Default vscode extensions in Docker image?

[ZachNew]

Is there an easy way to specify default extensions to install when creating a docker image? I'm building a standardized dev env for a team and they will have requests for some basic extensions to come pre-installed in the image. Anyone have an easy way to accomplish this?

[MohamedElashri]

I think the easiest way for a dev env is that you use gitpod/openvscode-server image as an image base and then install all packages and extensions you need in your new Dockerfile and then build your own image.

[ZachNew]

This was my thought as well and at this point I have that mostly setup. Now I'm struggling with how to install extensions programmatically. If I try something like

RUN /home/openvscode-server-v1.60.2-linux-x64/bin/code --install-extension ms-python.python

I get the following error:

Missing VSCODE_IPC_HOOK_CLI
The command '/bin/sh -c /home/openvscode-server-v1.60.2-linux-x64/bin/code --install-extension hediet.vscode-drawio' returned a non-zero code: 1

And I haven't been able to find documentation on this error yet. Anyone have a idea?

[MohamedElashri]

I got the same error and seems that VSCODE_IPC_HOOK_CLI is missing from openvscode-server.

I think there might be a workaround this by forking this repository, adding your extensions to extensions. Then follow build process for openvscode-server here.

Then you can replace your released build from your fork with the official Dockerfile and build your base image (or directly add other specs you want there also).
At least this workaround should work with getting your extensions (which shouldn't be the biggest problem as any user can install them at runtime)