Is something wrong with my tasks.json settings?

July 2, 2022

I’ve been trying to use VSCode’s tasks.json settings to automate the compiling process of my code. When I run the task I get an infinite loading loop, no errors are shown just the loading symbol and nothing happens.

    {
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "MSVC Build",
            "type": "shell",
            "options": {
                "shell": {
                    "executable": "C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/2022/Community/Common7/Tools/LaunchDevCmd.bat"
                }
            },
            "command": "cl {$file} user32.lib && del *.obj"
        }
    ]
 }

I’ve tried to compile different files in case my code was wrong, the results remain the same, here’s an example.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int y = 6;
int x = 4;

int main(){
    cout << y + x;
}

Since there are no error messages there’s nothing that can point me to the problem.

This is what the console is displaying

It stalls before running the command and I have no idea why.

>Solution :

"executable": "C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/2022/Community/Common7/Tools/LaunchDevCmd.bat"

This above launches cmd.exe in the terminal of Visual Studio Code. Since LaunchDevCmd.bat never finishes, the queued command cl {$file} user32.lib && del *.obj does not run, until you enter exit in the running cmd.exe inside the terminal.

You definitely wanted

"executable": "C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/2022/Community/VC/Auxiliary/Build/vcvars64.bat"

Or any other .bat file in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build. It will not run a new cmd.exe, it will run directly in the terminal of Visual Studio Code.