Visual Studio Code creates the executable file outside of the intended folder - c++

Question

I am new to Visual Studio Code and I am just starting to learn the basics of using it to compile my C++ projects. I have ran into an issue where when having a folder 'opened' in Vs code, and then having an inner folder with my 'main.cpp' file inside of it, when compiled creates the 'main.exe' outside of the innerfolder, I don't want this to happen and want the executable which belongs to that main.cpp, inside of the inner folder so that both are stored in the same folder, to me that makes more sense than it being outside of the intended folder. I really don't know where to look to change this behaviour.
Here is an example of what I mean:
Update: Will post an answer to my own problem soon
Update2: I answered it in full detail for anyone ever having this problem/question

Answer 1

I came up with an easy solution. You only have to hide the files with extension .exe. With your answer many people get confused so you have to follow some steps.
step 1: go to files
step 2 : click on preferences-->then settings
step 3 : then search for "exclude file"
step 4 : select add pattern
step 5 : "**/*.exe" add this -->then click ok
step 6 : close the visual studio code then open it again

Answer 2

The process is very simple.
The following process shows how to create/make executable/.exe file in your provided/specific folder
goto Command Palette... by pressing Ctrl + Shift + P
press Backspace to remove > symbol
search tasks.json file, and hit Enter
-. in tasks.json file, you have to look for the following code (Note: this code can be shown 2 or 3 times in the file. Perform the operation for everyone)
"args": [
"-fdiagnostics-color=always",
"-g",
"${file}",
"-o",
"${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
],
replace the code "${fileDirname}\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe" with your new path, for example, i have a new folder named as "myNewFolder" in my workspace foler, i will replace it as
"${fileDirname}\myNewFolder\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
hit Ctrl + s to save changes
Now, the following process shows how to run/launch your executable/.exe file provide in your allocated folder/location
goto Command Palette... by pressing Ctrl + Shift + P
press Backspace to remove > symbol
search launch.json file, and hit Enter
look for the key named as "program"
-. it will be as follows
"program": "${fileDirname}\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
change the filepath. in my case, i will change it as follows
"program": "${fileDirname}\myNewFolder\$fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
Save changes

Answer 3

If you're using Code Runner extension, then :
Press Ctrl + Shift + P
step1
delete the ">" symbol (press Backspace to delete)
search "settings.json" which in AppData directory
step3
then you can look at "code-runner.executorMap", in "cpp" line. You can type that arguments
"code-runner.executorMap": {
"javascript": "node",
"java": "cd $dir && javac $fileName && java $fileNameWithoutExt",
"c": "cd $dir && gcc $fileName -o $fileNameWithoutExt && $dir$fileNameWithoutExt",
"cpp": "cd $dir && g++ $fileName -o $fileNameWithoutExt && $dir$fileNameWithoutExt", // <-- This
"objective-c": "cd $dir && gcc -framework Cocoa $fileName -o $fileNameWithoutExt && $dir$fileNameWithoutExt",
"php": "php",
"python": "python -u",
//etc.
},
"code-runner.runInTerminal": true,
Note :
Actually the argument in step 4 is default settings. So, you don't have to edit it if it's your first time using it.
but if u want to customize the argument (in most cases is used to change the output directory), that is the place you'll be used for.
e.g. in my case, I want to separate the .cpp and .exe files to "src" and "bin" folder, so :
"cpp": "cd $dir && g++ $fileName -o ..\\bin\\$fileNameWithoutExt && ..\\bin\\$fileNameWithoutExt",
result :
The separate folder look like : folder_screenshot
Terminal :
PS C:\Coding\C++\src> cd "c:\Coding\C++\src\" ; if ($?) { g++ string.cpp -o ..\bin\string } ; if ($?) { ..\bin\string }
Hi
Hope it works

