Notes - Self-hosting VSCode code-server and researching various text editors

ChromeOS doesn’t have a basic text editor built-in and I think I removed the Google option. I don’t need anything advanced. I just need something for viewing text, html, markdown, yaml, and other misc. files I download on the device for review. I just need to be able to make quick edits to various text files with limited markup and then copy/paste into the terminal or an email.

This is more than just for the chromebook. I bounce around a lot of PCs in the house and I want a consistent editor on every device, regardless of what state the PC is in or if it is someone’s elses PC on my LAN.

Technically, this would also be a replacement for a pastebin, which I am currently using Microbin.

My wishlist:

• Import/upload documents from browser.
• Format and text highlighting for various markup languages.
• Download file.
• Leave file and access from other machines.
• Ideally no database.

VSCode server

This is the server version of vscode. I am using the LSIO code-server in production.

Reqs match:

• ✅ Import/upload documents in browser UI
• ✅ Text highlighting
• ✅ Download file
• ✅ Access same file from other devices
• ✅ No database

Although this setup is much more resource intensive than the options below, it actually checks all of the boxes for my reqs. I chose this over VSCodium because that container is a full KASM desktop. So, uploading is clunky and downloading is even worse. It is technically possible, but running the regular code-server solves both of those problems.

One neat thing that the code-server does that I have discovered since using is you can work with local files. This means you can open a local file with ctrl-o and it will save the edits locally. On my chromebook I can open a file in the browser, edit, and save. When done, I don’t have to re-download the file as it has saved all the edits locally.

Neat.

Setup

https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/code-server https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-code-server

Since I’m not setting up a plain text editor and using a full IDE, I want to pass some paths from the host machine to editor so I can just open and edit. Passing these paths will allow me to quickly edit files in my NFS shares around the lab.

• $PATH/remote_systems/nas
• $PATH/remote_systems/scratch
• $PATH/docker_compose
• $PATH/docker_config

Here is the compose file:

---
services:
  code-server:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/code-server:latest
    container_name: code-server
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
      - PASSWORD=[REDACTED]
      - PROXY_DOMAIN=[REDACTED]
      - DEFAULT_WORKSPACE=/config/workspace
    volumes:
      - $HOME/docker_config/code-server:/config
      - $HOME/remote_systems/nas:/nas_storage
      - $HOME/remote_systems/scratch:/LAN_storage
      - $HOME/docker_compose:/docker_compose
      - $HOME/docker_config:/docker_config
    ports:
      - [REDACTED]:8443
    restart: unless-stopped

Other research

While choosing what editor to run, I researched several others. Below are my notes on each.

Etherpad

Tested at desk and is basic. It saves the file in the browser cache, but doesn’t connect to any background files. You can copy/paste text or import a file. It is centered around collaboration, so has built-in chat and recording history of changes.

One line to run:

docker run -d --name=etherpad -e TZ=America/Los_Angeles -p 9001:9001 etherpad/etherpad

Lots of other options for the config. They don’t recommend using the db it comes with, which is a turn off for me. I don’t want a database to begin with.

Reqs match:

• ✅ Import/upload documents in browser UI
• ⛔️ Text highlighting
• ✅ Download file
• ✅ Access same file from other devices
• ⛔️ No database

Dumbpad

https://github.com/DumbWareio/DumbPad

Very close. Setup is easy and no database requirements. Has a big list of text highlighting and can do markdown previews. Technically you can import files, but you have to drop them into the folder accessible by the container. This means its possible to use, but would be a huge PITA.

Reqs match:

• ⛔️ Import/upload documents in browser UI
• ✅ Text highlighting
• ✅ Download file
• ✅ Access same file from other devices
• ✅ No database

Rustpad

Tried and skipping. No import or download option. Disappointing because the container size is minuscule and runs fast.

Has a dropdown for selecting the language of the doc and will do good text highlighting. Makes it even more of a shame.

https://github.com/ekzhang/rustpad

Reqs match:

• ⛔️ Import/upload documents in browser UI
• ✅ Text highlighting
• ⛔️ Download file
• ✅ Access same file from other devices
• ✅ No database

Ghostboard

Close. Can’t download files.

https://github.com/jon6fingrs/ghostboard

Reqs match:

• ✅ Import/upload documents in browser UI
• ⛔️ Text highlighting
• ⛔️ Download file
• ✅ Access same file from other devices
• ✅ No database

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