How do I set up Visual Studio Code to compile C code

Question

Microsoft s Visual Studio Code editor is quite nice  but it has no default support for building C   projects   How do I configure it to do this

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Here is how I configured my VS for C    Make sure to change appropriete paths to where your MinGW installed  launch json        version    0 2 0       configurations                          name    C   Launch  GDB                                type    cppdbg                                        request    launch                                       targetArchitecture    x86                               program      workspaceRoot     fileBasename  exe                                miDebuggerPath   C   mingw-w64  bin  gdb exe                args                        stopAtEntry   false                                cwd      workspaceRoot                                  externalConsole   true                                preLaunchTask    g                                              tasks json         version    0 1 0        command    g          args     -g   -std c  11     file    -o     workspaceRoot     fileBasename  exe         problemMatcher              owner    cpp            fileLocation     relative      workspaceRoot              pattern                  regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                      file   1               line   2               column   3               severity   4               message   5                     c cpp properties json         configurations                            name    Win32                includePath                        workspaceRoot                     C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c                      C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c   x86 64-w64-mingw32                    C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c   backward                    C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include                    C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c   tr1                    C  mingw-w64 x86 64-w64-mingw32 include                              defines                       DEBUG                    UNICODE                      GNUC   6                      cdecl   attribute      cdecl                                  intelliSenseMode    msvc-x64                browse                      path                            workspaceRoot                         C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c                          C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c   x86 64-w64-mingw32                        C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c   backward                        C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include                        C  mingw-w64 lib gcc x86 64-w64-mingw32 7 2 0 include c   tr1                        C  mingw-w64 x86 64-w64-mingw32 include                                                limitSymbolsToIncludedHeaders   true               databaseFilename                            version   3     Reference    C C   for VS Code c cpp properties json template

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Out of frustration at the lack of clear documentation  I ve created a Mac project on github that should just work  both building and debugging    vscode-mac-c-example  Note that it requires XCode and the VSCode Microsoft cpptools extension   I plan to do the same for Windows and linux  unless Microsoft write decent documentation first

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There s now a C C   language extension from Microsoft  You can install it by going to the  quick open  thing  Ctrl p  and typing   ext install cpptools   You can read about it here   https   blogs msdn microsoft com vcblog 2016 03 31 cc-extension-for-visual-studio-code   It s very basic  as of May 2016

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If your project has a CMake configuration it s pretty straight forward to setup VSCode  e g  setup tasks json like below          version    0 1 0        command    sh        isShellCommand   true       args     -c         showOutput    always        suppressTaskName   true       options              cwd      workspaceRoot  build              tasks                            taskName    cmake                args     cmake                                       taskName    make                args      make                 isBuildCommand   true               problemMatcher                      owner    cpp                    fileLocation    absolute                    pattern                          regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                              file   1                       line   2                       column   3                       severity   4                       message   5                                                     This assumes that there is a folder build in the root of the workspace with a CMake configuration   There s also a CMake integration extension that adds a  CMake build  command to VScode   PS  The problemMatcher is setup for clang-builds  To use GCC I believe you need to change fileLocation to relative  but I haven t tested this

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A makefile task example for new 2 0 0 tasks json version   In the snippet below some comments I hope they will be useful          version    2 0 0        tasks                            label     lt TASK NAME gt                 type    shell                command    make                  use options cwd property if the Makefile is not in the project root   workspaceRoot  dir              options                      cwd      workspaceRoot   lt DIR WITH MAKEFILE gt                                 start the build without prompting for task selection  use  group    build  otherwise              group                      kind    build                    isDefault   true                             presentation                      echo   true                   reveal    always                    focus   false                   panel    shared                                arg passing example  in this case is executed make QUIET 0              args     QUIET 0                   Use the standard less compilation problem matcher               problemMatcher                      owner    cpp                    fileLocation     absolute                     pattern                          regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                              file   1                       line   2                       column   3                       severity   4                       message   5

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Can use Extension Code Runner to run code with play icon on top Right ans by shortcut key  Ctrl Alt N and to abort Ctrl Alt M  But by default it only shows output of program but for receiving input you need to follow some steps      Ctrl   and then settings menu opens and Extensions Run Code Configuration scroll down its attributes and find Edit in settings json click on it and add following code insite it         code-runner runInTerminal   true

