Building and debugging C++ applications in a Docker container using Visual Studio Code.
When I originally created this repository, this was a good solution to the problem I had to solve. However, I think there's a better solution available now: the Visual Studio Code Remote - Containers extension.
I'd highly recommend using that approach for new projects.
Install Docker and Visual Studio Code, as well as the C/C++ and Docker extensions.
Then clone this repository (git clone https://github.com/tttapa/VSCode-Docker-Cpp.git), and open it in VSCode.
The first step is to build the Docker image: Press CTRL+P, type task build docker image and hit enter.
Then run the image in a container with task start docker container. You only have to do this the first time,
from now on, it will start automatically when you open VSCode (make sure to allow the task to run when prompted).
The first step is to run CMake in the container: task run cmake docker.
This will generate the makefiles needed to compile the code.
When CMake is finished, you can run Make to compile everything: task build all docker.
You can also use the CTRL+SHIFT+B shortcut to build.
Finally you can run the application: task run application docker.
To run the tests, use task run tests docker.
I'd recommend adding a shortcut for running the tests. I used CTRL+SHIFT+COMMA. You can add the shortcut by
pressing CTRL+K, CTRL+S to open the Keyboard Shortcuts settings, and search for Tasks: Run Test Task.
If you have the necessary tools installed (GCC, Make, CMake, Google Test, etc.) and if you are using a UNIX-like
operating system, you can also build and run the application and tests locally, without using Docker.
There are configured tasks available for this setup as well.
It is possible to run the application in the Docker container while using the VSCode debugger frontend.
Just go to the debug menu (CTRL+SHIFT+D), select the configuration Launch C++ Docker Debug, and press F5.
This will start the GDB server in the Docker container, and connects VSCode to it.
If you're on a UNIX-like operating system, you can also debug the application locally by selecting the
Launch C++ Local Debug configuration.
- When debugging an application in the Docker container, you don't have access to its standard in and outputs. You can still inspect the variables and step through the program, etc.
- Debugging in Windows is not possible: getting GCC to work on Windows is hard, and the VSCode debugger on Windows doesn't seem to be able to connect to a remote GDB server.
If you have a solution to any of these problems, please open an issue, and let me know!