Remote Debugging with SSH and VS Code

Chris Castle shares insights into effectively using Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) for remote debugging and development workflows with Render services. He reminisces about the convenience of Telnet in the 90s and highlights the evolution to SSH, a more secure protocol that allows secure data encapsulation and remote access. Castle explains how Render has integrated SSH to enable command line access to deployed services, which can be useful for tasks like database migrations or file content checks. He explores using SSH for remote debugging, particularly with Node.js applications, by setting up a secure connection and configuring VS Code for debugging. This process involves modifying the service's start command, setting up SSH tunnels, and using VS Code's launch configurations to connect to the remote node process. Castle emphasizes the value of remote debugging for resolving bugs that cannot be reproduced locally, and he encourages developers to explore the potential of SSH and remote debugging tools for various programming languages beyond Node.js, such as Elixir, Go, and Ruby.