DEV Community: Godfrey Nyarko

Connect a VM with VS Code for Remote Development

Godfrey Nyarko — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 06:31:55 +0000

Have you ever thought about using VS Code while accessing your virtual machine? This blog covers how to do that. By connecting your virtual machine with VS Code, you can leverage the features of both.

Prerequisites:
You should have some knowledge of VS Code and virtual machines. The following are needed:

VS Code
Git
VirtualBox
Virtual machine
Vagrant

In this guide, an Ubuntu virtual machine is used. To set up your Ubuntu virtual machine, click here.

Getting Started:

Starting up the Virtual Machine:

Launch your Git application.
Type vagrant up to start the virtual machine.
Type vagrant global-status to check if the virtual machine is running.
Type vagrant ssh-config to get the configuration of the virtual box for setting up remote access in VS Code. Copy and save this configuration to your notepad.

Installing the Remote-SSH Extension in VS Code:

Open VS Code and click on the Extensions tab.
Search for Remote SSH in the extension search box and click Install.

Connecting to the Virtual Machine:

Click on the Remote SSH tab.
Click on the + sign in the SSH options panel.
Enter a name of your choice in the new search box and press Enter.
Select C:\Users\<your-username>\.ssh\config and press Enter.
Select Open Config from the pop-up message in the lower right-hand corner.
Copy and paste the configuration from your notepad into the new panel. (Remember to delete anything in the opened config file before pasting the configuration)
Optionally, change the Hostname from the default to your preferred name.
Close the panel containing the Host details.
Click Refresh on the control panel of Remote SSH.
Click on > to find your new SSH platform.
Select and click on the arrow sign on your new SSH platform to connect.
Select Linux from the pop-up search bar (since Ubuntu is a Linux distribution).
Wait for the connection to be established.
After connecting, click on the three dots in the upper bar of VS Code and select Terminal.
Click on New Terminal to open the terminal in VS Code.

You will notice that your VS Code terminal can now access your virtual machine terminal. Remember to always vagrant up your virtual machine using Git before opening VS Code after a shutdown or restart of your laptop or PC.

GitHub Collaboration Guide: Contribute Without Forking

Godfrey Nyarko — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:08:31 +0000

Introduction:

Contributing to a GitHub repository without forking is a great way to streamline collaboration and keep your GitHub profile tidy. This guide will walk you through the process of adding a collaborator, contributing as a collaborator, and using branches for more efficient contributions.

Adding a Collaborator as an Author:

Open the repository to which you want to add a collaborator. For example, let's say you want to add a collaborator to the "author_username/zero_day" repository.
Click on "Settings."
Navigate to "Collaborators."
Click on Use GitHub Mobile to confirm access.
Select "Add people."
Enter the collaborator's username or full name.
Click on Select a Collaborator above.

An invitation email will be sent to the collaborator.

Contributing as a Collaborator:

Once the author has added you as a collaborator, you will receive an invitation email from GitHub.

Accept the invitation email. Simply click on the provided link to accept the collaboration invitation.
Open your GitHub account interface. After accepting, you will see the "author_username/zero_day" among your existing repositories.
Open your terminal.

Clone the new repository using the Git clone command. For instance:

git clone https://{your_personal_token}@github.com/{author_username/zero_day}.git

Use "git pull" to retrieve all the updated files. This ensures you have the latest changes from the repository.
```
git pull
```

Working on a Different Branch:

As a collaborator, it's advisable to work on a separate branch to avoid conflicts when pushing your code.

Create a new branch. Let's call it "Collabo-branch" as an example:
```
git branch Collabo-branch
```
Switch to the new branch you created, so your works and changes are isolated:
```
git checkout Collabo-branch
```
After reviewing and completing your task on the new branch, you can merge it back into the main branch. For example:

git checkout main
git merge Collabo-branch

Always remember to "git pull" after changing to the main branch before you merge.

By following these steps, you can effectively collaborate on a GitHub repository without forking, thereby making the contribution process more efficient.

Let me know the challenges you encounter in the comment box, and I will put forth my utmost effort to address them