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Setup Visual Studio Code for Multi-File C++ Projects

Talha Balaj on February 04, 2020

C++ is a statically-typed general-purpose language middle-level programming language and superset of the C programming language used everywhere but...

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jrodriguez-v • Jun 26 '20 • Edited

I copy-pasted the Makefile content but when running make I was getting the error "mising separator. Stop".
I fixed adding a tab instead of spaces in lines 15, 16, 19 and 22:

run: clean all
[tab]clear
[tab]./$(BIN)/$(EXECUTABLE)

$(BIN)/$(EXECUTABLE): $(SRC)/*.cpp
[tab]$(CXX) $(CXX_FLAGS) -I$(INCLUDE) $^ -o $@ $(LIBRARIES)

clean:
[tab]-rm $(BIN)/*

Note: It woud be nice if the main.cpp file could be put in the root of the project folder, outside of src.

Great post by the way. I spent hours trying to compile in VS Code a multi file project before I seeing this.
Thanks!.

Talha Balaj • Jul 3 '20

I'm glad you found a work-around, I copy-pasted the makefile from my project, so maybe tabs were removed.

If you want main.cpp in your root directory of your project. try this.

$(BIN)/$(EXECUTABLE): $(SRC)/*.cpp main.cpp

Thank you, I'm glad it helped.

Faizan Mehmood • Dec 24 '23 • Edited

I did the setup as mentioned but I keep getting the following error

C:\temp\gcc\build-mingw-w64\mingw-w64-crt/../../src/mingw-w64-crt/crt/crt0_c.c:18: undefined reference to `WinMain'
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [bin/main] Error 1

Talha Balaj • Mar 11 '24

Its' not for windows.

Matías González • Jun 10 '20

Great guide!
But when setting up the ProblemMatcher, should it be added after the group {}, or as a field of the group

Talha Balaj • Jul 3 '20

Thank you!
After the group, like this.

{
    // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
    // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "build",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "make",
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
           "problemMatcher": "$gcc"
        }
    ]
}

Matías González • Jul 8 '20

Thanks! Actually VSCodium complains if you do it wrongly, but thanks for taking the time! 😁

Aholi2007 • Dec 29 '20

for me it always says:
make: The term "make" was not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program. Check the spelling of the name or whether the path is correct (if included),
and repeat the process.
In line: 1 character: 1

make
~~~~
- CategoryInfo: ObjectNotFound: (make: String) [], CommandNotFoundException
- FullyQualifiedErrorId: CommandNotFoundException

Talha Balaj • Jan 15 '21

You are using windows? or maybe PowerShell Core on Linux?

You need to install make on your System and you won't get error again.

Confuze • Nov 13 '22

Thank you so much for this guide!
For anyone struggling with intellisense errors, just add a file called c_cpp_properties.json in .vscode/ with the following contents:

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Linux",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/include/**"
            ],
            "defines": [],
            "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/clang",
            "cStandard": "c17",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "linux-clang-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}