Posted on Jun 16, 2020

My VSCode / C++ / OpenCV / MacOS Config!

Hey folks!

If any of you have started configuring C++ in VSCode, you may know that it has a potential of being a pain in the ass. Configuring the use of other libraries only adds to that complexity!

I'm a total beginner with C/C++ so it was especially a challenge for me. It took a while before I found the set of configurations that worked with my environment, so I thought I would post mine.

Note: This is not a guide - I'm assuming you have all of the necessary parts installed. This is a good guide to start with the basic config for C/C++ with VSCode on a Mac.

Here's what I'm working with:

MacOS Catalinia 10.15.4
Homebrew
XCode
Clang
C++ 17
OpenCV 4
VSCode with C/C++ extensions installed

I used Homebrew to install OpenCV.

Here's my c_cpp_properties.json :

{ "configurations": [ { "name": "Mac", "includePath": [ "${workspaceFolder}/**", "/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/4.3.0/include/opencv4/**", "/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/4.3.0/lib" ], "defines": [], "macFrameworkPath": [ "/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks" ], "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/clang", "cStandard": "c11", "cppStandard": "c++17", "intelliSenseMode": "clang-x64" } ], "version": 4 }

My tasks.json :

{ "version": "2.0.0", "tasks": [ { "type": "shell", "label": "clang++ build active file", "command": "/usr/bin/clang++", "args": [ "-std=c++17", "-stdlib=libc++", "-g", "${workspaceFolder}/*.cpp", "-o", "${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}", "-I/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/4.3.0/include/opencv4/**", "-I/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/4.3.0/include/opencv4", "-L/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/4.3.0", "-lopencv_highgui", "-lopencv_core", "-lopencv_imgcodecs", "-lopencv_imgproc", "-lopencv_photo" ], "options": { "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}" }, "problemMatcher": ["$gcc"], "group": { "kind": "build", "isDefault": true } } ] }

As a note, everything after "-L/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/4.3.0", in args is specific to which OpenCV libraries I'm including.

And my launch.json :

{ // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes. // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes. // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387 "version": "0.2.0", "configurations": [ { "name": "(lldb) Launch", "type": "cppdbg", "request": "launch", "program": "${workspaceFolder}/loopi.out", "args": [], "stopAtEntry": false, "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}", "environment": [], "externalConsole": false, "MIMode": "lldb" } ] }

loopi is the name of my program.

I run the build task with Terminal > Run Build Task and in my terminal I run ./loopi with any other command line args needed (for instance, in my program takes a path to an image file - this is specific to your program and not the build task).

There ya go! Hope it saves someone some headaches and time.

I'm a beginner, so if anyone sees something uneccessary or awry, please do let me know!

With <3, happy coding!