Code-server: How to persist plugins and similar stuff when using Docker?

[simonszu]

Just a small question:

The README explains that one has to mount /root/project as a host directory (or volume) to have a place to save their projects. Now i'd like to know where in the container the installed plugins, themes and VS Code settings are stored, so that i could mount it to a host directory (or volume) as well, to preserve installed plugins during container recreations.

I assume this is where -d, --data-dir initially points to, but where is that? If i just specify another folder and mount it, is code able to start up if this directory doesn't exist? If i mount an initally empty host directory to this path, will code be able to start up, not having problems with the folder's emptiness?

[uddmorningsun]

@simonszu You can see similar log info for README.md docker run command:

INFO  code-server development
INFO  Additional documentation: http://github.com/codercom/code-server
INFO  Initializing {"data-dir":"/root/.local/share/code-server","working-dir":"/root/project","log-dir":"/root/.cache/code-server/logs/20190312143205158"}
... ...

You should know about some docker mount volume. For example, I have installed extensions to test:

root@8665d72aeaea:~# ls .local/share/code-server/
CachedExtensions  dependencies  extensions  globalStorage  languagepacks.json  machineid  rapid_render.json  self-signed.cert  self-signed.key  User

root@8665d72aeaea:~# ls .local/share/code-server/extensions/
ms-python.python-2019.2.5558

So, you can do use similar command(e.g.: I use /home/centos/yancy to save data. Your code or workspace will in your current directory, you can also change it):

[yancy@localhost auto-deploy]$ docker run -t -v /home/centos/yancy:/root/.local/share/code-server/  -p 8443:8443 -v "${PWD}:/root/project" codercom/code-server --allow-http --no-aut
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[kylecarbs]

We'll be fixing this so binaries extract to a temporary location. Then you'll be able to share the data-dir

[sr229]

@simonszu One of the ways is using Bind volumes. You can bind it on the host HDD to the container for persistence.

[Rakiah]

Not sure my problem is similar, but even after installing an extension, .local/share/code-server/extensions/ is empty, after refreshing browser, the extension in vscode says its installed but it is greyed out, I have to uninstall it and reinstall it to have it working every time

[kylecarbs]

Everything now extracts to a tmp dir, mounting extensions should work! :confetti_ball: