Preinstall extensions in every workspace

Preinstall Visual Studio Code extensions in Che workspaces by configuring the DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS environment variable to provide a consistent set of editor extensions on workspace startup.

After startup, the editor checks for the DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS environment variable and installs the specified extensions in the background. To specify multiple extensions, separate the paths with a semicolon.

There are three ways to embed default .vsix extensions into your workspace:

Add the extension binary to the source repository.
Use the devfile postStart event to fetch extension binaries from the network.
Include the extensions' .vsix binaries in the che-code image.

Prerequisites

An active kubectl session with administrative permissions to the Kubernetes cluster. See Overview of kubectl.

Procedure

Add the extension binary to the source repository.

Adding the extension binary to the Git repository and defining the environment variable in the devfile is the easiest way to add default extensions to your workspace. If the extension.vsix file exists in the repository root, set the DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS environment variable for the tooling container in your .devfile.yaml:
```
schemaVersion: 2.3.0
metadata:
  generateName: example-project
components:
  - name: tools
    container:
      image: quay.io/devfile/universal-developer-image:ubi8-latest
      env:
        - name: 'DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS'
          value: '/projects/example-project/extension.vsix'
```

Use the devfile postStart event to fetch extension binaries from the network.

Use cURL or GNU Wget to download extensions to your workspace. Specify a devfile command to download extensions and add a postStart event to run the command on workspace startup. Define the DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS environment variable in the devfile:

schemaVersion: 2.3.0
metadata:
  generateName: example-project
components:
  - name: tools
    container:
      image: quay.io/devfile/universal-developer-image:ubi8-latest
      env:
        - name: DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS
          value: '/tmp/extension-1.vsix;/tmp/extension-2.vsix'

commands:
  - id: add-default-extensions
    exec:
      # name of the tooling container
      component: tools
      # download several extensions using curl
      commandLine: |
        curl https://.../extension-1.vsix --location -o /tmp/extension-1.vsix
        curl https://.../extension-2.vsix --location -o /tmp/extension-2.vsix

events:
  postStart:
    - add-default-extensions

In some cases curl may download a .gzip compressed file. This might make installing the extension impossible. To fix that, save the file as a .vsix.gz file and then decompress it with gunzip. This replaces the .vsix.gz file with an unpacked .vsix file: curl https://some-extension-url --location -o /tmp/extension.vsix.gz && gunzip /tmp/extension.vsix.gz

Include the extensions .vsix binaries in the che-code image.

Bundling extensions in the editor image and defining the DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS environment variable in a ConfigMap applies default extensions without changing the devfile.
1. Create a directory and place your selected .vsix extensions in this directory.
2. Create a Dockerfile with the following content:
  # inherit che-incubator/che-code:latest FROM quay.io/che-incubator/che-code:latest USER 0 # copy all .vsix files to /default-extensions directory RUN mkdir --mode=775 /default-extensions COPY --chmod=755 *.vsix /default-extensions/ # add instruction to the script to copy default extensions to the working container RUN echo "cp -r /default-extensions /checode/" >> /entrypoint-init-container.sh
3. Build the image and then push it to a registry:
  $ docker build -t yourname/che-code:next . $ docker push yourname/che-code:next
4. Add the new ConfigMap to the user’s namespace, define the DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS environment variable, and specify the absolute paths to the extensions. This ConfigMap sets the environment variable to all workspaces in the user’s namespace.
  kind: ConfigMap apiVersion: v1 metadata: name: vscode-default-extensions labels: controller.devfile.io/mount-to-devworkspace: 'true' controller.devfile.io/watch-configmap: 'true' annotations: controller.devfile.io/mount-as: env data: DEFAULT_EXTENSIONS: '/checode/default-extensions/extension1.vsix;/checode/default-extensions/extension2.vsix'
5. Open the Che Dashboard and navigate to the Create Workspace tab on the left side.
6. In the Editor Selector section, expand the Use an Editor Definition dropdown and set the editor URI to yourname/che-code:next.
7. Create a workspace by selecting a sample or entering a Git repository URL.

Verification

Verify that the extensions are installed in the workspace by checking the Extensions panel in the editor.

Additional resources