In this tutorial, you will configure Visual Studio Code to use the GCC C++ compiler (g++) and GDB debugger on Ubuntu in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). GCC stands for GNU Compiler Collection; GDB is the GNU debugger. WSL is a Linux environment within Windows that runs directly on the machine hardware, not in a virtual machine.
Note: Much of this tutorial is applicable to working with C++ and VS Code directly on a Linux machine.
Configure VS Code for Microsoft C. In this tutorial, you configure Visual Studio Code to use the Microsoft Visual C compiler and debugger on Windows. After configuring VS Code, you will compile and debug a simple Hello World program in VS Code. This tutorial does not teach you details about the Microsoft C toolset or the C language. Apr 21, 2017 Getting Started with Visual Studio for C and C Development. You’ll find Visual Studio to be a powerful environment for C development. Visual Studio is an IDE packed with features, from code browsing, colorization and navigation, to autocompletion of symbols, a built-in compiler and build system, a top of the line debugger. Sep 19, 2019. You should first go to option create a new project in file menu. Then enter the name of project press OK and accept the defaults and press finish. Then a new terminal is opened for you on the screen. Then you should type a syntactically. By default, the Visual C compiler treats all files that end in.c as C source code, and all files that end in.cpp as C source code. To force the compiler to treat all files as C regardless of file name extension, use the /Tc compiler option. That being said, I do not recommend learning C language in Visual Studio, why VS? Oct 07, 2019 In simple terms, C is a sophisticated, efficient, general-purpose programming language based on C. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979. One of C's main features is the compiler. This is used to compile and run C code.
Visual Studio Code has support for working directly in WSL with the Remote - WSL extension. We recommend this mode of WSL development, where all your source code files, in addition to the compiler, are hosted on the Linux distro. For more background, see VS Code Remote Development.
After completing this tutorial, you will be ready to create and configure your own C++ project, and to explore the VS Code documentation for further information about its many features. This tutorial does not teach you about GCC or Linux or the C++ language. For those subjects, there are many good resources available on the Web.
If you have any problems, feel free to file an issue for this tutorial in the VS Code documentation repository.
Prerequisites
To successfully complete this tutorial, you must do the following steps:
Set up your Linux environment
Note: The setup steps for installing the g++ compiler and GDB debugger apply if you are working directly on a Linux machine rather than in WSL. Running VS Code in your helloworld project, as well as the editing, building, and debugging steps are the same.
Run VS Code in WSL
Navigate to your helloworld project folder and launch VS Code from the WSL terminal with
code . :
You'll see a message about 'Installing VS Code Server'. VS Code is downloading and installing a small server on the Linux side that the desktop VS Code will then talk to. VS Code will then start and open the
helloWorld folder. The File Explorer shows that VS Code is now running in the context of WSL with the title bar [WSL: Ubuntu].
You can also tell the remote context from the Status bar.
If you click on the Remote Status bar item, you will see a dropdown of Remote commands appropriate for the session. For example, if you want to end your session running in WSL, you can select the Close Remote Connection command from the dropdown. Running
code . from your WSL command prompt will restart VS Code running in WSL.
The code . command opened VS Code in the current working folder, which becomes your 'workspace'. As you go through the tutorial, you will see three files created in a
.vscode folder in the workspace:
Add a source code file
In the File Explorer title bar, select the New File button and name the file
helloworld.cpp .
Install the C/C++ extension
Once you create the file and VS Code detects it is a C++ language file, you may be prompted to install the Microsoft C/C++ extension if you don't already have it installed.
Choose Install and then Reload Required when the button is displayed in the Extensions view to complete installing the C/C++ extension.
If you already have C/C++ language extensions installed locally in VS Code, you'll need to go to the Extensions view (⇧⌘X (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+X)) and install those extensions into WSL. Locally installed extensions can be installed into WSL by selecting the Install in WSL button and then Reload Required.
Add hello world source code
Now paste in this source code:
Now press ⌘S (Windows, Linux Ctrl+S) to save the file. Notice how the file you just added appears in the File Explorer view (⇧⌘E (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+E)) in the side bar of VS Code:
You can also enable Auto Save to automatically save your file changes, by checking Auto Save in the main File menu.
