Remote Development with Linux

Linux is a highly variable environment and the large number of server, container, and desktop distributions can make it difficult to know what is supported. Visual Studio Code Remote Development has prerequisites for the specific host / container / WSL distribution you will be connecting to.

The extensions are known to work when connecting to recent stable/LTS version of:

• Ubuntu 64-bit x86, ARMv8l (AArch64) (20.04+)
• Debian 64-bit x86, ARMv8l (AArch64) (Buster/10+)
• Raspberry Pi OS ARMv7l (AArch32) 32-bit (Buster/10+) (previously called Raspbian)
• CentOS / RHEL 64-bit x86 (8+)
• Alpine Linux 64-bit x86 containers or WSL hosts (3.16+) in Dev Containers, WSL

The following non-Linux SSH hosts are also supported:

• Windows 10/11 / Server 2016/2019 SSH hosts (1803+) using theofficial OpenSSH Server.
• macOS 10.14+ (Mojave) SSH hosts with Remote Login enabled.

However, if you are using a non-standard configuration or downstream distribution of Linux, you may run into issues. This document provides information on requirements as well as tips to help you get up and running even if your configuration is only community-supported.

Note thatother extensions may have dependencies beyond those listed here. Some extensions also contain compiled native code thatmay not work on Alpine Linux, or ARMv7 (AArch32), or ARMv8 (AArch64). These platforms are considered in "preview" for this reason. If you encounter an issue that only occurs with a particular extension,contact the extension authors for information on their native dependencies.

Local Linux prerequisites

If you are running Linux locally, theVS Code prerequisites drive most of the requirements.

In addition, specific Remote Development extensions have further requirements:

• Remote - SSH:ssh needs to be in the path. The shell binary is typically in theopenssh-client package.
• Dev Containers: Docker CE/EE 18.06+ and Docker Compose 1.21+. Follow theofficial install instructions for Docker CE/EE for your distribution. If you are using Docker Compose, follow theInstall Docker Compose directions as well. (Note that the Ubuntu Snap package is not supported and packages in distributions may be out of date.)docker anddocker-compose must also be in the path. However, Docker does not need to be running if you areusing a remote host. You can learn more about ways to configure Docker in theDev Containers documentation.

Remote host / container / WSL Linux prerequisites

Platform prerequisites are primarily driven by the version of theNode.js runtime (and by extension theV8 JavaScript engine) shipped in the server component automatically installed on each remote endpoint. This server also has a set of related native node modules that need to be compiled and tested for each target.64-bit x86 glibc-based Linux distributions currently provide the best support given these requirements.

You may encounter issues with certain extensions with native dependencies withARMv7l (AArch32) / ARMv8l (AArch64) glibc-based hosts, containers, or WSL and64-bit x86 musl-based Alpine Linux. For ARMv7l/ARMv8l, extensions may only include x86_64 versions of native modules or runtimes in the extension. For Alpine Linux, included native code or runtimes may not work due tofundamental differences between howlibc is implemented in Alpine Linux (musl) and other distributions (glibc). In both these cases, extensions will need to opt-in to supporting these platforms by compiling / including binaries for these additional targets. Please raise an issue with the appropriate extension author requesting support if you encounter an extension that does not work as expected.

Tips by Linux distribution

The following is a list of distributions and any base requirements that may be missing. End-of-life versions of distributions are not included.

• ✅ = Working
• ⚠️ = Working, but see note for limitations
• 🔬 = Experimental
• 🛑 = Unsupported, but has workaround
• ❌ = Unsupported

Questions or feedback

• SeeTips and Tricks or theFAQ.
• Search onStack Overflow.
• Add afeature request orreport a problem.
• Create aDev Container Template orFeature for others to use.
• Contribute toour documentation orVS Code itself.
• See ourCONTRIBUTING guide for details.