Syncing

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Syncing (View Source Code) is a VSCode extension, designed to synchronize all of your VSCode settings across multiple devices with your GitHub Gist.

Getting started or check out the examples.

Keep it simple & reliable!

Features

Syncing will keep the consistency of your VSCode settings between your devices, it'll let you:

1. Upload VSCode Settings:

   • Including your User Settings, Keybindings, Extensions, Locales and Snippets.
   • The keybindings of MacOS and non-MacOS will be synchronized separately, in case you have multiple devices of different operating systems.
   • Automatically create a new Gist to store your settings.
   • Use an incremental algorithm to boost the synchronization.
   • You can exclude some VSCode User Settings and Extensions from being uploaded, check out the VSCode User Settings for more details.

2. Download VSCode Settings:

   • Always overwrite local settings.
   • Automatically install, update and remove extensions.
   • You can download settings from a public Gist, such as your friend's VSCode settings, check out here for more details.
   • You can exclude some VSCode User Settings and Extensions from being downloaded, check out the VSCode User Settings for more details.

Besides, you can set up a proxy to accelerate the synchronization. And of course, you can turn on the auto-sync to simplify the synchronization :).

Commands

You can type "upload", "download" (or "syncing") in VSCode Command Palette to access these commands:

1. Syncing: Upload Settings

   Upload settings to GitHub Gist.

2. Syncing: Download Settings

   Download settings from GitHub Gist.

3. Syncing: Open Syncing Settings

   Set your GitHub Personal Access Token, Gist ID or HTTP Proxy settings.

Keybindings

The keybindings are unassigned by default, but you can easily turn them on by updating VSCode Keyboard Shortcuts:

1. For VSCode versions >= 1.11 (recommended):

   

2. For VSCode versions < 1.11, for example:

   {
       "key": "alt+cmd+u",
       "command": "syncing.uploadSettings"
   },
   {
       "key": "alt+cmd+d",
       "command": "syncing.downloadSettings"
   },
   {
       "key": "alt+cmd+s",
       "command": "syncing.openSettings"
   }

VSCode User Settings

You can find the following Syncing Settings in your VSCode User Settings.

1. syncing.excludedExtensions

   You can configure glob patterns for excluding some VSCode Extensions from being synchronized.

   Note that the extensions not listed here will still be synchronized.

   Take this for example:

   "syncing.excludedExtensions" : [
       "somepublisher.*",
       "nonoroazoro.syncing"
   ]

   Note that the excluded extension name is actually the extension id (you can find it in the VSCode Extensions View), such as:

   

   Now the extension nonoroazoro.syncing (i.e., Syncing) and all the extensions of the author somepublisher will no longer be synchronized.

2. syncing.excludedSettings

   You can configure glob patterns for excluding some VSCode User Settings from being synchronized.

   Note that the settings not listed here will still be synchronized.

   Take this for example:

   "syncing.excludedSettings" : [
       "editor.*",
       "workbench.colorTheme"
   ]

   Now the workbench.colorTheme setting and all the settings of editor will no longer be synchronized.

3. syncing.extensions.autoUpdate

   You can configure this setting to let Syncing automatically update your extensions during the synchronization.

   This is enabled by default but you can turn it off in your VSCode User Settings.

4. syncing.pokaYokeThreshold

   During the synchronization, Syncing will check the changes between your local and remote settings, and display a confirm dialog if the changes exceed this threshold.

   The default value of this setting is 10, and you can disable this feature by setting to a number less than or equal to zero (<= 0).

   Take this for example:

   "syncing.pokaYokeThreshold" : 10

5. syncing.separateKeybindings

   Synchronize the keybindings separately for different operating systems.

   You may disable it since VSCode has introduced the Platform Specific Keybindings from version 1.27. But please make sure you've already merged your keybindings before disabling this setting.

   This is enabled by default but you can turn it off in your VSCode User Settings.

Proxy Settings

You can set up a proxy to accelerate the synchronization. Here are the steps:

1. Type "Syncing: Open Syncing Settings" (or just "opensync") in VSCode Command Palette to open Syncing's own settings file (i.e. syncing.json).

2. Change the "http_proxy" setting, for example:

   "http_proxy": "http://127.0.0.1:1080"

Moreover, if the "http_proxy" is unset, Syncing will try to read the http_proxy and https_proxy environment variables as a fallback.

Please note that unlike the settings in VSCode User Settings, Syncing will not upload its own settings file because it contains your personal information.

Auto-sync Settings

You can now let Syncing auto-sync your settings. Here are the steps:

1. Type "Syncing: Open Syncing Settings" (or just "opensync") in VSCode Command Palette to open Syncing's own settings file (i.e. syncing.json).

2. Enable the "auto_sync" setting, for example:

   "auto_sync": true

3. Reload or reopen VSCode to take effect.

Getting Started

1. Get your own GitHub Personal Access Token (3 steps).

   1. Login to your GitHub Personal Access Tokens page and click Generate new token.

      

   2. Give your token a descriptive name, check gist and click Generate token.

      

   3. Copy and backup your token.

      

2. Sync your VSCode settings.

   Syncing will ask for necessary information for the first time and save for later use.

   1. Upload

      1. Type upload in VSCode Command Palette.

         

      2. Enter your GitHub Personal Access Token.

      3. Select or enter your Gist ID.

         You can leave it blank to create a new Gist automatically.

      4. Done!

      5. After it's done, you can find the settings and the corresponding Gist ID in your GitHub Gist. Also, you can Edit and make it public to share your settings with others.

   2. Download

      1. Type download in VSCode Command Palette.

         

      2. Enter your GitHub Personal Access Token.

         You can leave it blank if you want to download from a public Gist, such as your friend's VSCode settings.

      3. Select or enter your Gist ID or a public Gist ID.

      4. Done!

Examples

1. Upload:

   

2. Download:

   

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I make this work with code-server?

   Code-server follows the XDG spec to set config & data directories. When using their Docker image, you can set XDG_DATA_HOME="/home/coder/.config/" to store everything files in the same directory. This enables vscode-syncing to easily pickup the right locations. Since it is also a recommended volume path, it ensures persistence of your changes.