Use $dir with backslashes escaped in VSCode settings

Question

I'm using the Code Runner for [VSCode][2] (Visual Studio Code) and I'm trying to change the run command for C++.

I have the following setting in my settings.json file:

// Set the executor of each language.
"code-runner.executorMap": {
    // ...

    "cpp": "cd $dir && g++ $fileName -o $fileNameWithoutExt && $dir$fileNameWithoutExt"

    // ...
}

Then when I press CTRL SHIFT P and press enter on Run Code to run my current C++ file, it produces the following command to be ran:

cd "c:\C++\" && g++ main.cpp -o main && "c:\C++\"main

But then the output of the command is:

bash: cd: c:\C++" && g++ main.cpp -o main && c:C++"main: No such file or directory

This is because as you can see in the command being run, it's trying to CD to "c:\C++\" but the \ characters are not being escaped and it causes the command to fail. If the command had all the \ characters escaped to look like "c:\\C++\\", it would run correctly.

I am using the git bash console for my integrated terminal.

How can I fix this issue and escape the path's retreived from the $dir variable in my settings.json file?

Answer 1

Try out the $dirWithoutTrailingSlash variable instead of $dir.

If that doesn't work, you can try making your own variables in codeManager.js located in %VSCODE_INSTALL%\Data\code\extensions\formulahendry.coderunner-%VERSION%\out\src\.

Add entries to the placeholders array located near line # 246. For example:

{ regex: /\$dirWithoutQuotesNorTrailingSlash/g, replaceValue: this.getCodeFileDirWithoutTrailingSlash() }

which I used to replace

{ regex: /\$dirWithoutTrailingSlash/g, replaceValue: this.quoteFileName(this.getCodeFileDirWithoutTrailingSlash()) }

because I couldn't use variables with explicit quotes in classpaths. You can also define your own function return values (like getCodeFileDirWithoutTrailingSlash) with regex right above it (circa line #222).

Answer 2

I recommend using make, it's more flexible that way, just create a makefile in the root folder with that content:

all:
    g++ main.cpp -o main.exe
    main.exe

Now you can run all target through the terminal by writing make all or just make (this will run the very first target which is all).

---

To quickly execute the target via code-runner, add this to settings.json:

"code-runner.executorMap": {
    "cpp": "make -s #", 
}

the -s flag stands for silently, i.e. do not output commands to the console, and # is a comment sign to comment out the path to the file that code-runner will add to the command.