Getting started with C++ and Visual Studio Code

A cross-platform installation guide for students

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you to setup Visual Studio Code for C++ development using GCC for compilation and GDB for debugging (or Clang for MacOS users). This is an adaptation of Microsoft's guides to using GCC with MinGW, GCC on Linux, and Clang on MacOS, and also this tutorial for GCC on Windows.

You will be guided through using the terminal, shell, or command line for some operations in this tutorial. If you are not familiar with terminal operations, do not worry - there are only a few commands you need to know and execute.

Once you have successfully installed Visual Studio Code, GCC, and GDB (or Clang), you will write, compile, and debug a basic Hello World program in C++ to get used to working with these tools.

Installation

For all operating systems

Do this first, then proceed to your OS

1. Download, install, and launch Visual Studio Code.

   • Additional guidance for: Windows, MacOS, Linux.
   • If you are on Windows, on the "Select Additional Tasks" page of the installer, you should enable the following settings:
     • Add "Open with Code" action to Windows Explorer file context menu
     • Add "Open with Code" action to Windows Explorer directory context menu
     • Register Code as an editor for supported file types
     • Add to PATH (requires shell restart)
     • You may also wish to create a desktop shortcut.

2. Install Microsoft's C/C++ extension for VS Code. You can find this by opening the Extensions tab in the left sidebar (the four blocks) and searching for "C++".

3. Proceed to the appropriate subsection below corresponding to your device's operating system.

   • If using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you may elect to follow the Linux path of this guide. However, note that your files will be created within the WSL environment, and may be difficult to access outside of the terminal.

Windows

This guide assumes you are running a recent version of Windows (10 or 11), 64-bit. To check this, go to your Start menu, then Settings, System, and About.

You should also have at least 2 GB of free space on the drive you intend to install to (most likely C:\).

Installing MSYS2

MSYS2 is a group of command line utilities including a package manager (pacman), which is how we will install GCC and its prerequisites on Windows.

• Follow Steps 1-5 of the official installation instructions.
  • The installer download link is provided in Step 1.
    • Alternatively, you can download the latest version of the installer from the GitHub releases page (click the arrow next to "Assets" and download msys2-x86_64-YYYYMMDD.exe).
  • You may leave the installation folder at the default path (C:\msys64). If you change this, record the new path so you can refer to it later.
  • At the end of the installer, ensure the "Run MSYS2 Now" box is checked so that MSYS2 launches immediately.

Installing MinGW

With the MSYS2 terminal open, run the following command to update packages:

pacman -Syu

If prompted, press Y and Enter to proceed with the installation. You may need to repeat this more than once. Once everything has been downloaded, you will need to enter Y once more, then the terminal will close to finish updating.

To re-open MSYS2, open your Start Menu using the Windows key, then search for MSYS2 MSYS. Note that there may be multiple programs beginning with MSYS2 - ensure you launch the MSYS2 MSYS one specifically.

To finish updates, run the following command:

pacman -Su

Again, if prompted, enter Y to continue. This may take some time.

Once you see a new shell prompt (like the one below), the updates are complete, so you can close the terminal.

user@desktop MSYS ~
$ 

Now, open a new MSYS2 MSYS terminal using the same method as before. Then, enter the following command to install the MinGW toolchain, which includes GCC and GDB:

pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain

Press Enter to accept the default number of packages. Note: pressing another key may cause pacman to install a different set of packages.

Note the Total Installed Size reported. Then enter Y to continue the installation. This may take some time.

Again, close the terminal once you see the new shell prompt.

Adding MinGW to your PATH

Next, you'll need to add the MinGW-w64 bin folder to your PATH environment variable.

1. Press the Start button, and in the Start menu, search for "environment".
2. You should see Edit the system environment variables - click this.
3. At the bottom of the window that appears, click Environment variables...
4. In the System variables section, look for Path.
5. Select the row for Path and click Edit... below.
   • If this button is disabled (greyed out), you can instead edit the Path under User variables.
6. On the right, click New.
7. Now you will need to add the correct directory to Path. Assuming you installed MSYS2 to the folder C:\msys64, add the following path to your Path variable. Otherwise, replace C:\msys64 with the directory to which you installed MSYS2.

