This builds your C++ in real time as you type by running c++live.bat (or c++live.sh) in any parent directory of the C++ source file you are editing. No longer need to press Ctrl-S or Ctrl-Shift-B when editing C++ files.
Example
There is an example you can play with. When C++Live extension is installed, activate Help -> Welcome in the main menu, click More..., then click Get Started With C++Live. Make sure all prerequisites are met, then click Open example. This will download and build Cut! and pre-compile the example. When everything is ready, start editing the main-windows.cpp (or main-linux.cpp) source file.
Prerequisites
In Windows, you can install everything from the command line:
Clear output doesn't clear output buffer is marked as Closed, but in fact the bug is still here. There is cpp-live.maxLines setting to make this bug less likely.
Due to the data race in tree-kill in Linux, it sometimes leaves child processes running.
Sometimes compiles old version.
Sometimes it cannot save the source file in Windows because taskkill.exe is failing (less likely with "cpp-live.jobify" set to true). VSCode shows a notification in the bottom right corner:
Failed to save 'your-file.cpp': Unable to write file 'c:\<path>\your-file.cpp' (Unknown (FileSystemError): Error: EBUSY: resource busy or locked, open 'c:\<path>\your-file.cpp').
Please don't worry and keep editing.
The example may run slow due to the use of a single CPU core when running libstdc++ from gcc-14. You might need to apply the patch.
The VSCode clangd extension can add #include directives automatically, which causes PCH to be recompiled.
tracker.exe not found - happens after Visual Studio update. Please delete output/env file or nuke the whole output directory.