Can I use a VS Code launch configuration to run Python without debugging?

Question

I understand that by creating a launch.json file in VS Code (slightly more cumbersome than pycharm), I can set debug configurations to launch individual python files.

For example:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        
        {
            "name": "Python: Poker",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "cwd": "C:/Users/dickr/git/poker",
            "program": "C:/Users/dickr/git/Poker/poker/main.py",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "env": {"PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}${pathSeparator}${env:PYTHONPATH}"}

        },
    ]
}

That all works great, but how can I run it in normal mode, without a debugger? How can this be defined in the launch configuration so I can select this in the dropdown, and potentially pass arguments with it?

Answer 1

Just use a launch configuration as you would for debugging. Then use Debug: Start Without Debugging in the command palette, or use a keyboard shortcut. It's bound by default to ctrl/cmd+f5. If you want to make a custom keyboard shortcut, its command ID is workbench.action.debug.run.

The VS Code Menu's "Run" menu should also have a "Run Without Debugging" item.

---

You could also write a task in a tasks.json file. For documentation on tasks, see https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_custom-tasks.

Your might look something like this:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "run python script",
      "type": "process",
      "command": "python3 C:/Users/dickr/git/Poker/poker/main.py",
      "options": {
        "cwd": "C:/Users/dickr/git/poker"
      },
      "presentation": {
        "reveal": "always",
      }
    }
  ]
}

though I'd suggest that if possible, you use variable substitution to try to get rid of the absolute paths that won't be the same on other machines (assuming you want to be able to run the task on other machines).

Then run the task. You can even bind the task to keyboard shortcuts. See the documentation for more info: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks.