Setting up remote development for Linux projects

[jeroenakershoek]

Hello,

I'm trying to setup a "Remote Linux" project where I edit on VS but compile/debug running on a remote host

It looks like Sharpmake has some attempt at support for it but I can't get it to work correctly
There's things like RemoteProjectDir that are hardcoded to /mnt, but also just some variables that are setup quite differently from the way the standard VS template does things.

Before I go start changing things in Sharpmake it would be good to know if this is supposed to work, and if so how

So, questions are basically:

• Is this workflow currently supported? (and if so, could we have a sample maybe?)
• Will (can) it work with FastBuild as well?

[jspelletier]

Hi, I think we have some stuff in our Sharpmake scripts to help with the setup. I will ask some people. Are you trying to compile on linux or just debug a remote process? From: jeroenakershoek ***@***.***> Sent: March 1, 2026 4:37 AM To: ubisoft/Sharpmake ***@***.***> Cc: Subscribed ***@***.***> Subject: [ubisoft/Sharpmake] Setting up remote development for Linux projects (Issue #451) [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11260902?s=20&v=4]jeroenakershoek created an issue (ubisoft/Sharpmake#451)<#451> Hello, I'm trying to setup a "Remote Linux" project where I edit on VS but compile/debug running on a remote host It looks like Sharpmake has some attempt at support for it but I can't get it to work correctly There's things like RemoteProjectDir that are hardcoded to /mnt, but also just some variables that are setup quite differently from the way the standard VS template does things. Before I go start changing things in Sharpmake it would be good to know if this is supposed to work, and if so how So, questions are basically: * Is this workflow currently supported? (and if so, could we have a sample maybe?) * Will (can) it work with FastBuild as well? - Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#451>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AG7AUKT5KUMH3W63THCWRUT4OQACPAVCNFSM6AAAAACWDGWDMWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ASLTON2WKOZUGAYDMNZWGM2DEMI>. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.******@***.***>>

[jeroenakershoek]

Hi JS,

I will ask some people.

Thanks, appreciate it

Are you trying to compile on linux or just debug a remote process?

The goal is to do both compiling and running/debugging remotely while still editing locally in VS.
Basically creating a similar workflow to for example more embedded platforms where you would typically cross-compile and then deploy to a remote device, but without the need for a cross-compiler.

Thanks

[jspelletier]

Would it be ok for you to do the compilation on windows(cross-compilation)?

[jeroenakershoek]

Unfortunately that's not an option for me.

The standard linux console application template in current VS has things nicely setup for remote development it seems.

I haven't scaled that up to see how well that works with dependency-tracking and syncing files back and forth, but initially it looks like what I intend to have.

[jspelletier]

Are we talking about compiling/debugging on wsl or really on a remote linux machine ?

We use cross compilation on windows for all our platforms and run it using wsl in the debugger.

I found the following in our sharpmake scripts.

            if (conf.Output == Configuration.OutputType.Exe)
            {
                conf.VcxprojUserFile = new Configuration.VcxprojUserFileSettings()
                {
                    RemoteDebuggerCommand = @"[conf.TargetPath]\[conf.TargetFileFullNameWithExtension]",
                    // Helps going around the issue of debugger becoming sluggish after a few runs
                    PreLaunchCommand = "pkill gdb",
                    OverwriteExistingFile = false,
                };
            }

[jspelletier]

RemoteProjectDir expand to /mnt/f/somepaths/bin/linux/../../../../bin/linux/ but no idea how this is done

[jeroenakershoek]

Are we talking about compiling/debugging on wsl or really on a remote linux machine ?
The goal is to really compile and run/debug remotely on another machine

And yes, I ran into the /mnt which seems to be a hardcoded thing in Sharpmake (s_unixMountPointForWindowsDrives)
which ends up getting used by this:

                if (context.Configuration.Output == Project.Configuration.OutputType.Lib)
                {
                    context.Options["ProjectDirectory"] = Util.ConvertToMountedUnixPath(context.Configuration.TargetLibraryPath);
                    context.Options["RemoteBuildOutputs"] = context.Configuration.TargetFileFullNameWithExtension;
                }
                else if (context.Configuration.Output != Project.Configuration.OutputType.None)
                {
                    context.Options["ProjectDirectory"] = Util.ConvertToMountedUnixPath(context.Configuration.TargetPath);
                    context.Options["RemoteBuildOutputs"] = context.Configuration.TargetFileFullNameWithExtension;
                }
                else
                {
                    context.Options["ProjectDirectory"] = FileGeneratorUtilities.RemoveLineTag;
                    context.Options["RemoteBuildOutputs"] = FileGeneratorUtilities.RemoveLineTag;
                }

The config that gets generated seemed like it would be very close to how the VS template looks.
This is what triggered me to start this thread initially :)

I figured you had a workflow where you had a shared drive between linux and windows to avoid issues with syncing dependencies, as I could imagine that to be somewhat difficult and potentially problematic in this kind of a workflow.

[jspelletier]

ok so it looks like it takes the full path and appends this to /mnt. What path should it be in your case?

[jeroenakershoek]

It looks like when no RemoteRootDir is given in VS it defaults to "~/projects" which would actually work for my current scenario
Currently the VcxProj.template seems to force set it to empty, which breaks things for this scenario it seems.
When I modify the generated vcxproj and add the RemoteRootDir it seems to work a bit better already, it was just missing some syncing of dependencies such as header files.

The easiest would probably be to make both RemoteRootDir and RemoteProjectDir configurable, in a similar to for example conf.TargetPath

[jspelletier]

I have no problem with this as long as by default current behavior is kept. You can make a PR.