VS Code build task: "cd" command not working - visual-studio-code

I am trying to create a build task to quickly deal with building the project. However, I am not able to cd into the project directory to execute the makefile containing the commands.
{
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "Build",
"type": "shell",
"command": "cd /path/to/folder; make build",
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
}
}
]
}
Error message:
The terminal process terminated with exit code: 1
Even just the cd command gives the same error. Running pwd instead shows that I am in root /.
Am I missing something. Couldn't find any help on web search.
Environment:
- Windows 10
- I have WSL installed
EDIT:
Tried setting
"options": {
"cwd": "${fileDirname}/.."
}
fileDirname was pointing to the .vscode folder inside my project folder, so thought .. from it would work. But pwd still show it is in root.

Related

Run bash script with VS Code

I want to run bash script when I hit F5 and see the results in the terminal like I can do with python scripts or whatever. I tried to do that with Bash Debug however it automatically goes to the debug mode and stops at the first step even if I do not put breakpoint. This is the launch configuration I use.
{
"type": "bashdb",
"request": "launch",
"name": "Run mysql test",
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"program": "/srv/gpf/dba/mysqlslap/run.sh",
"args": []
}
I don't know about running bash in a debug mode (doesn't seem like you need those features based on your example) but you can easily get your script to run as a Task or Build option.
Place this at .vscode/tasks.json of your project dir
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "Run as Bash Script",
"type": "shell",
"command": "/bin/bash ${file}",
"problemMatcher": [],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
}
}
]
}
You can place whatever you want in the "command" parameter.
As you can see, it's of type "kind": "build" so I can hit ctrl+shift+B and this will execute in a terminal.
Note, you can also use the command palette (F1 or ctrl+shift+P) and use Task: Run as Task too.
Source: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/editor/tasks

Configuring multiple commands to run in parallel in VS Code tasks (to compile and autoprefix Sass)

I had previously been using Koala to compile my Sass with autoprefixing and minifying (on Windows), but have come to find that Koala is no longer maintained. I'm therefore trying to figure out how people usually compile Sass, autoprefix it, and minify it automatically on save.
I'm not super experienced with command line tools like Gulp but have used NPM enough to get to the point of being able to install Dart Sass, PostCSS, etc., and since I use VS Code, have decided that its internal Tasks feature seems like the easiest way to go.
Currently if I do this in the VS Code terminal:
sass --watch sass:. --style compressed
It works, i.e., it successfully watches for changes in the sass directory and outputs a minified .css file in the parent directory.
If I stop that and do this instead:
postcss style-raw.css --output style.css --use autoprefixer --watch
It also works. I had to rename the original .scss file because apparently postcss doesn't allow --replace and --watch at the same time.
So right now, I have style-raw.scss which compiles to style-raw.css when I run the sass command, and style-raw.css gets autoprefixed and output to style.css when I run the postcss command.
Where I'm stuck is getting both commands to run at the same time via a Task. In my tasks.json file I have:
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "Sass Compile",
"type": "shell",
"command": "sass --watch sass:. --style compressed | postcss style-raw.css --output style.css --use autoprefixer --watch",
"problemMatcher": [
"$node-sass"
],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
}
}
]
}
This is connected to the Build task, which has a keyboard shortcut of ctrl+shift+B, so my ultimate goal thus far has been to be able to just hit ctrl+shift+B to start everything up getting watched and compiled and autoprefixed, etc.
Currently though, only the Sass command runs when I use the keyboard shortcut. I found another post somewhere that said the pipe should work for multiple commands, but it doesn't seem to, or perhaps you can't --watch two things at the same time, I have no idea. I tried an array for command: but that either doesn't work or I didn't have the right format.
Or perhaps there's an entirely different and better way to go about all this, but if anyone can help with using these two commands together, that'd be much appreciated.
UPDATE: SOLUTION --------------------------------------------------------
With the kind help of #soulshined below, I got the multiple commands working (the dependsOn option was the trick), but evidently it won't run two commands with the --watch parameter in the same terminal. For my use case this wouldn't work and I eventually found this extremely helpful article that explains how to run multiple tasks in a split terminal by grouping them.
If anyone else runs across this with the same use case, here is the working tasks.json file:
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "Compile CSS",
"dependsOn": [
"Sass Compile",
"Prefix Output",
],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
},
},
{
"label": "Prefix Output",
"type": "shell",
"command": "postcss style-raw.css --output style.css --use autoprefixer --watch",
"presentation": {
"group": "cssCompile"
}
},
{
"label": "Sass Compile",
"type": "shell",
"command": "sass --watch sass:. --style compressed",
"problemMatcher": [
"$node-sass"
],
"presentation": {
"group": "cssCompile"
}
}
]
}
UPDATE 2: GULP --------------------------------------------------------
Randomly ran across my own post and thought I would add that I now use Gulp. I don't remember why but the VS Code tasks turned into a hassle later on, and Gulp turned out to be not that hard to learn.
Where I'm stuck is getting both commands to run at the same time via a Task
Running concurrently can be tricky to accomplish; consider taking advantage of the dependsOn property. Here is a brief example of running commands tasks consecutively:
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "Echo All",
"type": "shell",
"command": "echo Done",
"dependsOn": [
"Last"
],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
}
},
{
"label": "Last",
"type": "shell",
"command": "echo 'Did it last'",
"dependsOn": "First",
},
{
"label": "First",
"type": "shell",
"command": "echo 'Doing it first'",
}
]
That's a language [shell] agnostic solution. If you would like to run multiple commands you can try adding a semi colon after each statement:
"command": "sass --watch sass:. --style compressed; postcss style-raw.css --output style.css --use autoprefixer --watch"