C:\msys64\mingw64\bin

8. Select OK to save the updated Path. Close any active terminal, shell, or command prompt windows.

Verifying the installation

Next, open the Command Prompt by searching "cmd" in your Start menu. Then, run the following three commands:

gcc --version
g++ --version
gdb --version

The resultant output for each command should state the installed version of GCC, g++, and GDB, respectively. It should look similar to the following:

C:\Users\user>gcc --version
gcc (Rev7, Built by MSYS2 project) 13.1.0
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


C:\Users\user>g++ --version
g++ (Rev7, Built by MSYS2 project) 13.1.0
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.


C:\Users\user>gdb --version
GNU gdb (GDB) 13.2
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

If this is the case, you're done! Continue to the next major section, "Creating a Hello World program".

If this is not the case, follow these instructions from Microsoft to resolve the issue:

1. Make sure your PATH variable entry matches the MinGW-w64 binary location where the toolchain was installed. If the compilers do not exist at that PATH entry, make sure you followed the previous instructions.
2. Try rerunning the command pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain. Ensure you press Enter and no other key so all the packages are selected. If everything is okay, this should state that all packages are up to date (or similar). If not, missing packages will be installed.
3. If gcc has the correct output but not gdb, then you need to install the packages you are missing from the MinGW-w64 toolset.
   • If on compilation you are getting the "The value of miDebuggerPath is invalid." message, one cause can be that you are missing the mingw-w64-gdb package.
4. If you had a previous version of MSYS2 or MinGW installed, make sure to run the package manager update commands in the "Installing MinGW" section above, then remove the older version of MinGW from your system PATH environment variable, similar to how it is added in the "Adding MinGW to your PATH" section.

If this does not resolve your issue, ask your instructor for assistance.

MacOS

MacOS is slightly different from Windows and Linux because gdb is incompatible with Apple Silicon Mac devices.¹ This guide assumes you have administrator privileges on the device you wish to install on.

1. Open the Terminal.
   • From Finder, Go -> Utilities and scroll down.
   • Alternatively, use the spotlight search to search for Terminal.
2. Check if clang is already installed on your device by running the command clang --version.
3. If running clang --version results in a message like "command not found", run xcode-select --install to install clang. Otherwise, continue to the next section on "Creating a Hello World program".

Linux

This guide assumes that you are at least somewhat familiar with your distribution of Linux and the terminal. Instructions are provided for Ubuntu and Arch Linux, but should be similar for other distributions.

Check whether GCC, g++, and gdb are already installed using the following commands. Some distributions of Linux may have these packages preinstalled.

gcc --version
g++ --version
gdb --version

If these packages are not installed (i.e., a version is not provided), you will need to install them from your package manager. Your terminal may suggest a command for you to install the packages. Otherwise, the general process is to perform a package list update, then install the requisite packages with the following commands.

Once installed, make sure to re-run the three commands above to verify that the packages are working.

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential gdb

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S base-devel

Creating a Hello World program

Project Setup

First, you'll need to make a folder to store your program in. If you already have an existing folder for programming assignments, make a new folder called helloworld there. Otherwise, you can make a new folder on your desktop called projects (or similar).

You may elect to create the folder(s) via your operating system's visual interface, or through the terminal/command prompt. This guide assumes you are familiar enough with your OS to do this visually. Alternatively, the next section provides instructions for the terminal method.

Navigation and folder creation in the terminal

If you did not open the terminal directly in the desired folder, you'll need to change the working directory to that location using cd. To change directory to your desktop, run a command like the one below. Note that # denotes a comment line in shell scripts.

# Windows
cd C:\Users\user\Desktop
# Replace 'user' with your username

# MacOS or Linux
cd ~
# The character above is a 'tilde' character (found next to '1' on most keyboards). It is a shortcut for 'home' on Linux-based OSes.

Then, create projects/helloworld as follows:

# All OSes (Windows/MacOS/Linux)
mkdir projects
cd projects
mkdir helloworld
cd helloworld

Opening a VS Code workspace in your new folder

Again, you may decide to open VS Code visually, or via the terminal.

Visual Method

If you are on Windows, and you selected the Add "Open with Code" action to Windows Explorer directory context menu option in the VS Code installer, you can simply navigate to the directory you just created (if not already there), right-click, and click Open with Code.

For any OS, you may also launch VS Code, click File, then Open Folder. Your OS's file browser should appear to prompt you to select a location.

Terminal Method

Once navigated to your newly created directory using the instructions in the previous section, you should be able to run the command below to launch VS Code in the working directory (current folder):

# '.' is the current directory
code .

If this command does not launch VS Code, it is most likely that VS Code is not yet on your system PATH environment variable. If this is the case, try these instructions:

Windows

Follow the instructions for "Adding MinGW to your PATH" above, but add the following path instead (replace user with your account username): ```

C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin

MacOS

Per these instructions, launch VS Code, press Cmd+Shift+P, and type Shell Command. Then, run Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH. Provide permission if prompted.

