Remotely accessing workspaces | Eclipse Che Documentation

This section describes how to remotely access Che workspaces outside of the browser.

Che workspaces exist as containers and are, by default, modified from a browser window. In addition to this, there are the following methods of interacting with a Che workspace:

Opening a command line in the workspace container using the Kubernetes command-line tool, kubectl
Uploading and downloading files using the kubectl tool

Remotely accessing workspaces using the Kubernetes command-line tool

To access Che workspaces remotely using Kubernetes command-line tool (kubectl), follow the instructions in this section.

The kubectl tool is used in this section to open a shell and manage files in a Che workspace. Alternatively, it is possible to use the oc OpenShift command-line tool.

Prerequisites

The kubectl binary from the Kubernetes website.

Verify the installation of kubectl using the kubectl version command:

$ kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"15", GitVersion:"v1.15.0", GitCommit:"e8462b5b5dc2584fdcd18e6bcfe9f1e4d970a529", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-06-19T16:40:16Z", GoVersion:"go1.12.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"15", GitVersion:"v1.15.0", GitCommit:"e8462b5b5dc2584fdcd18e6bcfe9f1e4d970a529", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-06-19T16:32:14Z", GoVersion:"go1.12.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

For versions 1.5.0 or higher, proceed with the steps in this section.

Procedure

Use the exec command to open a remote shell.

To find the name of the Kubernetes namespace and pod that runs the Che workspace:

$ kubectl get pod -l che.workspace_id --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE   NAME                                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
che         workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln.maven-74885cf4d5-kf2q4   4/4     Running   0          6m4s

In the example above, the pod name is workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln.maven-74885cf4d5-kf2q4, and the namespace is che.

To find the name of the container:

$ NAMESPACE=che
$ POD=workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln.maven-74885cf4d5-kf2q4
$ kubectl get pod ${POD} -o custom-columns=CONTAINERS:.spec.containers[*].name
CONTAINERS
maven,che-machine-execpau,theia-ide6dj,vscode-javaw92

When you have the namespace, pod name, and the name of the container, use the kubectl command to open a remote shell:

$ NAMESPACE=che
$ POD=workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln.maven-74885cf4d5-kf2q4
$ CONTAINER=maven
$ kubectl exec -ti -n ${NAMESPACE} ${POD} -c ${CONTAINER} bash
user@workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln $

From the container, execute the build and run commands (as if from the Che workspace terminal):
```
user@workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln $ mvn clean install
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
(...)
```

Additional resources

For more about kubectl, see the Kubernetes documentation.

Downloading and uploading a file to a workspace using the command-line interface

This procedure describes how to use the kubectl tool to download or upload files remotely from or to an Eclipse Che workspace.

Prerequisites

A running instance of Eclipse Che. To install an instance of Eclipse Che, see Che 'quick-starts'.
Remote access to the Che workspace you intend to modify. For instructions see Remotely accessing workspaces using the Kubernetes command-line tool.
The kubectl binary from the Kubernetes website.
Verify the installation of kubectl using the kubectl version command:

Procedure

To download a local file named downloadme.txt from a workspace container to the current home directory of the user, use the following in the Che remote shell.

$ REMOTE_FILE_PATH=/projects/downloadme.txt
$ NAMESPACE=che
$ POD=workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln.maven-74885cf4d5-kf2q4
$ CONTAINER=maven
$ kubectl cp ${NAMESPACE}/${POD}:${REMOTE_FILE_PATH} ~/downloadme.txt -c ${CONTAINER}

To upload a local file named uploadme.txt to a workspace container in the /projects directory:

$ LOCAL_FILE_PATH=./uploadme.txt
$ NAMESPACE=che
$ POD=workspace7b2wemdf3hx7s3ln.maven-74885cf4d5-kf2q4
$ CONTAINER=maven
$ kubectl cp ${LOCAL_FILE_PATH} ${NAMESPACE}/${POD}:/projects -c ${CONTAINER}

Using the preceding steps, the user can also download and upload directories.

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