Using “preLaunchTasks” and Naming a Task in Visual Studio Code

Question

According to the documentation, it is possible to launch a program before debugging:

To launch a task before the start of each debug session, set the

Answer 1

For vscode 1.36.1 (1.36.1):

tasks.json:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build:tsc",
      "type": "npm",
      "script": "build:tsc"
    },
    {
      "label": "clean",
      "type": "npm",
      "script": "clean"
    },
    {
      "label": "build",
      "dependsOrder": "sequence",
      "dependsOn": ["clean", "build:tsc"]
    }
  ]
}

launch.json:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Launch Program",
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/dist/main.js",
      "preLaunchTask": "build",
      "outFiles": ["${workspaceFolder}/dist/**/*.js"],
      "console": "integratedTerminal"
    }
  ]
}

Before running node ${workspaceFolder}/dist/main.js, the preLaunchTask will run build task firstly which includes two subtasks: clean and build. It will run clean task firstly, then run build task.

You can specify the label of a task to preLaunchTask option.