Answer 4

PLEASE READ IT IS A FULL AND VERY DETAILED EXPLANATON ON A POTENTIAL BUG, WHICH COULD AFFECT WORKFLOW, VISUAL STUDIO HAS YET TO FIX THIS! I WILL REPORT THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
So I've been ripping my hairs out my head with this non-sense of a problem, but finally I have come to a conclusion that Visual Studio has a very hidden bug (since I was not able to find anyone with a similar question/problem), or very unclear documentation.
The initial problem was that if I were to have (I will give a clearer example below) an outer folder opened in Visual Studio Code with an inner folder inside which had the main.cpp file, Visual Studio Code would not budge and would put the main.exe file in the outer folder and not the inner one, you can imagine why this would become a problem if I had many other inner folders inside the outer one and all had their exe file called main.exe.
Let me give you an example of what I mean:
Suppose I have the following path (with main.cpp already having code inside) - outer-folder\inner-folder\main.cpp
Now I open the outer-folder in Visual Studio Code. The following is what it should look like if opened in Visual Studio Code for the first time, without having built or compiled anything
After opening outer-folder for the first time in Visual Studio Code
If I were to try and Ctrl + F5 this now, using the option given by Visual Studio Code of... C++ (GDB/LLDB) ---> g++.exe - build and debug active file, the following would be seen on screen:
After Ctrl + F5 and following options as stated in my explanation
In this case I am in my D: drive and in the example path stated at the beginning of my explanation. The error is saying that main.exe doesn't exist in the inner-folder, which is completely true, it exists inside the outer-folder. Why? Because we need to edit the tasks.json (already misleading information by Visual Studio Code, by inclining me to open the launch.json file, although they are correct to some extent since it is saying launch.json can't find the file to launch so maybe you got your path wrong in there, it would be helpful to also have another option for the tasks.json) which is located in the folder automatically made by Visual Studio Code .vscode along with launch.json.
When in the tasks.json file, there is a variable (if you may call that, though I think there is a different name for that), called args...inside that ([]) are the arguments that Visual Studio Code automatically passes in to the terminal to compile and build your C++ code. The details of all the arguments passed in aren't important for this problem, but the second one (${file}) is referring to the file which we are trying to run, as stated in https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/variables-reference (keep this open as we will need it), the next one (-o) is just telling it to output it like and where the forth argument specifies. The forth one is the really important one here, if we go back to the link which has a reference of the variables that Visual Studio Code provides, ${fileDirname} "should" infact mean the same as saying outer-folder\inner-folder...right? NO! It is wrong, it is actually saying outer-folder, which is the reason why main.exe is being built outside of inner-folder, so we already have a red flag of some type of misinformation from the docs or some type of bug.
Now as the docs that Visual Studio Code provide about gcc on VSC (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-mingw) we can change somethings, so that the program is built and output in a different location, to do so we need to go into the tasks.json and from there changing the forth argument in args to ${fileDirname}\\inner-folder\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe, now don't reach for the Ctrl + F5 key yet, I need to explain why that won't work, but first let's try something out...press Ctrl + Shift + B, that will build your program but not run it (if you are following this make sure to be building the correct file and not trying to build tasks.json itself lol), now when we do that we can see that another main.exe file will have been built and output in the correct location output is in the correct location. Ok now the docs on configuring mingw in Visual Studio Code suggest than now you can run your file by going to the terminal and running it from there (no need for an explanation on how to do that). What is the fun in that though what if you want to debug it? Here is where we are going to find another potential bug or very bad documentation surrounding this. If we open our launch.json now (this is the file that is ran when you press Ctrl + F5) and then we look at the variable (again I'm nearly 100% sure that is not what it is called but I don't know what to call it at this point) program: here is where you tell launch.json where the location to the file you want to run is, in our case it is where our main.exe should be located. Since we have fixed the issue with in the tasks.json and can now build with Ctrl + Shift + B every time we want to rebuild in the right location, we can now run with Ctrl + F5, right? NOPE! This is where the next bug/bad documentation comes along! If you look at the very bottom of the file there is a "preLaunchTask:" this is the name of the value stored in "label": back in our tasks.json, and it has to match perfectly so that launch.json knows which task to run when invoked. The problem is that even though they match automatically already (as their names are the same by default), it still doesn't work, Visual Studio Code for some reason say, YOU KNOW WHAT SACK YOUR TASKS.JSON WE WILL OVERWRITE THAT AND USE THE DEFAULT ONE! Even if your the default name matches the default on launch.json, it doesn't run your tasks.json it overwrites it with the default one (not 100% sure what it does but that is my best guess, as it 100% doesn't run our one), now the interesting bit is that when we change both the "preLaunchTask": and the "label": to the same thing just anything else than the default one (even add one more character anywhere but make sure both match), when we do Ctrl + F5 it now runs our tasks.json! Yet... all of this for nothing because at the end of the day we had to hard code that tasks.json and we would have to do that for every file that we want stored in some other inner folder! You can fix this (as I later found out) by just opening that folder (inner-folder) as the main one instead of the outer-folder, and boom problems fixed, but then you can't see your whole project as you would have been able to, had your outer-folder been opened.