your home.nix (or a file inherited by it). Example:
~/home.nix
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
programs.home-manager.enable = true;
... # More of your home-manager config
programs = {
... # Start of your programs config
vscode = {
enable = true;
package = pkgs.vscodium; # You can skip this if you want to use the unfree version
extensions = with pkgs.vscode-extensions; [
# Some example extensions...
dracula-theme.theme-dracula
vscodevim.vim
yzhang.markdown-all-in-one
];
}
... # Rest of your programs config
}
... # Rest of your home-manager config
}
- See for more options: Home Manager Manual: Options - programs.vscode
- Search for extensions with configurations: NixOS Search: vscode-extensions
Insiders Build
If you need to test a recent code change, you can run the insiders build. It is designed to run alongside the main build, with a separate code-insiders command and a different config path, so you can leave your main VSCode instance installed/running.
The following derivation thanks to @jnoortheen, which you can add to home.packages (HM), environment.systemPackages (NixOS), etc, builds a package with the latest insiders.
(pkgs.vscode.override{ isInsiders = true; }).overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: rec {
src = (builtins.fetchTarball {
url = "https://update.code.visualstudio.com/latest/linux-x64/insider";
sha256 = "1dajhfsdr55mfnj12clf5apy1d4swr71d3rfwlq2hvvmpxvxsa59";
});
version = "latest";
});
You will need to update the sha256 value for each new insiders build. The new value will appear in a validation error when you try to build.
With nix-env
Because it is NixOS, you don't have to be root in order to be able to install stuff. As a normal user, do:
$ nix-env -iA nixos.vscode
And to open or launch the IDE, do:
$ code
Wayland
If you are running Wayland, you may see a blank screen when starting vscode.
To fix this, set the environment variable NIXOS_OZONE_WL=1:
- temporary fix: run via the terminal:
$ NIXOS_OZONE_WL=1 code ...
- permanent fix: add to your NixOS configuration:
environment.sessionVariables.NIXOS_OZONE_WL = "1";
Managing extensions
Extensions can be managed using the 'vscode-with-extensions' package:
{ pkgs, ... }:
let
extensions = (with pkgs.vscode-extensions; [
bbenoist.nix
ms-python.python
ms-azuretools.vscode-docker
ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh
]) ++ pkgs.vscode-utils.extensionsFromVscodeMarketplace [{
name = "remote-ssh-edit";
publisher = "ms-vscode-remote";
version = "0.47.2";
sha256 = "1hp6gjh4xp2m1xlm1jsdzxw9d8frkiidhph6nvl24d0h8z34w49g";
}];
vscode-with-extensions = pkgs.vscode-with-extensions.override {
vscodeExtensions = extensions;
};
in {
config = {
environment.systemPackages = [
vscode-with-extensions
];
};
}
Some useful examples here: GitHub search for "extensionFromVscodeMarketplace"
Updating extension versions
Nixpkgs contains a script which will run code --list-extensions, then look for the latest available versions of those extensions, and output a list which you can add to your Nix config in a format similar to the above. To use it, clone the nixpkgs repo from github, and run: nixpkgs/pkgs/applications/editors/vscode/extensions/update_installed_exts.sh
Example output:
❯ ./nixpkgs/pkgs/applications/editors/vscode/extensions/update_installed_exts.sh
... # it does some fetching and then outputs the list...
{ extensions = [
{
name = "project-manager";
publisher = "alefragnani";
version = "12.4.0";
sha256 = "0q6zkz7pqz2prmr01h17h9a5q6cn6bjgcxggy69c84j8h2w905wy";
}
{
name = "githistory";
publisher = "donjayamanne";
version = "0.6.18";
sha256 = "01lc9gpqdjy6himn7jsfjrfz8xrk728c20903lxkxy5fliv232gz";
}
... # the output for the rest of your extensions
];
}%
Remote SSH
The remote-ssh extension works by connecting to a remote host and downloading scripts and pre-built binaries to $HOME/.vscode-server. When first launching remote-ssh for a NixOS host the connection will fail due to the provided node.js not having been built for a NixOS system (the dynamic libraries aren't in the same place).
Any client to NixOS host
tl;dr Use nix-vscode-server on host machines.
Note that nix-vscode-server works as of 8/21/21 but is occasionally broken (See https://github.com/msteen/nixos-vscode-server/pull/3, https://github.com/msteen/nixos-vscode-server/pull/4, https://github.com/msteen/nixos-vscode-server/pull/5). Here's a workaround: Install the nodejs-16_x package on the NixOS host, and then run the following nix-shell script:
#! /usr/bin/env nix-shell
#! nix-shell --pure -i runghc -p "haskellPackages.ghcWithPackages (pkgs: [ pkgs.turtle ])"
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
import Turtle
main = sh $ do
homedir <- home
subdir <- ls $ homedir </> ".vscode-server/bin/"
let nodepath = subdir </> "node"
badnode <- isNotSymbolicLink nodepath
if badnode
then do
mv nodepath (subdir </> "node_backup")
symlink "/run/current-system/sw/bin/node" nodepath
echo ("Fixed " <> repr subdir)
else do
echo ("Already fixed " <> repr subdir)
If instead you'd prefer to fix the binaries manually and have to do so every time that you upgrade your VSCode version, then you can install the nodejs-16_x package on the NixOS host and replace the VSCode provided version. This workaround is described here: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/648#issuecomment-503148523. Note that nodejs needs to be updated according to VSCode upstream requirements (nodejs 16 required from 4/2022).
Nix-sourced VSCode to NixOS host
If vscode-remote is installed from nix (vscode-extensions.ms-vscode-remote as above) on the client machine, everything should "just work".
Using nix-shell
Some features of VSCode, like the Python package, require linters or other dependencies. The package nix-env-selector makes this easy and does not require overrides on vscode itself to add dependencies.
Use VSCode extensions without additional configuration
In #99968, vscode-fhs and vscodium-fhs packages were added in which the editors launch inside of a FHS compliant chroot environment using buildFHSUserEnv. This reintroduces directories such as /bin, /lib/, and /usr, which allows for extensions which ship pre-compiled binaries to work with little to no additional nixification.
Example usage:
$ nix-shell -p vscode-fhs --run code
Home-manager:
programs.vscode.enable = true;
programs.vscode.package = pkgs.vscode-fhs;
Adding extension-specific dependencies, these will be added to the FHS environment:
# needed for rust lang server extension
programs.vscode.package = pkgs.vscode-fhsWithPackages (ps: with ps; [ rustup zlib ]);
Troubleshooting
Error after Sign On
If you get such an error after sign on in application:
Writing login information to the keychain failed with error 'The name org.freedesktop.secret was not provided by any .service files'.
Try to add the following setting in you system configuration (even if you don't use Gnome as desktop environment):
/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
# needed for store VSCode auth token
services.gnome.gnome-keyring.enable = true;
Optional: add gnome.seahorse to environment.systemPackages to install GUI for GNOME Keyring.
Don't forget perform nixos-rebuild switch and reboot system.