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With an updated VS Code you can do it in the following manner    Hit  Ctrl P  and type   ext install cpptools  Open a folder  Ctrl K  amp  Ctrl O  and create a new file inside the folder with the extension  cpp  ex  hello cpp   Type in your code and hit save  Hit  Ctrl Shift P and type  Configure task runner and then select other at the bottom of the list  Create a batch file in the same folder with the name build bat and include the following code to the body of the file    echo off call  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 14 0 VC vcvarsall bat  x64      set compilerflags  Od  Zi  EHsc set linkerflags  OUT hello exe cl exe  compilerflags  hello cpp  link  linkerflags   Edit the task json file as follows and save it        See https   go microsoft com fwlink  LinkId 733558    for the documentation about the tasks json format  version    0 1 0    command    build bat    isShellCommand   true     args     Hello World     showOutput    always     Hit  Ctrl Shift B to run Build task  This will create the  obj and  exe files for the project   For debugging the project  Hit F5 and select C   Windows   In launch json file  edit the following line and save the file    program      workspaceRoot  hello exe    Hit F5

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The build tasks are project specific  To create a new project  open a directory in Visual Studio Code   Following the instructions here  press Ctrl   Shift   P  type Configure Tasks  select it and press Enter   The tasks json file will be opened  Paste the following build script into the file  and save it          version    0 1 0        command    make        isShellCommand   true       tasks                            taskName    Makefile                   Make this the default build command               isBuildCommand   true                  Show the output window only if unrecognized errors occur               showOutput    always                   Pass  all  as the build target              args     all                    Use the standard less compilation problem matcher               problemMatcher                      owner    cpp                    fileLocation     relative      workspaceRoot                      pattern                          regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                              file   1                       line   2                       column   3                       severity   4                       message   5                                                     Now go to menu File   Preferences   Keyboard Shortcuts  and add the following key binding for the build task      Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults          key    f8             command    workbench action tasks build        Now when you press F8 the Makefile will be executed  and errors will be underlined in the editor

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You can reference to this latest gist having a version 2 0 0 task for Visual Studio Code  https   gist github com akanshgulati 56b4d469523ec0acd9f6f59918a9e454  You can easily compile and run each file without updating the task  It s generic and also opens the terminal for input entries

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The basic problem here is that building and linking a C   program depends heavily on the build system in use   You will need to support the following distinct tasks  using some combination of plugins and custom code    General C   language support for the editor   This is usually done using ms-vscode cpptools  which most people expect to also handle a lot of other stuff  like build support   Let me save you some time  it doesn t   However  you will probably want it anyway  Build  clean  and rebuild tasks   This is where your choice of build system becomes a huge deal   You will find plugins for things like CMake and Autoconf  god help you   but if you re using something like Meson and Ninja  you are going to have to write some helper scripts  and configure a custom  tasks json  file to handle these   Microsoft has totally changed everything about that file over the last few versions  right down to what it is supposed to be called and the places  yes  placeS  it can go  to say nothing of completely changing the format   Worse  they ve SORT OF kept backward compatibility  to be sure to use the  version  key to specify which variant you want   See details here     https   code visualstudio com docs editor tasks     but note conflicts with   https   code visualstudio com docs languages cpp  WARNING  IN ALL OF THE ANSWERS BELOW  ANYTHING THAT BEGINS WITH A  VERSION  TAG BELOW 2 0 0 IS OBSOLETE   Here s the closest thing I ve got at the moment   Note that I kick most of the heavy lifting off to scripts  this doesn t really give me any menu entries I can live with  and there isn t any good way to select between debug and release without just making another three explicit entries in here   With all that said  here is what I can tolerate as my  vscode tasks json file at the moment        See https   go microsoft com fwlink  LinkId 733558    for the documentation about the tasks json format  version    2 0 0    tasks                    label    build project            type    shell            command    buildscripts build-debug sh            args                 group                  kind    build                isDefault   true                     presentation                    Reveal the output only if unrecognized errors occur               echo   true               focus   false               reveal    always                panel    shared                         Use the standard MS compiler pattern to detect errors  warnings and infos          options                  cwd      workspaceRoot                       problemMatcher                  owner    cpp                fileLocation     relative      workspaceRoot  DEBUG                 pattern                      regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                          file   1                   line   2                   column   3                   severity   4                   message   5                                               label    rebuild project            type    shell            command    buildscripts rebuild-debug sh            args                group                  kind    build                isDefault   true                     presentation                    Reveal the output only if unrecognized errors occur               echo   true               focus   false               reveal    always                panel    shared                         Use the standard MS compiler pattern to detect errors  warnings and infos          options                  cwd      workspaceRoot                       problemMatcher                  owner    cpp                fileLocation     relative      workspaceRoot  DEBUG                 pattern                      regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                          file   1                   line   2                   column   3                   severity   4                   message   5                                               label    clean project            type    shell            command    buildscripts clean-debug sh            args                 group                  kind    build                isDefault   true                     presentation                    Reveal the output only if unrecognized errors occur               echo   true               focus   false               reveal    always                panel    shared                         Use the standard MS compiler pattern to detect errors  warnings and infos          options                  cwd      workspaceRoot                       problemMatcher                  owner    cpp                fileLocation     relative      workspaceRoot  DEBUG                 pattern                      regexp             d      d     s  warning error    s                          file   1                   line   2                   column   3                   severity   4                   message   5                                      Note that  in theory  this file is supposed to work if you put it in the workspace root  so that you aren t stuck checking files in hidden directories   vscode  into your revision control system   I have yet to see that actually work  test it  but if it fails  put it in  vscode   Either way  the IDE will bitch if it isn t there anyway    Yes  at the moment  this means I have been forced to check  vscode into subversion  which I m not happy about    Note that my build scripts  not shown  simply create  or recreate  a DEBUG directory using  in my case  meson  and build inside it  using  in my case  ninja     Run  debug  attach  halt   These are another set of tasks  defined in  launch json    Or at least they used to be   Microsoft has made such a hash of the documentation  I m not even sure anymore

