UbuntuHandbook

MicroSoft and Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) finally announced the official Snap package of Visual Studio Code IDE.

Which means you can install VS Code easily from Ubuntu Software and keep it always up-to-date automatically, though the old Snap package maintained by an independent developer was available for nearly two years.

4th April 2019, London, UK – As of today, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is available for Linux as a snap, providing seamless auto-updates for its users. Visual Studio Code, a free, lightweight code editor, has redefined editors for building modern web and cloud applications, with built-in support for debugging, task running, and version control for a variety of languages and frameworks.

Snaps are containerised software packages designed to work across cloud, desktop, and IoT devices. They work natively on most popular Linux distributions and feature automatic updates and rollback functionality, enhanced security, and greater flexibility for developers working within Linux environments.

Install VS Code via Snap in Ubuntu 18.04 / Higher:

Simply open Ubuntu Software, search for and install visual studio code:

Install VS Code via Snap in Ubuntu 16.04:

For Ubuntu 16.04, the snap packages are not integrated in Ubuntu Software.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install snapd first:

sudo apt-get install snapd

Then install the VS Code IDE via command:

sudo snap install code --classic

Uninstall:

Depends on your system edition, remove VS Code either via Software Center or run command in terminal:

sudo snap remove code

Visual Studio Code IDE 1.31 was released recently with new features, tree UI improvements, menu updates, and more.

Visual Studio Code 1.31 release highlights:

• No longer required to reload VS Code when you install or enable an extension.
• New tree widget
• Improved keyboard navigation
• Added cut command in Explorer context menu.
• More navigation actions added to Go menu.
• Added keyboard navigation in Linux with custom menus
• Full multiline issue details in the Problems panel.
• References: Show History command for the References view.
• Semantic selection for HTML, CSS, and JSON.
• Terminal text automatically reflows as panel width changes.
• Custom user input for task and debug configuration.

How to Install VS Code 1.31 in Ubuntu:

The easiest way is to install the community maintained Snap package, containerized software package, which available in Ubuntu Software:

The 1.31 snap package is not available at the moment, though it auto-updates itself once you installed it.

You can also install the official .deb package which is available for download at the link below:

Download VS Code (.deb)

Grab the deb and install it via either Gdebi package manager or command in terminal(Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/code_*.deb; sudo apt -f install

For those who want to receive updates for VS Code via Software Updater utility, add the Microsoft repository via following steps (64bit only):

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'

2. Download and install the repository key via commands:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.gpg

sudo mv microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg

3. Finally install the IDE via command:

sudo apt-get install code

Uninstall Visual Studio Code:

To remove the code editor, either use Synaptic Package Manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove code

And remove the Microsoft repository by launching Software & Updates utility and navigating to Other Software tab.

Visual Studio Code released version 1.29 recently with a number of significant updates.

VS Code 1.28 release highlights according to the announcement:

• Multiline search – Search across files with regex multiline expressions.
• File icons in IntelliSense – Quickly distinguish file types in IntelliSense.
• Better macOS support – Full screen mode control and Mojave Dark Mode support.
• Collapsible stack frames – Collapse uninteresting stack frames to clearly see your code.
• Improved Loaded Scripts view – Displays related resources such as original source files.
• Updated extension samples – Uniform style and structure, README, and API usage.
• CI recipe for extensions – Azure Pipelines build recipe for extensions.
• Preview: List All References – List All References view shows reference search results.

How to Install VS Code 1.29 in Ubuntu:

The easiest way is to install the community maintained Snap (run in sandbox) package from Ubuntu Software:

You can also install the official .deb package which is available for download at the link below:

Download VS Code (.deb)

Grab the deb and install it via either Gdebi package manager or command in terminal(Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/code_*.deb; sudo apt -f install

For those who want to receive updates for VS Code via Software Updater utility, add the Microsoft repository via following steps (64bit only):

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'

2. Download and install the repository key via commands:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.gpg

sudo mv microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg

3. Finally install the IDE via command:

sudo apt-get install code

Uninstall Visual Studio Code:

To remove the code editor, either use Synaptic Package Manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove code

And remove the Microsoft repository by launching Software & Updates utility and navigating to Other Software tab.