Linux

Per these instructions, determine the location to which VS Code has been installed. Replace /path/to/vscode/Code below with the absolute path to the VS Code executable, and run the command:

sudo ln -s /path/to/vscode/Code /usr/local/bin/code

Creating a source file²

In the File Explorer title bar, select the New File button and name the file helloworld.cpp.

Adding source code

Copy and paste the following code into your new cpp file:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    vector<string> msg {"Hello", "C++", "World", "from", "VS Code", "and the C++ extension!"};

    for (const string& word : msg)
    {
        cout << word << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;
}

Now, press Ctrl+S (on Mac, this may be Cmd+S) to save the file. Notice your new file now appears in the File Explorer view of the VS Code sidebar:

You can also enable Auto Save to automatically save your file changes, by selecting File > Auto Save.

Using IntelliSense

IntelliSense is a set of features that help you code faster and more efficiently, including code completion, documentation on hover, parameter info, and member lists.

Try it out by hovering over vector or string to see their type information. If you type msg. in line 10, you can see a complete list of recommended member functions to call, all generated by IntelliSense:

You can press the Tab key to insert a selected member. If you then add open parenthesis, IntelliSense will show information on which arguments are required.

Troubleshooting

If you are using Windows, and IntelliSense is not already configured or is not working for you, try opening the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and enter Select IntelliSense Configuration. Select the appropriate compiler (GCC) from the list of available compilers.

If you are on MacOS or Linux, or the fix above did not work for you, ensure you have installed the C++ Extension pack by Microsoft for VS Code.

Running your program

The C++ extension uses the C++ compiler and debugger installed on your machine to build and run your program, respectively. Ensure that you have properly installed g++ and gdb (or clang++) before proceeding (see the subsection of "Installation" corresponding to your OS).

1. Open helloworld.cpp so that it is the active file.

2. From either the "Run" menu at the top of VSCode, run the program without debugging (or press Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+F5 on Mac).

3. If prompted to select a compiler, select g++ from the list of detected compilers.

   • You may need to select the "GDB/LLVM" or "Clang" option before seeing the full list as in the image below.
   • Be careful not to select the gcc or clang – you must use those suffixed with ++, or your C++ code will most likely fail to compile.
   • You'll only be asked to choose a compiler the first time you run helloworld.cpp. This compiler will be set as the "default" compiler in the tasks.json file.

• If you are on MacOS, select clang++. On Mac, g++ is set as an alias of clang++, which can be confusing and is not recommended for use.

4. After the build succeeds, your program's output will appear in the integrated Terminal.
   • The VS Code Terminal appears at the bottom of the screen when you run a program. You can toggle its visibility using Ctrl+J.

Congratulations! You've just run your first C++ program in VS Code!

If you are unable to run the program, try deleting the tasks.json file located under the .vscode subdirectory. Then, continue from Step 2 again, and try a different compiler.

tasks.json

If you'd like to further understand the tasks.json file generated by VS Code, visit the resources below. However, this isn't necessary for the scope of this tutorial.

• Windows
• MacOS (Scroll down)
• Linux (Scroll down)

Debugging your program

To debug your code, follow these instructions:

1. Go back to helloworld.cpp so that it is the active file.

2. Set a breakpoint by clicking to the left of a line number (a red dot should appear), or by pressing F9 on the current line.

3. From the drop-down next to the play button, select Debug C/C++ File.

   • This button has two modes: Run and Debug. It defaults to the last used mode, and the icon changes accordingly. If you'd like to repeat your last action, just click the button instead of using the drop-down menu.

4. As with running the file, choose the appropriate debugger (gdb or clang++) from the list of compilers installed on your system.

Exploring the debugger

Before you start stepping through the code, let's take a moment to notice several changes in the user interface:

• The Integrated Terminal appears at the bottom of the source code editor. In the Debug Output tab, you see output that indicates the debugger is up and running.

• The editor highlights the line where you set a breakpoint before starting the debugger:

• Note the "Debug Console" view. When a breakpoint is set, this allows you to perform in-depth debugging, like entering a variable name to see its current value. However, you cannot enter program user input (via cin) from this panel – you must use the "Terminal" view.

