How do I run multiple vscode tasks simultaneously? - visual-studio-code

Question

For example, running a typescript watch task & a gulp task at the same time. (Without using the terminal)

Answer 1

I use a tasks.json like this to run two watch tasks simultaneously:
{
// See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
// for the documentation about the tasks.json format
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"label": "Watch all",
"dependsOn": [
"Watch package 'core'",
"Watch package 'ui'"
],
"dependsOrder": "parallel",
"group": "build",
"problemMatcher": [
"$tsc-watch"
],
"isBackground": true
},
{
"label": "Watch package 'core'",
"type": "typescript",
"tsconfig": "packages/core/tsconfig.json",
"option": "watch",
"problemMatcher": [
"$tsc-watch"
],
"group": "build"
},
{
"label": "Watch package 'ui'",
"type": "typescript",
"tsconfig": "packages/ui/tsconfig.json",
"option": "watch",
"problemMatcher": [
"$tsc-watch"
],
"group": "build"
}
]
}
When you open the build menu in vscode then you can choose to run the two separate watch tasks or the "Watch all" task which runs the other two tasks.
I guess you can easily replace one of the watch tasks with your gulp task.

Answer 2

See running multiple tasks. You can use the "dependsOn" key in a version 2.0.0 tasks.json. Example from above link:
{
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
{
"taskName": "Client Build",
"command": "gulp",
"args": ["build"],
"isShellCommand": true,
"options": {
"cwd": "${workspaceRoot}/client"
}
},
{
"taskName": "Server Build",
"command": "gulp",
"args": ["build"],
"isShellCommand": true,
"options": {
"cwd": "${workspaceRoot}/server"
}
},
{
"taskName": "Build",
"dependsOn": ["Client Build", "Server Build"]
}
]
}
Apparently, this is still preliminary? and so difficult to find documentation unless I am just missing it. But I tested it and it works. It was added in vscode 1.10.

Answer 3

VS Code has a built in Task Runner that you can configure with multiple tasks.
In VS Code, type Ctrl+Shift+P and search for "Tasks: Configure Task Runner." A tasks.json file will be created. Here's some sample code showing how to configure multiple tasks.
{
"version": "0.1.0",
"tasks": [
{
"taskName": "tsc",
"command": "tsc",
"args": ["-w"],
"isShellCommand": true,
"isBackground": true,
"problemMatcher": "$tsc-watch"
},
{
"taskName": "build",
"command": "gulp",
"args": ["build"],
"isShellCommand": true
}
]
}
Run the task by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P and searching for "Task: Run task."
See more documentation at https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks.