VSCode

'Visual Studio Code' (not to be confused with 'Visual Studio') or 'VSCode', is a popular editor/IDE with many useful extensions. The 'Remote' extension allows you to connect to a remote computer (like NeSI).

Setup

Linux / MacOSWindows

1. Make sure you have set up an ~/.ssh/config file as described in Terminal Setup.
2. In VSCode, open the 'Extensions' Tab, search remote and make sure you have 'Remote - SSH' and 'Remote Explorer' by Microsoft, installed.

1. Set up WSL as described in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
2. In VSCode, open the 'Extensions' Tab, search remote and make sure you have 'Remote - SSH' and 'Remote Explorer' by Microsoft installed.
3. Still in the 'Extensions' Tab, search wsl and make sure you have 'WSL' by Microsoft installed.
4. In C:\Users\<username> create a file named ssh.bat with the following contents.

   C:\Windows\system32\wsl.exe ssh %*
   

   Where <username> is your username.
5. In VSCode, open your configuration file by pressing ctrl + shift + P, then typing user settings json and selecting "Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)"
6. Add the following to the config file opened

   "remote.SSH.configFile": "\\\\wsl$\\<distro>\\home\\<username>\\.ssh\\config",
   "remote.SSH.path": "C:\\Users\\<username>\\ssh.bat",
   "security.allowedUNCHosts": ["wsl$", "wsl.localhost"],
   

   Where <username> is your username and <distro> is your installed WSL distribution (e.g. Ubuntu-20.04).
7. Make sure the config file is valid JSON (e.g. each keypair is followed by a , and is in between the enclosing {}), then save.
8. From inside a WSL terminal follow the steps to set up an ~/.ssh/config file as described in Terminal Setup, in your subsystem install.

Tip

You may want to set "remote.SSH.showLoginTerminal": true as VSCode does not always correclty identify when a login prompt is presented.

Connecting

Under the 'Remote Explorer' Tab on the left, you should now see the NeSI machines (as well as any other machines configured in your ~/.ssh/config file)

Clicking on these will open a connection to that machine, you will then be prompted for your password and second factor, as per usual.

Warning

As VSCode will continue attempting to reconnect after a failure, take care that you do-not get locked out for too many failed login attempts.

Changing Software Versions

Environment Modules

You may find that VSCode is not utilising your preferred versions of software (e.g. when debugging or linting your Python code).

As the NeSI cluster utilises Environment Modules, changing the executable used is not just a matter of changing the path in VSCode configuration, as the libraries required will not be loaded.

The only way to make sure that VSCode has access to a suitable environment, is to load the required modules in your ~/.bashrc

For example, if you use Python/3.11.3-gimkl-2022a in your SLURM scripts, and wish to use the VSCode plugins with this version of Python you will need to add module load Python/3.11.3-gimkl-2022a at the end of your ~/.bashrc then restart VSCode.

Warning

Commands in your ~/.bashrc are run whenever a new shell is opened, meaning every Slurm job, every terminal session in Jupyter or via SSH will be affected. Make sure to have module purge in any Slurm scripts that may be affected by changes in loaded modules.

Using Virtual Environments

Setting up virtual environments on remote machines follows the same steps as for on your local machine, however you will still have to load your desired version of Python / Conda using the method described in Changing Software Versions - Environment Modules.

Killing VSCode

As VSCode operates spawns a server running on the cluster, closing your local client will not necessarily lead to all processes being stopped on the cluster. This is not usually a problem, as the processes do not use much resources, however sometimes you may want a clean start (e.g. after changing modules in your ~/.bashrc).

From the cluster, running the command

killall code

Will end all your VSCode related processes.

Warning

This will end all tasks running in the integrated terminal, and your connection to the cluster will be lost.