Using preLaunchTask with Cmake Tools

After some fiddling I finally found out how to invoke cmake.build properly from within launch.json.

Steps:

• create a ba(t)ch file someFolder/prelaunch.bash:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $1 == 0 ] 
then
    printf "Build is OK :-)\n"
    exit 0
fi
if [ $1 == 1 ] 
then
    printf "**** Please build project first. ****\n\n"
    exit 1
else
    printf "**** Please fix build errors. ****\n\n"
fi
exit 2

• create the following task:

        {
            "label": "Check build",
            "type": "shell",
            "options": { "statusbar": { "hide" : true } },
            "presentation": {
                "echo": false,
                "focus": false,
                "reveal": "never",
                "revealProblems": "always"                                  // Use "always" to default to the "problems" window or "never" to default to the "output" window after build.
            },
            "command" : "someFolder/prelaunch.bash ${command:cmake.build}"
        }

• add the preLaunchTask to launch.json: "preLaunchTask": "Check build"

• change the source code of the extension (main.js in the VS code extensions folder):

    /**
     * Implementation of `cmake.build`
     */
    async build(target_) {
        this.m_promise_build = await this.runBuild(target_);          // add await to the build function
        //return this.m_promise_build;                                // comment this and add the following line 
        return JSON.stringify(this.m_promise_build);
    }

Is there any chance this modification gets into the releases? Or add an implementation (eg. cmake.prebuild)?

[bobbrow]

Oops! Yes you did. 😅 Try this instead:

  vscode.commands.executeCommand('cmake.selectLaunchTarget', undefined, "targetName");

The first parameter is a vscode.WorkspaceFolder (can be undefined if you want to use the currently “active” folder as context) The second parameter is the target name

[RolfNoot]

This is exactly what I did. I noticed it was possible to Ctrl+click the links in the terminal window indeed, however creating a dedicated .js (using the Powertools extension) provided the most flexible solution.

I created a .js file with the following command implementation:

exports.execute = async (args) => {
    const vscode = args.require('vscode');
    var ret = await     vscode.commands.executeCommand('cmake.build');
    if (ret == 0) return '';
    vscode.commands.executeCommand('workbench.action.problems.focus', 'CMake/Build');
    vscode.window.showErrorMessage("Your code didn't built well...\n\nTry some more :-)", { modal: true });
    return null;
};

Next, I called this command directly from the preBuildTask.