VSCode Remote Explorer Setup

Description:

Continuing from my previous post about setting up a laptop, this post is how I setup SSH connections from a remote server to our organizations Azure Devops instance using VSCode’s Remote Explorer extension.

To Resolve:

1. So by the end of that post, you should have:
   • choco installed user programs
   • OpenSSH Client installed
   • VScode configured with ms-vscode-remote

2. Now, generate a SSH key pair and copy the public portion to your clipboard

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"
   ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
   # copy ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to clipboard
   

   • Add the ssh key to your AzDo account.

3. After getting access to your server add this to your .ssh/config:

   Host computer.domain.com
      HostName computer.domain.com
      User myuser
      ForwardAgent yes
   

4. Before connecting remote, make sure SSH keys added locally to your SSH Auth agent:

   $Service = Get-Service -Name "SSH-Agent"
   
   If ( $Service.Status -eq "Stopped" )
   {
      Write-Output "SSH Agent service was stopped, starting..."
      Start-Service $Service
      Write-Output "SSH Agent service was stopped, starting...Completed"
   }
   
   Write-Output "Running ssh-add..."
   ssh-add -l
   Write-Output "Running ssh-add...Completed"
   

   • I had done a few things locally before connecting that may or may not be required:

   • Set service to automatic:

   Set-Service ssh-agent -StartupType Automatic
   Start-Service ssh-agent
   

   • Also, I had created a fake service so I don’t have to install ssh server on windows (not sure if this is needed): sc.exe create sshd binPath=C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe

   • Also I had connected one time manually through powershell before setting everything up through VScode by using the -A switch which forwards SSH Auth: ssh me@computer.domain.com -A

5. Once I have my SSH keys added locally to my SSH Auth agent and have SSH’d into the remote server using VSCode’s Remote Explorer extension, I have a few tasks I need to setup:

   • Create a directory /home/myuser/repo/
   • Create a .gitconfig with a user.name and user.email set so I can start pulling repos without providing that information every time.
   • After changing to that directory, I then start pulling down repos from my Azure Devops instance:

   cd /home/myuser/repo/
   git clone git@ssh.dev.azure.com:v3/MyOrg/MyProject/MyRepo1
   # creates folder MyRepo1
   git clone git@ssh.dev.azure.com:v3/MyOrg/MyProject/MyRepo2
   # creates folder MyRepo2
   

   • Then I create a script called /home/myuser/pull.sh like this:

   cd /home/myuser/repo/myrepo1
   git checkout main
   git remote prune origin
   git pull origin main
   
   cd /home/myuser/repo/myrepo2
   git checkout master
   git remote prune origin
   git pull origin master
   
   # ommiting many others
   
   cd /home/myuser/
   
   

   • I know I can create a list of repos where my trunk branch is main and another where my trunk branch is master and then do a for loop but I don’t mind just copy/paste/tweaking the scripts sometimes.
6. Next, after I have all my repos synced to the linux box, I wanted a way to SSH directly into a specific folder on the remote server instead of my /home/myuser/repo/ folder which has like 20+ repos and will generate a long tree in my VScode’s Explorer view. Here is how I added “shortcuts” in my Remote Explorer:
   • First I ssh’d to my remote server to the /home/myuser/ folder the same as before.
   • Next, in the remote SSH Vscode window, I went to File => Open Folder and pointed to the path of one of my repos /home/myuser/repo/myrepo1
   • Next, it prompted me for the password again and it opened up a window scoped to just that path.
   • Now, you can exit all vscode windows from your local machine and it will just “show up” in the Remote Explorer view under your target server.
   • Cool, but like I said, I have 20+ repos, do I have to do this for all of them? I think so :/ , at the time of this writing I don’t know of any other way to bulk add a bunch of remote folders.
7. But I did find a way to make it somewhat faster, you just keep ‘looping’ from one folder to the next once you connect to the Remote SSH vscode window:
   • SSH into your remote server and from that SSH session:
   • Click on File => Open Folder and then put in a full path like /home/myuser/repo/myrepo1
   • Enter your credentials
   • Then from THAT window, click on File => Open Folder and then put in a full path like /home/myuser/repo/myrepo2
   • And keep doing this over and over …
   • When you are done, your host computer’s Remote Explorer should have a “shortcut” for all folders you looped through instead of repeating the previous step 20+ times.