VScode remote development: How can I run a build task to source environment variables before running the real build task?

I want to setup VScode so I can use build tasks to build my project. The project is build using make, en I have defined a build task that runs make. However, before running make, I normally would source a script that sets my environment variables correctly. If I add a new build task with the source command, and set my main build tasks to first execute the source command, the environment variables are not propagated properly. How can I make sure the enviroment variables are kept between build tasks?
My tasks.json file:
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"type": "shell",
"label": "make",
"command": "make",
"args": [],
"problemMatcher": [
"$gcc"
],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
},
"dependsOn": "Set environment"
},
{
"label": "Set environment",
"type": "shell",
"command": "source path/to/source_me.sh",
"group": "build",
]
}
Not in this way. Sourcing a file is injecting file contents into current shell session, which ends as soon as the task ends. The make task is run in a separate shell session, so these two do not interact. You may try to do a single task that executes a single line: source path/to/source_me.sh && make.
I solved my problem like this:
"tasks": [
{
"label": "all",
"type": "shell",
**"command": "source gitenv.sh && cd ${fileDirname} && alfred all"**,
"problemMatcher": [],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
}
}
]
Where alfred is a macro for make command with extra args.
${fileDirname} returns a current directory in which you have open file.
So if you open a file and in the same directory you have Makefile you can CTRL + SHIFT + B to execute this default task.

Visual Studio Code Task is Prepending the working directory to the command

I'm trying to setup visual studio code for rust to do debugging. In my launch.json file I have
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "(Windows) Launch",
"type": "cppvsdbg",
"request": "launch",
"program": "${workspaceRoot}/target/debug/vscode-rust-debug-example.exe",
"args": [],
"stopAtEntry": false,
"cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
"environment": [],
"externalConsole": true,
"preLaunchTask": "localcargobuildtask"
}
]
}
and in my tasks.json I have
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "localcargobuildtask",
"command": "echo hi",
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
}
}
]
}
Where "echo hi" is in my tasks I eventually want to have something like "cargo build" or "cargo test" or whatever. But this is just a starting step.
But when I press F5 the output I get is
> Executing task: C:\programs\VSCodeWorkspaces\RustProjects\vscode-rust-debug-example-debug-config-included\echo hi <
The terminal process terminated with exit code: 2
Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.
Rather than running "echo" from where ever the terminal finds it (working directory first, then check global path variable like you would expect) it is actually looking for a program named "echo" in my root folder of the workspace.
How do I tell visual studio code "No I don't want you to run workspace/echo, I want you to run echo in workspace" ? Or is there another more direct way to tell visual studio code "compile this before you debug it" ?
The answer to this question How to debug Rust unit tests on Windows?
suggests that changing
"command": "cargo build",
into
"command": "cargo",
"args": [
"build"
],
in the tasks.json file works and somehow it does. Maybe the editor is configured to search the %path% for single word commands, or maybe some plugin I installed overwrote the "cargo" command. Maybe the reason echo wasn't found is because it is a terminal command, not a program. Maybe the error message was a lie and it was only reporting that it couldn't find workspacefolder\command despite checking %path%? Or maybe none of that. I have no idea. It is some pretty idiosyncratic behavior.

VSCode Extension Debugging Node with WSL

I'm attempting to debug a vscode extension in Windows using WSL. It appears as though the prelaunchtask is using the cmd.exe arguments, which causes the prelaunchtask to fail with bash.
Executing task: npm run watch <
/bin/bash: /d: No such file or directory The terminal process
terminated with exit code: 127
Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.
Any thoughts how I might force the debug terminal to properly issue the bash arguments?
You can achieve this by manually specifying the shell executable and arguments used by the Extension launch configuration. Assuming you are starting with the example extension, you can edit the task for the "npm: watch" script in .vscode/tasks.json, forcing it to launch WSL with no additional arguments.
{
"type": "npm",
"script": "watch",
"problemMatcher": "$tsc-watch",
"isBackground": true,
"presentation": {
"reveal": "never"
},
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
},
// Force this to use WSL with no additional arguments
"options": {
"shell": {
"executable": "C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\wsl.exe"
},
"args": []
}
}