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Comment by nine_k | Hacker News Reader

But VSCode has a very different model than Tramp: a remote server part, not just remote file access.

Technically you can run an Emacs server remotely, and connect to it with the UI client. But the setup is going to be much more involved.

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I'd like to be wrong about this, but after some investigation I've conclused that this is not the case. The Emacs client/server model assumes that the client and server are on the same host. It doesn't work over the network.

I haven't tried this myself but would it be possible with ssh port forwarding? Here is someone who seems to have done it:

https://mina86.com/2021/emacs-remote/

I think the protocol between emacsclient and the server basically just allows for instructing the server which file to open and passing around things like which X display to open an x window on. I’m not sure how it works for the terminal interface (does it pass the fd over a Unix display socket or have Emacs send bytes over the protocol to the emacsclient?)

I once tried to set up some hacked bash script instead of ssh which would set up environment variables and forward the Emacs daemon socket over ssh so that if I remotely attempted to edit a file, my local Emacs would open that remote file over tramp. But the whole thing was kinda nasty.

I do want a ‘thicker’ emacsclient though but mostly because of the end of X windows as I currently use Emacs remotely with X forwarding over ssh.

> Technically you can run an Emacs server remotely, and connect to it with the UI client. But the setup is going to be much more involved.

Any pointers on how to get started with this?

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