MinGW C Configuration

MinGW C Configuration

Description

Automatically injects MinGW build and debug configurations into the current VS Code workspace and creates a PowerShell terminal profile with the MinGW installation path set.

The extension is intended for Windows only.

Its very useful when:

• You are having problems with your system environment variables when using MinGW;
• You wish to have MinGW installed on a USB pen, e.g., you don't have administrative rights on the machine you're developing in.

Features

• Prompts the user for a MinGW installation folder;

• Adds a PowerShell terminal profile with MinGW path and make alias, so you can use gcc, gdb and make directly;

• Sets up the workspace configuration .vscode folder with:

  • tasks.json and launch.json to debug the program through VS Code UI;
  • c_cpp_properties.json that is required for the C/C++ extension (ms-vscode.cpptools) to configure intellisense in the editor.

Commands

Create or Update MinGW Configuration for C Language

Prompts the user for the MinGW installation folder and then performs the necessary updates to the workspace configuration folders.

Example launch.json Template

{
    "name": "Debug project (MinGW)",
    "type": "cppdbg",
    "request": "launch",
    "program": "${workspaceFolder}\\prog.exe", 
    "args": [],
    "stopAtEntry": false,
    "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
    "environment": [],
    "MIMode": "gdb",
    "externalConsole": false,
    "setupCommands": [
        {
            "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
            "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
            "ignoreFailures": true
        }
    ],
    "preLaunchTask": "Make debug (MinGW)",
    "miDebuggerPath": "{{gdbPath}}"            
}

where {{gdbPath}} is replaced with the gdb path of the prompted installation folder.

Limitations and Known Issues

The makefile of your C project should produce an executable called prog.exe for the configuration provided by the extension to work without any modification.

Extension Settings

The extension does not use any settings at the moment.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository on GitHub: https://github.com/brunomnsilva/mingw-c-configuration

2. Clone the repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/brunomnsilva/mingw-c-configuration.git
   

3. Install dependencies:

   • Make sure you have Node.js installed.

   • Inside the project directory, run:

     npm ci
     

4. Run and test the extension in VS Code:

   • Press F5 to open a new VS Code window with the extension loaded.
   • Test the functionality by using the "Create or Update MinGW Configuration for C Language" command.

5. Make a pull request.

Author

Bruno Silva

License

This extension releases under the MIT License.