Remote working
VSCode and Home Quotas
Microsoft's VSCode is a very capable development environment. Usefully, it has a client-server mode, so you can connect to a remote server and edit code there while using your own laptop/desktop. Unfortunately, VSCode puts a lot of files into your home directory. With a limited home-quota (maybe 2GB) this can cause problems...
Following are some instructions on how to reduce VSCode's home-directory usage:
Cache folder
Microsoft have not made it very obvious how to change the cache folder for VSCode. However, the following should work:
- Open VSCode.
- Open Settings
- Search for "remote ssh server install"
- For the "Remote.SSH: Server Install Path" setting, add:
Item: apollo.lsc.phy.private.cam.ac.uk
Value: /local/data/public/USERNAME/VSCode_Cache
(Replace USERNAME with your username, e.g. pmb39, and replace apollo by the machine you are connecting to.) - Reconnect to the remote server.
The folder named above is then the new location for "/home/raid/USERNAME/.vscode-server" so once it's set up, you should be able to delete that folder from your home directory.
VSCode CPP Cache
The vscode-cpptools plugin also results in a lot of storage in your home directory.
Microsoft has some suggestions, specifically setting XDG_CACHE_HOME.
On Linux, you can change this by editing your ~/.bashrc (on the CSC network) and add a line:
export XDG_CACHE_HOME=/local/data/public/USERNAME/Cache
Further notes
I (pmb39) have done some initial testing of the above instructions, but let me know if the instructions aren't clear, or if other things start filling up your home directory.