VSCode launch configuration to run python file without debugging - visual-studio-code

Question

I understand that by creating a launch.json file in VSCode (slightly more cumbersome than pycharm), I can set debug configurations to launch individual python files.
For example:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Python: Poker",
"type": "python",
"request": "launch",
"cwd": "C:/Users/dickr/git/poker",
"program": "C:/Users/dickr/git/Poker/poker/main.py",
"console": "integratedTerminal",
"env": {"PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}${pathSeparator}${env:PYTHONPATH}"}
},
]
}
That all works great, but how can I run it in normal mode, without a debugger? How can this be defined in the launch configuration so I can select this in the dropdown, and potentially pass arguments with it?

Answer 1

Write a task in a tasks.json file. For documentation on tasks, see https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_custom-tasks.
Your might look something like this:
{
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "run python script",
"type": "process",
"command": "python3 C:/Users/dickr/git/Poker/poker/main.py",
"options": {
"cwd": "C:/Users/dickr/git/poker"
},
"presentation": {
"reveal": "always",
}
}
]
}
though I'd suggest that if possible, you use variable substitution to try to get rid of the absolute paths that won't be the same on other machines (assuming you want to be able to run the task on other machines).
Then run the task. You can even bind the task to keyboard shortcuts. See the documentation for more info: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks.