how to pass multiple args to vscode task command? - visual-studio-code

Question

in tasks.json I am using the "args" property to specify the arguments to pass to "command":"gulp". But when I run the task in vscode, only the first argument is being passed to gulp.
I want to run a gulp task against a single file. In gulpfile.js I am using the process.argv array to retrieve the command line arguments. So, on the command line I enter "gulp copy3 --file abc.js" and the copy3 task is run. The code then reads the argv array to get the name of the file being copied.
this code works from the command line. But does not work when I run it as a task in vscode. How to do that?
the gulpfile.js code:
gulp.task('copy3', function( )
{
console.log(process.argv) ;
let pattern = '*.js' ;
// single file to copy
if (( process.argv.length >= 5 ) && ( process.argv[3] == '--file' ))
{
let fileName = process.argv[4] ;
pattern = fileName ;
}
console.log('pattern:' + pattern ) ;
return gulp.src(pattern).pipe(gulp.dest('dev'));
}) ;
the tasks.json file
{
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"taskName": "copy3",
"command": "gulp",
"args": [ "copy3", "--file", "${fileBasename}" ],
"problemMatcher": []
}
]
}
Here is the terminal output:
[10:52:57] Using gulpfile C:\vscTest\rpgproj\gulpfile.js
[10:52:57] Starting 'copy3'...
[ 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe',
'C:\\vscTest\\rpgproj\\node_modules\\gulp\\bin\\gulp.js',
'copy3' ]
pattern:*.js
[10:52:57] Finished 'copy3' after 16 ms
thanks,

Answer 1

I made a couple of small changes, try:
{
"label": "Tasks: copy3",
"type": "shell",
"command": "gulp",
"args": [ "copy3", "--file", "${fileBasename}" ],
"problemMatcher": []
}
and your entire code works perfectly. Make sure to reload vscode after modifying the tasks.json.

Answer 2

VSCode appears to have a built-in gulp extension. This seems to scan your gulpfile for tasks and list them for you. It also seems to ignore the args option.
The workaround is to use the full path to gulp as the command e.g. ./node_modules/.bin/gulp to bypass it.