• The Run and Debug view on the left shows debugging information. You'll see an example later in the tutorial.

• At the top of the code editor, a debugging control panel appears. You can move this around the screen by grabbing the dots on the left side.

Step through the code

Now you're ready to start stepping through the code.

1. Click or press the Step over icon in the debugging control panel.

   

   • This will advance program execution to the first line of the for loop, and skip over all the internal function calls within the vector and string classes that are invoked when the msg variable is created and initialized. Notice the change in the Variables window on the left.

   

   • In this case, the errors shown are expected because the statement has not executed yet, even though the variable names are known to the debugger. Thus, there is currently nothing to read. The contents of msg are visible, however, because that statement has completed.

2. Press Step over again to advance to the next statement in this program, skipping over all the internal code that is executed to initialize the loop. Now, the Variables window shows information about the loop variables.

3. Press Step over again to execute the cout statement. Note that the C++ extension does not print any output to the Debug Console until the loop exits.

4. If you like, you can keep pressing Step over until all the words in the vector have been printed to the console. But if you are curious, try pressing the Step Into button to step through source code in the C++ standard library!

5. To return to your own code, one way is to keep pressing Step over. Another way is to set a breakpoint in your code by switching to the helloworld.cpp tab in the code editor, putting the insertion point somewhere on the cout statement inside the loop, and pressing F9. A red dot appears in the gutter on the left to indicate that a breakpoint has been set on this line.

6. Press F5 to start execution from the current line in the standard library header. Execution will break on cout. If you like, you can press F9 again to toggle off the breakpoint.

7. When the loop has completed, you can see the output in the Integrated Terminal, along with some other diagnostic information from the debugger. The output may vary by OS, but it should look similar to the image below.

   • Note the "Terminal" view is active. This will allow you to provide input to your program via cin, and is distinct from the "Debug Console" view.

Watching a variable

Sometimes you might want to keep track of the value of a variable as your program executes. You can do this by setting a watch on the variable.

1. Place the insertion point inside the loop. In the Watch window, click the plus sign, and in the text box, type word, which is the name of the loop variable. Now view the Watch window as you step through the loop.

   

2. Add another watch by adding this statement before the loop: int i = 0;. Then, inside the loop, add this statement: ++i;. Now add a watch for i as you did in the previous step.

3. To quickly view the value of any variable while execution is paused on a breakpoint, you can hover over it with the mouse pointer.

Custom debugging with launch.json

When you debug with the play button or F5, the C++ extension creates a dynamic debug configuration on the fly.

If you want to specify arguments to pass to your program at runtime, for instance, you may want to define a custom debug configuration.

To create one, choose Add Debug Configuration from the drop-down menu next to the play button.

Choose the appropriate debugger from the list of those installed on your machine.

If you open launch.json, you will see something that looks like this (for Windows, but other OSes will be similar outside of the filepaths):

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "C/C++: g++.exe build and debug active file",
      "type": "cppdbg",
      "request": "launch",
      "program": "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
      "args": [], // Add arguments here!
      "stopAtEntry": false,
      "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
      "environment": [],
      "externalConsole": false,
      "MIMode": "gdb",
      "miDebuggerPath": "C:\\msys64\\mingw64\\bin\\gdb.exe",
      "setupCommands": [
        {
          "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
          "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
          "ignoreFailures": true
        },
        {
          "description": "Set Disassembly Flavor to Intel",
          "text": "-gdb-set disassembly-flavor intel",
          "ignoreFailures": true
        }
      ],
      "preLaunchTask": "C/C++: g++.exe build active file"
    }
  ],
  "version": "2.0.0"
}

To add arguments, modify the array associated with the key "args". Entries of this array should be strings, even if your arguments are numeric.

To learn more about launch.json, see these resources:

• Windows
• MacOS
• Linux

Conclusion

Congratulations! In this tutorial, you've set up a C++ development environment with Visual Studio Code on your machine and gained experience with the VS Code workflow for C++, including debugging.

If your instructor has provided any next steps or another assignment, follow their instructions now. Otherwise, you are encouraged to continue experimenting with C++ in VS Code and using the debugger on your own.

Footnotes

1. To check if you have an Intel or Apple CPU, click the Apple icon in the top left, then About This Mac. The Chip field should list either "Intel" or "Apple" as appropriate. This guide is designed to be compatible with either, but Intel Macs may be able to install GCC and g++ using Homebrew and GDB using this method. ↩

2. The remainder of this tutorial directly follows Microsoft's guide. ↩