How to Install Visual Studio Code on Linux

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a widely used code editor developed by Microsoft that supports several programming languages. It provides features such as syntax highlighting, debugging, and version control, making it suitable for various development needs. Being open source, it is freely available for download and installation.

One of its key advantages is its cross-platform compatibility, allowing installation on all major operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to install VSCode in Linux.

Installing VSCode on Debian-based Linux Distributions

You can use the apt package manager to install Visual Studio Code on Debian-based Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint. You can go through the below-listed step-by-step guidelines to install VS Code on Debian-based systems:

Step 1: Update the Package List

Before you install VSCode, update your system’s package list by running the command:

sudo apt update

To avoid compatibility issues, it is recommended to check the Linux version before installing any software, such as VS Code.

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

Let’s run the below command to install the necessary packages like apt-transport-https and software-properties-common:

sudo apt install software-properties-common apt-transport-https

Step 3: Download the Microsoft GPG Key

To download VSCode in Linux, download the Microsoft GPG key using the wget command, and convert it into a valid format that can be stored and used by apt:

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

Step 4: Install the Microsoft GPG Key

After this, install the Microsoft GPG key to a trusted directory like /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/. Here, we use the o, g, and options to make sure the appropriate ownership and file permissions for the key:

sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/

Step 5: Add the Visual Studio Code Repository

Now we are all set to add the Visual Studio Code repository to our system:

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

Step 6: Install VSCode Linux

After importing the VSCode repository, update the system by executing the below-given command to refresh the package lists:

sudo apt update

Finally, we are all set to install VSCode on Linux:

sudo apt install code

Step 7: Access VSCode

After installation, we can access the Visual Studio Code from the application manager and use it to fulfill our coding needs:

Installing VSCode on RedHat-based Linux Distributions

To install VS Code on RedHat-based systems like CentOS, RHEL, and Fedora, you can use the dnf package manager. Follow the steps outlined below to proceed with the VS Code installation:

Step 1: Update the System Packages

Before installing VSCode, refresh your system’s package list with the following command:

sudo dnf update

Step 2: Import the Microsoft GPG Key

Next, use the rpm command to import the Microsoft GPG key to your system:

sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

Step 3: Add the Visual Studio Code Repository Configuration

After importing the Microsoft GPG key, create a repository file for Visual Studio Code using the following command:

sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/vstudio_code.repo

Then paste the following script into the repository file to configure the Visual Studio Code repository:

name=Visual Studio Code
baseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/vscode
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

Step 4: Install Visual Studio Code

Finally, run the command below to install Visual Studio code on your Linux system:

sudo dnf install code

Installing Visual Studio Code on Linux via Flatpak

To install Visual Studio Code on Linux using Flatpak, start by setting up Flatpak and adding the Flathub repository. After that, install Visual Studio Code from Flathub to get the latest version, which works well across different Linux systems.

Step 1: Add the Flathub repository

Let’s run the below-given command to add the Flathub repository to your system if it doesn't already exist:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Step 2: Install VS Code via Flatpak

After adding the Flathub repository, execute the command below to install VS code on Linux using Flatpak:

flatpak install flathub com.visualstudio.code

Step 3: Use VS Code in Linux

Once VS Code is installed via Flatpak, you can launch VS Code and begin working on your coding projects in Linux:

That’s all about installing and using Visual Studio Code on Linux.

Conclusion

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is an easy-to-use code editor for developers. It supports multiple programming languages and offers useful features like syntax highlighting, debugging, and version control. We can install and use Visual Studio code on all major operating systems. In this article, we provided simple steps to install VS Code on different Linux distributions, including Debian-based and RedHat-based systems.

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