Host: Your local machine;

Server: The server you want to install VSCode Server on.

Background: Host is connected to internet, with VSCode and extensions (Remote - SSH, Remote - Containers, etc.) installed. Server is not connected to internet, but can be accessed by Host through SSH.

1. Offline Installation of vscode-server

1.1. VSCode Version and Commit-ID

If your vscode binary is in env:PATH, you can get the version and commit-id by running the following command:

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code --version

Or if not, open vscode, click Help => About, find the version and commit-id in the pop-up window:

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1.2. If Your VSCode Version is Less than 1.19 (e.g, 1.18.1)

Download vscode-server-linux-x64 with the following link and send it to the server:

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# If Linux
wget https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:<commit-id>/server-linux-x64/stable
# Or Windows
curl -O https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:<commit-id>/server-linux-x64/stable
# Send "./stable" from host to "~" on server and rename it to "~/vscode-server.tar.gz"
scp -P <port> ./stable <username>@<server-ip>:~/vscode-server.tar.gz

On the Server:

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# Create directory "~/.vscode-server/bin"
mkdir -p ~/.vscode-server/bin 
# Extract "~/vscode-server.tar.gz" to "~/.vscode-server/bin"
cd ~/.vscode-server/bin/ && tar -xzf ~/vscode-server.tar.gz
# Rename the extracted directory to "~/.vscode-server/bin/<commit-id>"
mv ./vscode-server-linux-x64 ./<commit-id>

Go back to host and connect to your server again, and everything should be okay.

1.3. If Your VSCode Version is Greater than 1.19

Download vscode-server-linux-x64 with the following link and send it to the server:

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# If Linux
wget https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:<commit-id>/server-linux-x64/stable
# Or Windows
curl -O https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:<commit-id>/server-linux-x64/stable
# Send "./stable" from host to "~" on server and rename it to "~/vscode-server.tar.gz"
scp -P <port> ./stable <username>@<server-ip>:~/vscode-server.tar.gz

Download vscode-cli with the following link and send it to the server:

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# If Linux
wget https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:<commit-id>/cli-alpine-x64/stable
# Or Windows
curl -O https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:<commit-id>/cli-alpine-x64/stable
# Send "./stable" from host to "~" on server and rename it to "~/vscode-cli.tar.gz"
scp -P <port> ./stable <username>@<server-ip>:~/vscode-cli.tar.gz

On the Server:

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# Create directory "~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-<commit-id>"
mkdir -p ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-<commit-id>
# Extract "~/vscode-cli.tar.gz" to "~/.vscode-server"
cd ~/.vscode-server && tar -xzf ~/vscode-cli.tar.gz
# Rename the extracted binary to "~/.vscode-server/code-<commit-id>"
mv ./code ./code-<commit-id>
# Extract "~/vscode-server.tar.gz" to "~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-<commit-id>"
cd ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-<commit-id> && tar -xzf ~/vscode-server.tar.gz
# Rename ".../vscode-server-linux-x64" to ".../server"
mv ./vscode-server-linux-x64 ./server

Go back to host and connect to your server again, and everything should be okay.

2. Install extensions

On the host, compress the local extension directory ~/.vscode/extensions and send it to the server.

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tar -cJf extensions.tar.xz ~/.vscode/extensions
scp -P <port> extensions.tar.xz <username>@<server-ip>:~/

On the Server, extract the archive to ~/.vscode-server/extensions/:

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tar -xf ~/extensions.tar.xz -C ~/.vscode-server/

Modify ~/.vscode-server/extensions/extensions.json, replace all the extention paths to ~/.vscode-server/extensions/.

Reconnect to the server, and you can use vscode server with all the extensions installed.