Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a cross-platform text editor developed by Microsoft, built on the Electron framework.
For the free distribution of the VS Code codebase (without MS branding/telemetry) see VSCodium.
Installation
NixOS
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ vscode ];
Extensions can be managed using the 'vscode-with-extensions' package:
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
(vscode-with-extensions.override {
vscodeExtensions = with 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";
}
];
})
];
Some examples here: GitHub search for "extensionFromVscodeMarketplace"
It's also possible to install VS Code via Home Manager:
programs.vscode = {
enable = true;
extensions = with pkgs.vscode-extensions; [
dracula-theme.theme-dracula
vscodevim.vim
yzhang.markdown-all-in-one
];
};
- See for more options: Home Manager Manual: Options - programs.vscode
- Search for extensions with configurations: NixOS Search: vscode-extensions
Non-NixOS
$ nix-env -iA nixos.vscode
Use VS Code extensions without additional configuration
With the package vscode.fhs, the editor launches inside 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:
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ vscode.fhs ];
Home-manager:
programs.vscode = {
enable = true;
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 ]);
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 VS Code 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://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=insider&os=linux-x64";
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.
Wayland
To use VS Code under Wayland, 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";
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";
}
];
}
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 VS Code version, then you can install the nodejs-16_x package on the NixOS host and replace the VS Code 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 VS Code upstream requirements (NodeJS 16 required from 4/2022).
Nix-sourced VS Code 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 VS Code, like the Python package, require linters or other dependencies. The package nix-env-selector makes this easy and does not require overrides on VS Code itself to add dependencies.
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 your system configuration (even if you don't use Gnome as desktop environment):
/etc/nixos/configuration.nix
# needed for store VS Code auth token
services.gnome.gnome-keyring.enable = true;
Optional: add gnome.seahorse to environment.systemPackages to install GUI for GNOME Keyring.
Don't forget to perform nixos-rebuild switch and reboot the system.
Server did not start successfully
Server did not start successfully. Full server log at /home/user/.vscode-server/.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.log
server log:
/home/user/.vscode-server/bin/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/bin/code-server: line 12: /home/user/.vscode-server/bin/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/node: No such file or directory
"No such file or directory" means that libc is not found, see
ldd ~/.vscode-server/bin/*/node
try to run the node binary on the server
~/.vscode-server/bin/*/node
if this fails, install node version 16, and try to patch the node binary
nix-env -iA nixos.nodejs-16_x
#! /bin/sh
# fix-vscode-server-node.sh
# https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/648#issuecomment-503148523
cd ~/.vscode-server/bin/*
if ! ./node -e "require('process').exit(0)"
then
echo patching node binary $(readlink -f node)
rm node
ln -s $(which node)
else
echo node is working $(readlink -f node)
fi