bazel-aliases

Give names to Bazel targets, allowing VS Code variables to refer to their output, environment, and working directory.

Overview

This extension adds the concept of an "active" Bazel target; set it with Bazel > Set Active Target or by clicking this extension's status bar item. The active target can then be built with Bazel > Build Active Target. It can also be used in commands (including launch.json files) via bazel-aliases.active.{output,outputPath,envFile,workingDirectory}.

If you'd like to have more than one "alias", define bazel-aliases.aliases in settings.json like so:

{
  "bazel-aliases.aliases": {
    "main": "//:main",
    "test": "//:test"
  }
}

Now the status bar item can be hovered to override these aliases, and new commands bazel-aliases.{main,test}.{output,...} will be available.

Commands

For an alias active (the default alias), the following commands are defined:

• bazel-aliases.active.build builds the target.

• bazel-aliases.active.output builds the target and yields its absolute path.

• bazel-aliases.active.outputPath yields the target's absolute path without building it.

• bazel-aliases.active.envFile builds the target and yields the absolute path to a file which contains the execution environment.

• bazel-aliases.active.workingDirectory builds the target and yields the absolute path of the working directory it would run under with bazel run.

• bazel-aliases.active.update sets the target corresponding to that alias for the current user/workspace.

Example

This is especially useful with CodeLLDB; here is an example launch.json which debugs the target referenced by main as if by using bazel run:

{
  "type": "lldb",
  "name": "Launch main executable",
  "request": "launch",
  "program": "${command:bazel-aliases.main.outputPath}",
  "envFile": "${command:bazel-aliases.main.envFile}",
  "cwd": "${command:bazel-aliases.main.workingDirectory}"
}