Tasks: Shell Input

This extension aims to extend the possibilities of input in task execution. Currently, VSCode supports 3 types of inputs for your tasks:

• promptString
• pickString
• Command

None of them allows to get an input from a system command for example. This extension executes a shell command in your OS and each line of the output will be used as a possible input for your task.

Usage example:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Echo Project File",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "echo ${input:inputTest}",
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ],
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "inputTest",
      "type": "command",
      "command": "shellCommand.execute",
      "args": {
          "command": "cat ${file}",
          "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
          "env": {
              "WORKSPACE": "${workspaceFolder[0]}",
              "FILE": ${file},
              "PROJECT": ${workspaceFolderBasename}
          }
      }
    }
  ]
}

By default the extension returns the exact string value that was produced by the shell command and then shown and selected in 'Quick Pick' dialog. However, sometimes it is useful to show more descriptive information than the internal string value that is returned. This can be done by specifying a fieldSeparator and making the shell command return lines containing multiple fields separated by that value. Supported fields are:

<value>|<label>|<description>|<detail>

Here, <value> is what is returned as input variable and is not shown in the UI. Instead, <label> and <description> are shown on a single line and <detail> is rendered on a separate line. These fields can also include icons such as $(git-merge). All fields except <value> are optional and can be omitted. fieldSeparator can be any string value.

Next example shows a process picker very similar to the built-in ${command:pickProcess}:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Echo Process ID",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "echo ${input:processID}",
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ],
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "processID",
      "type": "command",
      "command": "shellCommand.execute",
      "args": {
          "command": "ps axww --no-headers k comm -o '%p|%c|%p|%a' | sed -e 's/^\\s*//' -e 's/\\s*|\\s*/|/g'",
          "fieldSeparator": "|",
          "description": "Select the process to attach to"
      }
    }
  ]
}

VSCode renders it like this:

Arguments for the extension:

• command: the system command to be executed (must be in PATH)
• cwd: the directory from within it will be executed
• env: key-value pairs to use as environment variables (it won't append the variables to the current existing ones. It will replace instead)
• useFirstResult: skip 'Quick Pick' dialog and use first result returned from the command
• useSingleResult: skip 'Quick Pick' dialog and use the single result if only one returned from the command
• fieldSeparator: the string that separates value, label, description and detail fields
• description: shown as a placeholder in 'Quick Pick', provides context for the input

In the moment it supports only file, fileDirName, workspaceFolder and workspaceFolderBasename vscode variables.