Vscode C++ Task.Json Include Path and Libraries

How Do I Set Include Path Library Directory And Linker For VSCODE When I Have Visual C++ Build Tools To Work With (not g++)

As mentioned in the comments, you need to use a C++ build system to manage dependencies and build your project. VSCode does not come with any built-in build systems like Visual Studio does.

VSCode tasks allow you to specify a command line, which can then be invoked easily in the IDE. The task shown is just a "build active file" task, which is only really useful for trivial programs with no dependencies. It invokes cl.exe on the current source file (and passes a few other arguments).

You can specify include directories and pass arguments to the linker by adding to the "args" array in the task, e.g.:

"/I", "D:\\Code Libraries\\boost_1_77_0",
"/link", "/LIBPATH:\"D:\\Code Libraries\\boost_1_77_0\\stage\\lib\"",

which assumes that the boost headers and (statically built) libraries are at the specified locations.

You could probably work out how to build an entire project by adding command lines with VSCode tasks, but it's probably easier to use a build system (even if that system is CMake).

VSCode not recognizing includes from includepath

You did not tell your compiler anything about a file called Zipper.h or where it is loacted, or anything related to it. "g++ test.cpp -o test" just tells the compiler to compile a source file called test.cpp and link it. You have to understand that Visual Studio Code is not an IDE and can't compile by itself. You should have an file called c_cpp_properties.json file located in your .vscode directory. The one that i use for example looks like this and is configured for mingw64.

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Win32",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/Source/**"                
            ],
            "compilerPath": "C:\\mingw-w64\\mingw64\\bin\\gcc.exe",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-x64",
            "browse": {
                "path": [
                    "${workspaceFolder}"
                ],
                "limitSymbolsToIncludedHeaders": true,
                "databaseFilename": ""
            }
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

This tells Visual Studio Code where your source files and libraries are. This is what is used for IntelliSense (Syntax Highlights, Error Squiggles, Code Completion, etc). However this has absolutly nothing to do with building your project. Your compiler doesn't now know about the include path's you set in Visual Studio Code. So to compile your project you have to tell your compiler everything he needs to know. Visual Studio Code simply executes what you specify in the task. It's the same as going to that directory and type in the same thing in your command promt. So i recommend you to read up on how to compile a c++ project with g++, your problem is not related to Visual Studio Code at all. If youre planning on doing something thats a bit bigger than just a single source file i strongly suggest you to learn CMake. Compiling by manually calling gcc get's really complicated once you have more source files and includes / libraries to link. Once you have set up your Cmake you can just specify a task in Visual Studio Code similar to this one to build your project:

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "Build",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "cmake --build Build",
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            }
        }
    ]
}

I also recommend you to read this:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-mingw

This is a really good explanation of basicly exactly what you are trying to do by Microsoft and helped me understanding this when i started to use Visual Studio Code for my c++ work.

Visual Studio Code, #include stdio.h saying Add include path to settings

A more current take on the situation. During 2018, the C++ extension added another option to the configuration compilerPath of the c_cpp_properties.json file;

compilerPath (optional)
The absolute path to the compiler you use to build your project. The extension will query the compiler to determine the system include paths and default defines to use for IntelliSense.

If used, the includePath would not be needed since the IntelliSense will use the compiler to figure out the system include paths.

Originally,

How and where can I add include paths in the configurations below?

The list is a string array, hence adding an include path would look something like;

"configurations": [
    {
        "name": "Mac",
        "includePath": ["/usr/local/include",
            "/path/to/additional/includes",
            "/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.11.sdk/usr/include"
        ]
    }
]

Source; cpptools blog 31 March 2016.

The linked source has a gif showing the format for the Win32 configuration, but the same applies to the others.

The above sample includes the SDK (OSX 10.11) path if Xcode is installed.

Note I find it can take a while to update once the include path has been changed.

The cpptools extension can be found here.

Further documentation (from Microsoft) on the C++ language support in VSCode can be found here.

For the sake of preservation (from the discussion), the following are basic snippets for the contents of the tasks.json file to compile and execute either a C++ file, or a C file. They allow for spaces in the file name (requires escaping the additional quotes in the json using \"). The shell is used as the runner, thus allowing the compilation (clang...) and the execution (&& ./a.out) of the program. It also assumes that the tasks.json "lives" in the local workspace (under the directory .vscode). Further task.json details, such as supported variables etc. can be found here.

For C++;

{ 
    "version": "0.1.0", 
    "isShellCommand": true, 
    "taskName": "GenericBuild", 
    "showOutput": "always", 
    "command": "sh", 
    "suppressTaskName": false, 
    "args": ["-c", "clang++ -std=c++14 -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -pthread \"${file}\" && ./a.out"]
}

For C;

{ 
    "version": "0.1.0", 
    "isShellCommand": true, 
    "taskName": "GenericBuild", 
    "showOutput": "always", 
    "command": "sh", 
    "suppressTaskName": false, 
    "args": ["-c", "clang -std=c11 -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -pthread \"${file}\" && ./a.out"] // command arguments... 
}

Visual Studio Code: C++ include path

Okay, this was foolish, but in the event someone uses Visual Studio Code and does not have a trivial project. These instructions are assuming you're using clang compiler:

Open your project directory
Open .vscode/settings.json

Configure the line below inside of the JSON object:

// Compiler options for C++ (e.g. ['-std=c++11'])
"clang.cxxflags": [
    "-I/path/to/my/include/directory" // header files
],

Elegant solution to VS code C/C++ include path for both intelliSense and building project

Here's what I do: uninstall Microsoft's C/C++ extension and replace it with Clangd for code completion and Native Debug for debugging. I had better experience with those two, including easier configuration.

Clangd is configured by a single file called compile_commands.json, which is just a list of compiler flags for each source file.

Then, start using a proper build system. CMake, for example, can generate this file out of the box. For Make, there's a tool to generate it. In a pinch, you can write it yourself.