The Activity Bar on the far left lets you open different views such as Search, Source Control, and Run. You'll look at the Run view later in this tutorial. You can find out more about the other views in the VS Code User Interface documentation.
Explore IntelliSense
In your new
helloworld.cpp file, hover over vector or string to see type information. After the declaration of the msg variable, start typing msg. as you would when calling a member function. You should immediately see a completion list that shows all the member functions, and a window that shows the type information for the msg object:
You can press the Tab key to insert the selected member; then, when you add the opening parenthesis, you will see information about any arguments that the function requires.
Build helloworld.cpp
Next, you will create a
tasks.json file to tell VS Code how to build (compile) the program. This task will invoke the g++ compiler on WSL to create an executable file based on the source code.
From the main menu, choose Terminal > Configure Default Build Task. In the dropdown, which will display a tasks dropdown listing various predefined build tasks for C++ compilers. Choose g++ build active file, which will build the file that is currently displayed (active) in the editor.
This will create a
tasks.json file in a .vscode folder and open it in the editor.
Your new
tasks.json file should look similar to the JSON below:
The
command setting specifies the program to run; in this case that is g++. The args array specifies the command-line arguments that will be passed to g++. These arguments must be specified in the order expected by the compiler. This task tells g++ to take the active file (${file} ), compile it, and create an executable file in the current directory (${fileDirname} ) with the same name as the active file but without an extension (${fileBasenameNoExtension} ), resulting in helloworld for our example.
Note: You can learn more about
task.json variables in the variables reference.
The
label value is what you will see in the tasks list; you can name this whatever you like.
The
'isDefault': true value in the group object specifies that this task will be run when you press ⇧⌘B (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+B). This property is for convenience only; if you set it to false, you can still run it from the Terminal menu with Tasks: Run Build Task.
Running the build
Modifying tasks.json
You can modify your
tasks.json to build multiple C++ files by using an argument like '${workspaceFolder}/*.cpp' instead of ${file} . You can also modify the output filename by replacing '${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}' with a hard-coded filename (for example 'helloworld.out').
Debug helloworld.cpp
Next, you'll create a
launch.json file to configure VS Code to launch the GDB debugger when you press F5 to debug the program. From the main menu, choose Run > Add Configuration.. and then choose C++ (GDB/LLDB).
You'll then see a dropdown for various predefined debugging configurations. Choose g++ build and debug active file.
VS Code creates a
launch.json file, opens it in the editor, and builds and runs 'helloworld'.
The
program setting specifies the program you want to debug. Here it is set to the active file folder ${fileDirname} and active filename without an extension ${fileBasenameNoExtension} , which if helloworld.cpp is the active file will be helloworld .
By default, the C++ extension won't add any breakpoints to your source code and the
stopAtEntry value is set to false . Change the stopAtEntry value to true to cause the debugger to stop on the main method when you start debugging.
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The remaining steps are provided as an optional exercise to help you get familiar with the editing and debugging experience.
Start a debugging session
Step through the code
Now you're ready to start stepping through the code.
Set a watch
Sometimes you might want to keep track of the value of a variable as your program executes. You can do this by setting a watch on the variable.
C/C++ configurations
If you want more control over the C/C++ extension, you can create a
c_cpp_properties.json file, which will allow you to change settings such as the path to the compiler, include paths, C++ standard (default is C++17), and more.
You can view the C/C++ configuration UI by running the command C/C++: Edit Configurations (UI) from the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)).
This opens the C/C++ Configurations page. When you make changes here, VS Code writes them to a file called
c_cpp_properties.json in the .vscode folder.
You only need to modify the Include path setting if your program includes header files that are not in your workspace or in the standard library path.
Visual Studio Code places these settings in
.vscode/c_cpp_properties.json . If you open that file directly, it should look something like this:
Closing the WSL session
When you are done working in WSL, you can close your remote session with the Close Remote Connection command available in the main File menu and the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)). This will restart VS Code running locally. You can easily reopen your WSL session from the File > Open Recent list by selecting folders with the [WSL] suffix.
Next steps
The C# support in Visual Studio Code is optimized for cross-platform .NET Core development (see working with .NET Core and VS Code for another relevant article). Our focus with VS Code is to be a great editor for cross-platform C# development.
