Configure Visual Studio Code for CMake with some options

Question

I want to use the CMake Tools extension for developing a CMake project in Visual Studio Code.

I build the project in the command line with following command:

PS project\build> cmake -G"Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" -DBOOST_ROOT=some\path -DQT_ROOT=another\path\ project\path

How can I set the same command with same options in the .cmaketools.json file that I've under the .vscode folder? I want to run it from inside the editor and, if possible, specify also the output folder instead of creating a build folder inside my project one.

This is my actual .cmaketools.json:

{
  "variant": {
    "label": "Debug",
    "keywordSettings": {
      "buildType": "debug"
    },
    "description": "Emit debug information without performing optimizations"
  },
  "activeEnvironments": [
    "Visual C++ 14.0 - amd64"
  ]
}

Answer 1

The .vscode\.cmaketools.json file is only the "workspace cache" of Visual Studio Code - CMake Tools Extension. See their code:

/**
 * The workspace cache stores extension state that is convenient to remember
 * between executions. Things like the active variant or enabled environments
 * are stored here so that they may be recalled quickly upon extension
 * restart.
*/

I think what you want is a .vscode\settings.json as described here with e.g. the following content:

{
    "cmake.generator": "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64",
    "cmake.configureSettings": { "BOOST_ROOT": "some/path", "QT_ROOT": "another/path" }
}