Fix vscode server for NixOS

fix-vscode-server-binaries.nix

# Based on https://gist.github.com/sonowz/d70b03177c344f4bbbc674de5e5bb937

with import <nixpkgs> {};

let
  pname = "fix-vscode-server-binaries";
  script = pkgs.writeShellScriptBin pname ''
    set -eu -o pipefail

    SCRIPT_DIR="$(dirname -- "$(readlink -f -- "$0")")"

    interpreter=$(patchelf --print-interpreter /run/current-system/sw/bin/sh)

    for i in ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/*/server/; do
      ls -l "$i/node.orig" || mv -fT "$i/node" "$i/node.orig"
      ln -sfT "$SCRIPT_DIR/node" "$i/node"
    done

    # Replace the vscode-downloaded ripgrep binary with our faster LTO build
    for i in ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/*/server/node_modules/@vscode/ripgrep/bin/rg; do
      ln -sfT /run/current-system/sw/bin/rg "$i"
    done

    # Patch the C++ and Flow tools to run on NixOS.
    for i in ~/.vscode-server/extensions/ms-vscode.*/bin/cpptools*; do
      patchelf --set-interpreter "$interpreter" "$i"
    done
  '';
in
{}:
stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  name = pname;
  nodePackage = nodejs_20;
  src = ./.;
  installPhase = ''
    mkdir -p $out/bin
    cp ${script}/bin/${pname} $out/bin/${pname}
    cp ${nodePackage}/bin/node $out/bin/node
    chmod +x $out/bin/${pname}
  '';
  buildInputs = [ script nodePackage ];
}

fix-vscode-server.sh

#!/bin/sh

set -eu -o pipefail -o verbose

cd ~/bin
nix-build fix-vscode-server-binaries.nix
./result/bin/fix-vscode-server-binaries

@grahamc suggested:

This is great! I bet you could "simplify" the rpath bit to this:

patchelf --set-rpath "$(patchelf --print-rpath "$(which patchelf)")" "$i"

https://twitter.com/grhmc/status/1357425019580801026?s=20

My code no longer works (patchelf to take libstdc++.so.6 from node 16) and for vscode 1.57, I've started symlinking NixOS's node 14 binary. Thanks to samuela/nixos-fix-vscode-remote@f105e97 for the hint.

Updated the fix here to using nix-build to get node 14, based on https://gist.github.com/sonowz/d70b03177c344f4bbbc674de5e5bb937

I've made a PR to fix this for those using the remote-ssh extension from Nixpkgs :) NixOS/nixpkgs#163797

Updated the fix here to use node 16.

Using node 14 with a vscode 1.66 client appears to work at first, but actually causes the node ... bootstrap-fork process to use > 100% CPU forever.

Updated again for the new ~/.vscode-server paths, and for node 20.

Note that vscode-remote immediately tries to run the server it downloads and deletes the directory if it fails (microsoft/vscode-remote-release#9855), so you need to race vscode-remote several times to successfully patch the server.