Code Server (Vs code online)

robi

The other option here is to use something like Sysbox to enable DockerInDocker (DinD) type functionality, which can then separate and isolate the addon services needed for dev/test in a nested way, keeping the app lean.

dswd

@robi Do you have any experience with docker-in-docker on Cloudron?

infogulch

I think we should collaborate on a minimal base docker image that only contains the installation of code-server, and then design a solution to allow adding dev dependencies on top of it as required by each end-user.

Say, first lift all the code-server-specific improvements from murgero's image into dswd's image and publish it at cloudron/code-server-base. Then murgero's image starts with FROM cloudron/code-server-base and adds their unique dev dependencies and publishes it separately. The key will be improve the image build, installation, and updating process to be as smooth as the usual app install process. (The cli is great for cloudron development, but kinda cumbersome for ongoing maintenance.)

Based on the way code-server is designed I doubt it could ever be a multi-user app. There is some discussion on code-server multi-tenancy on Setting up code-server for multi-tenancy #792. In summary, it doesn't seem viable and the discussion quickly shifts towards how to set up and manage a container-per-user design, which is an area that I think Cloudron could add a lot of value.

Perhaps both of these problems could be solved by creating a custom app that uses the cloudron api to expose an easier way to spin up code-server apps for users on demand, using the images designated by the admin.

code-server is a good use-case for proxyAuth. I think it would be neat if we could forward some path to a port inside the container to allow users to hit a dev web server running inside.

dswd

@infogulch
My current code already uses proxyAuth and adds TCP and UDP ports for dev that you can freely assign.
Please tell me what you think is missing and I will add it.

murgero

@infogulch said in Code Server (Vs code online):

I think it would be neat if we could forward some path to a port inside the container to allow users to hit a dev web server running inside.

code-server natively supports this already, just simply logging in and then browsing to https://fqdn-of-app/proxy/portNumber example: https://vscode.example.com/proxy/8080 would put you on port 8080 inside the app. So if you had an app or something running on that port, it's http data would be displayed like normal.

infogulch

@murgero said in Code Server (Vs code online):

code-server natively supports this already ... https://fqdn-of-app/proxy/portNumber

Oh neat, I'm glad they landed on that, that's a good solution. Perhaps a proxyAuth implementation should exclude the proxy path with something like "proxyAuth": { "path": "!/proxy" }.

Perhaps this is a bit to early to worry about, but at some point we might consider restricting the app proxy's access to cloudron cookies with domain or path parameters.

robi

@dswd no, has not been implemented.

Lookup this discussion on Sysbox.

girish

@murgero @dswd what are the extra packages that are pre-installed? If it's not too big, maybe we can compromise and just install it all in one. It's more important to be useful to more number people than be minimal (of course, everything has a limit..).

I wonder if the right approach here is something like JupyterHub. What that project does is to have a "workspace manager" with a login screen. When logged in, it spins up a new "notebook docker container" for each user. This way the user can install whatever packages they want in that docker image. See https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub . I guess in our case if the size is limiting, maybe we should write a VsCodeHub which when logged in, spins off a vs code container for each user. This makes the app properly multi-user.

murgero

@girish

My package includes a ton of extra packages to cover the most popular programming and scripting choices. (Some are actually already in the Cloudron base image, which I use.)

GOLANG
PHP7.4 (PHP8.0 will be included soon!)
Python
PowerShell
DotNet Core (C#, VB.NET, etc) (.NET Full will be included soon as well since full supports Linux now I believe)
R
R-lang
NodeJS (Updated to latest)

I am probably missing a couple but I wanted to make sure a lot of the popular stuff was covered here.

Chilipp

Hey everyone! I just did want to ask about the current progress on this package. Is there already a roadmap for an official release in the app store? Or is this still under heavy development?

murgero

@chilipp Currently still under development. You're more than welcome to test it out if you would like!

Chilipp

@murgero I will! Thanks

Chilipp

@murgero thanks a lot for your work! Works like a charm

I have some suggestions for improvement. Would you prefer discussion on Github via Issues and PRs or here in this forum?

murgero

@chilipp I think issues on github make more sense (at least until it becomes a proper cloudron package)

Enabl.ist

Hi!

Would this help?

https://www.gitpod.io/blog/openvscode-server-launch
https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server/

fbartels

@enabl-ist was curious if this is related to "code server", but it seems to be something newly done without any relations to the existing project.

https://github.com/cdr/code-server/discussions/4267

similar discussion in the "openvscode" project https://github.com/gitpod-io/openvscode-server/discussions/99

Enabl.ist

@fbartels indeed it looks like two different projects, with (kind of) the same goal... What I read is that the gitpod version is more simplified in features. I haven't had time to test it myself, just wanted to let the community know of this similar project.