example of how to run code-server with nginx and docker compose

[j4ys0n]

What is your suggestion?

it would be great to see an example of how to get code-server to work with docker containers using docker compose and nginx/certbot for reverse proxy and tls.

How will this improve the docs?

would make it easy to get this running. i use this pattern all over the place and it simply doesn't work with code-server when there's a password enabled. the redirect after entering the password just doesn't work. i follow the docs, or how i interpret what is meant, and it won't work.

Are you interested in submitting a PR for this?

if i could get it to work..

[code-asher]

Our docs should work in a container as well. We could maintain compose files for NGINX but I am not sure we want to be prescriptive on what reverse proxies folks should be using. What have you tried and what specific error or behavior are you seeing?

[j4ys0n]

thanks for your response.

code server does work in a container, don't get me wrong - what i can't seem to get to work is the redirect after entering the password. it just reloads the login page.

i've tried the linuxserver/code-server image and installing code server with the script mentioned in the readme in this repo. i've also tried nginx in a container on a separate server (i use this same nginx server for other reverse proxies on my network) and i've tried nginx in a container on the same server as code server, everything ends in the same result - it won't redirect to the workspace after entering the password. it seems like maybe i'm missing a rule or header or something in the nginx revers proxy config, but i've looked at the request/response headers with and without the proxy and i'm not seeing what that is.

my goal is to have a few of these code server instances that i can use for different things/projects/people and handle the redirects to each via subdomains. i guess i could just implement auth in another layer and remove the password from code server. code server does work as expected without the password.

[j4ys0n]

@code-asher have you had a chance to look into this? i'd really like to get this working.

[code-asher]

I was offline last week so I have not looked into it yet. Could you share your NGINX config?

[code-asher]

It does sort of sound like the cookie somehow is dropped so code-server thinks you are not logged in but I am not sure how that would happen. Happy to poke around if you can provide a way for me to reproduce.

[zhangsan6663]

omg!!!I encountered the same issue, where I couldn't access the workspace after entering my password. Initially, I deployed using the NAT server I purchased (which has no public IP, and the vendor set up DDNS), but Jupyter Notebook couldn't display code blocks properly due to the lack of an SSL certificate (it displayed correctly when tested via VNC on the server). So, I used Alibaba Cloud's CDN service, pointing another domain to the original URL with a CNAME record. However, at this point, after entering my password, I still couldn't access the workspace and was stuck on a reloading login page. My issue might be too niche to warrant a solution, but I'm still trying to find a way to resolve it.

[zhangsan6663]

The SSL certificate has been successfully deployed, and I can access it via HTTPS, but I'm still stuck on the login page.

[code-asher]

Strange, so you submit the password and if you check the network requests, is it making a redirect to the root and then back to the login page? It is not redirecting to the original URL or anything wonky like that?

Similar to above, the first thing that comes to mind is that somehow the code-server-session cookie is not being sent all the way to code-server, but I am not sure how that would happen.

[zhangsan6663]

Strange, so you submit the password and if you check the network requests, is it making a redirect to the root and then back to the login page? It is not redirecting to the original URL or anything wonky like that?

Similar to above, the first thing that comes to mind is that somehow the code-server-session cookie is not being sent all the way to code-server, but I am not sure how that would happen.

The fundamental issue is that Jupyter Notebook displays incorrectly under HTTP, resulting in code blocks and markdown blocks not rendering properly (it displayed correctly when tested via VNC on the server). This is why Nginx is used for reverse proxy to obtain an SSL certificate. Although I noticed the notification in the bottom right corner indicating that some plugins may not load under HTTP, I still hope you can resolve the bug causing Jupyter Notebook to display incorrectly under HTTP.

[zhangsan6663]

The issue means that the page is blank, with no display when adding code blocks, and previously used .ipynb files also appear empty.

[code-asher]

I do not think we can make HTTP work because code-server uses service workers for web views and browsers do not let you use service workers in insecure contexts.

You might be able to fix it from your browser, for example in Chromium there is an option to treat insecure domains as secure.

[j4ys0n]

@code-asher i'm finding that I want to use code-server again, any chance you have a recommended way to get it working with docker and https?

[code-asher]

I do not have much beyond what we have in this guide! https://github.com/coder/code-server/blob/main/docs/guide.md#expose-code-server

Personally I am not a Docker user, but if you already have a reverse proxy then it should be easy to just use docker run. https://github.com/coder/code-server/blob/main/docs/install.md#docker

If you still need a reverse proxy then you could use another Docker container for that, maybe Caddy or NGINX. For HTTPS Let's Encrypt is good, or you could use a self-signed certificate. Kind of depends on your goals and where you want to host code-server.