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To Build run C   projects in VS code   you manually need to configure tasks json file which is in  vscode folder in workspace folder   To open tasks json   press ctrl   shift   P   and type Configure tasks   and press enter  it will take you to tasks json   Here i am providing my tasks json file with some comments to make the file more understandable   It can be used as a reference for configuring tasks json   i hope it will be useful  tasks json         version    2 0 0         tasks                             label    build  amp  run         It s name of the task   you can have several tasks               type    shell        type can be either  shell  or  process    more details will be given below              command    g                     args                      -g       gnu debugging flag   only necessary if you want to perform debugging on file                      file         file  gives full path of the file                  -o                         workspaceFolder   build    fileBasenameNoExtension         output file name                   amp  amp        to join building and running of the file                    workspaceFolder   build    fileBasenameNoExtension                               group                      kind    build        defines to which group the task belongs                  isDefault   true                             presentation         Explained in detail below                  echo   false                   reveal    always                    focus   true                   panel    shared                    clear   false                   showReuseMessage   false                             problemMatcher     gcc                        Now   stating directly from the VS code tasks documentation  description of type property          type  The task s type  For a custom task  this can either be shell or    process  If shell is specified  the command is interpreted   as a shell    command  for example  bash  cmd  or PowerShell   If   process is    specified  the command is interpreted as a process to   execute       The behavior of the terminal can be controlled using the presentation property in tasks json   It offers the following properties          reveal  Controls whether the Integrated Terminal panel is brought to    front  Valid values are          always - The panel is always brought to front  This is the default   never - The user must explicitly bring the terminal panel to the front using the     View   Terminal command  Ctrl       silent - The terminal panel is brought to front only if the output is not scanned for errors and warnings       focus  Controls whether the terminal is taking input focus or not     Default is false    echo  Controls whether the executed command is echoed in the    terminal  Default is true    showReuseMessage  Controls whether to show the  Terminal will be    reused by tasks  press any key to close it  message    panel  Controls whether the terminal instance is shared between task    runs  Possible values are          shared  The terminal is shared and the output of other task runs are added to the same terminal    dedicated  The terminal is dedicated to a specific task  If that task is executed again  the terminal is reused  However  the   output of a different task is presented in a different terminal    new  Every execution of that task is using a new clean terminal       clear  Controls whether the terminal is cleared before this task is    run  Default is false

User · Answer

There is a much easier way to compile and run C   code  no configuration needed    Install the Code Runner Extension Open your C   code file in Text Editor  then use shortcut Ctrl Alt N  or press F1 and then select type Run Code  or right click the Text Editor and then click Run Code in context menu  the code will be compiled and run  and the output will be shown in the Output Window    Moreover you could update the config in settings json using different C   compilers as you want  the default config for C   is as below    code-runner executorMap          cpp    g    fullFileName  amp  amp    a out

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First of all  goto extensions  Ctrl   Shift   X  and install 2 extensions    Code Runner C C     Then  then reload the VS Code and select a play button on the top of the right corner your program runs in the output terminal  You can see output by Ctrl   Alt   N  To change other features goto user setting

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Here is how I configured my VS for C   using g   compiler and it works great including debugging options   tasks json file         version    0 1 0        command    g          isShellCommand   true         compiles and links with debugger information      args     -g    -o    hello exe    hello cpp           without debugger information         args     -o    hello exe    hello cpp         showOutput    always      launch json file         version    0 2 0        configurations                            name    C   Launch  Windows                 type    cppdbg                request    launch                program      workspaceRoot  hello exe                MIMode    gdb                miDebuggerPath    C   MinGw  bin  gdb exe                stopAtEntry   false               cwd      workspaceRoot                 externalConsole   false               visualizerFile      workspaceRoot  my natvis                      I also have  C C   for Visual Studio Code  extension installed in VS Code

[visual-studio-code] How do I set up Visual Studio Code to compile C++ code?

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