VS Code supports debugging of C# applications running on either .NET Core or Mono.
For detailed instructions on:
Note:VS Code has limited support for debugging applications running on the Desktop .NET Framework.
Due to this focus, many standard C# project types are not recognized by VS Code. An example of a non-supported project type is an ASP.NET MVC Application (though ASP.NET Core is supported). In these cases, if you want to have a lightweight tool to edit a file - VS Code has you covered. If you want the best possible experience for those projects and development on Windows in general, we recommend you use Visual Studio Community.
Installing C# support
C# language support is an optional install from the Marketplace. You can install it from within VS Code by searching for 'C#' in the Extensions view (⇧⌘X (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+X)) or if you already have a project with C# files, VS Code will prompt you to install the extension as soon as you open a C# file.
In addition to the Microsoft C# extension, the community has produced other extensions.
Tip: The extensions shown above are dynamically queried. Click on an extension tile above to read the description and reviews to decide which extension is best for you. See more in the Marketplace.
Roslyn and OmniSharp
Visual Studio Code uses the power of Roslyn and OmniSharp to offer an enhanced C# experience. We offer support for:
On startup the best matching projects are loaded automatically but you can also choose your projects manually. The status bar will show what projects have been loaded and also allows you to select a different set of projects. To do so, click on the status bar projects item and select Change projects…. In the image below a single project has been picked up:
The available options include:
Once the project is loaded the enhanced experiences light up..
Editing Evolved
There is a lot to discover with C# and the editor, such as format on type, IntelliSense, the rename-refactoring, etc.
For a full description of our editing features, go to the Basic Editing and Code Navigation documentation.
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Here are a few highlights..
![]() IntelliSense
IntelliSense just works: hit ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space) at any time to get context specific suggestions.
Dev C Vs CodeblocksSnippets for C#
We have several built-in snippets included in VS Code that will come up as you type or you can press ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space) (Trigger Suggest) and we will give you a context specific list of suggestions.
Tip: You can add in your own User Defined Snippets for C#. Take a look at User Defined Snippets to find out how.
Search for Symbols
There are also features outside the editor. One is the ability to search for symbols from wherever you are. Hit ⌘T (Windows, Linux Ctrl+T), start typing, and see a list of matching C# symbols. Select one and you'll be taken straight to its code location.
C Dev In Vs Code 3![]() CodeLens
Another cool feature is the ability to see the number of references to a method directly above the method. Click on the reference info to see the references in the Peek view. This reference information updates as you type.
Note: Methods defined in
object , such as equals and hashCode do not get reference information due to performance reasons.
C Dev In Vs Code 4
Tip: You can turn off references information displayed in CodeLens with the
editor.codeLens setting.
Find References/Peek Definition
You can click on the references of an object to find the locations of its use in place without losing context. This same experience works in reverse where you can Peek the definition of an object and see it inline without leaving your location.
Quick Fixes / Suggestions
There are some basic quick fixes supported in VS Code. You will see a lightbulb and clicking on it, or pressing ⌘. (Windows, Linux Ctrl+.) provides you with a simple list of fixes/suggestions.
Next steps
Read on to find out about:
Common questionsMy Project won't load
VS Code only supports a limited set of project types (primarily .NET Core). For full .NET project support, we suggest you use Visual Studio Community.
IntelliSense is not working
This is typically as a result of the current project type not being supported. You can see an indication in the OmniSharp flame in the bottom left hand side of the status bar.
C Dev In Vs Code MacHow do I build/run my project?
VS Code supports tasks for build and natively understand the output of MSBuild, CSC, XBuild. Find out more in the Tasks documentation.
C Dev In Vs Code DownloadI'm missing required assets to build and debug C# in VS Code. My debugger says 'No Configuration'
The Visual Studio Code C# extension can generate the assets you need to build and debug. If you missed the prompt when you first opened a new C# project, you can still perform this operation through the Command Palette (View > Command Palette) by typing '.NET', and running .NET: Generate Assets for Build and Debug. This command will generate the necessary
launch.json and tasks.json configuration files (under the .vscode folder).
7/16/2018
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