Requirements
- MSYS2 installed and completed initialization
- VS Code installed
MSYS2
MSYS2 is a collection of tools and libraries providing you with an easy-to-use environment for building, installing and running native Windows software.
MinGW-w64 Toolchain
Execute in MSYS2 Shell:
$ pacman -S --needed base-devel
// (√)x86_64:
$ pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain
// i686:
$ pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-toolchain
And then check the gcc version info in MinGW64 Shell:
$ gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=C:\msys2\mingw64\bin\gcc.exe
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/lto-wrapper.exe
Target: x86_64-w64-mingw32
Configured with: ../gcc-11.2.0/configure --prefix=/mingw64 --with-local-prefix=/mingw64/local --build=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --target=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --with-native-system-header-dir=/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include --libexecdir=/mingw64/lib --enable-bootstrap --enable-checking=release --with-arch=x86-64 --with-tune=generic --enable-languages=c,lto,c++,fortran,ada,objc,obj-c++,jit --enable-shared --enable-static --enable-libatomic --enable-threads=posix --enable-graphite --enable-fully-dynamic-string --enable-libstdcxx-filesystem-ts --enable-libstdcxx-time --disable-libstdcxx-pch --disable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-lto --enable-libgomp --disable-multilib --disable-rpath --disable-win32-registry --disable-nls --disable-werror --disable-symvers --with-libiconv --with-system-zlib --with-gmp=/mingw64 --with-mpfr=/mingw64 --with-mpc=/mingw64 --with-isl=/mingw64 --with-pkgversion='Rev5, Built by MSYS2 project' --with-bugurl=https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/issues --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --with-boot-ldflags='-pipe -Wl,--dynamicbase,--high-entropy-va,--nxcompat,--default-image-base-high -Wl,--disable-dynamicbase -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc' 'LDFLAGS_FOR_TARGET=-pipe -Wl,--dynamicbase,--high-entropy-va,--nxcompat,--default-image-base-high' --enable-linker-plugin-flags='LDFLAGS=-static-libstdc++\ -static-libgcc\ -pipe\ -Wl,--dynamicbase,--high-entropy-va,--nxcompat,--default-image-base-high\ -Wl,--stack,12582912'
Thread model: posix
Supported LTO compression algorithms: zlib zstd
gcc version 11.2.0 (Rev5, Built by MSYS2 project)
Include Path
Save/copy paths between ’#include <…> search starts here:’ and ‘End of search list.’.
C++: gcc -v -x c++ -E /dev/null
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../include/c++/11.2.0
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../include/c++/11.2.0/x86_64-w64-mingw32
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../include/c++/11.2.0/backward
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/include
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../include
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/include-fixed
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/include
C: gcc -v -x c -E /dev/null
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/include
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../include
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/include-fixed
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/11.2.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/include
Environment Variables
DO NOT set $USERPROFILE as $HOME will break other programs(e.g. git-for-windows, openssh, etc.). For consistency, <MSYS2>\mingw64\bin will NOT be added to $PATH either.
VS Code
Install C/C++ Extension, then follow the steps below.
Configure extension according to the directory structure of demo project:
.
├── .vscode · vscode workspace settings
│ ├── c_cpp_properties.json · c/cpp prop.
│ ├── launch.json · debug
│ └── tasks.json · build task
├── src · source codes
│ └── main.cpp
└── bin · binary output
└── main.exe
Extension Configurations
c_cpp_properties.json
For C: Replace includePath with C includepaths, and set compilerPath as gcc.exe.
{
"configurations": [
{
"name": "mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc",
"includePath": [
"${workspaceFolder}/**",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../include/c++/10.3.0",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../include/c++/10.3.0/x86_64-w64-mingw32",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../include/c++/10.3.0/backward",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/include",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../include",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/include-fixed",
"C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/10.3.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/include"
],
"defines": [
"_DEBUG",
"UNICODE",
"_UNICODE"
],
"windowsSdkVersion": "10.0.19041.0",
"compilerPath": "C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/g++.exe",
"cStandard": "c17",
"cppStandard": "c++17",
"intelliSenseMode": "windows-gcc-x64"
}
],
"version": 4
}
launch.json
preLaunchTask needs to be consistent with label field in tasks.json.
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "g++.exe - Build and debug active file",
"type": "cppdbg",
"request": "launch",
"program": "${fileWorkspaceFolder}\\bin\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
"args": [],
"stopAtEntry": false,
"cwd": "C:/msys2/mingw64/bin",
"environment": [],
"externalConsole": false,
"MIMode": "gdb",
"miDebuggerPath": "C:\\msys2\\mingw64\\bin\\gdb.exe",
"setupCommands": [
{
"description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
"text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
"ignoreFailures": true
}
],
"preLaunchTask": "C/C++: g++.exe build active file"
}
]
}
tasks.json
{
"tasks": [
{
"type": "cppbuild",
"label": "C/C++: g++.exe build active file",
"command": "C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/g++.exe",
"args": [
"-g",
"${file}",
"-o",
"${fileWorkspaceFolder}\\bin\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
],
"options": {
"cwd": "C:/msys2/mingw64/bin"
},
"problemMatcher": [
"$gcc"
],
"group": {
"kind": "build",
"isDefault": true
},
"detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
}
],
"version": "2.0.0"
}
.\src\main.cpp:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout << "--- hello ---";
return 0;
}
Test
Run Build Task(CTRL+SHIFT+B):
> Executing task: C/C++: g++.exe build active file <
Starting build...
C:/msys2/mingw64/bin/g++.exe -g C:\Users\HUMOR\Desktop\c_cpp\src\main.cpp -o C:\Users\HUMOR\Desktop\c_cpp\bin\main.exe
Build finished successfully.
Start Debugging(F5):
> & 'c:\Users\HUMOR\.vscode\extensions\ms-vscode.cpptools-1.7.1\debugAdapters\bin\WindowsDebugLauncher.exe' '--stdin=Microsoft-MIEngine-In-r1nmqk1x.mud' '--stdout=Microsoft-MIEngine-Out-c440ha2q.azn' '--stderr=Microsoft-MIEngine-Error-o1qczzfj.1dz' '--pid=Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-vgmz3pnw.p52' '--dbgExe=C:\msys2\mingw64\bin\gdb.exe' '--interpreter=mi'
--- hello ---
Run Without Debugging(CTRL+F5):
> & 'c:\Users\HUMOR\.vscode\extensions\ms-vscode.cpptools-1.7.1\debugAdapters\bin\WindowsDebugLauncher.exe' '--stdin=Microsoft-MIEngine-In-5fcfpycg.2hx' '--stdout=Microsoft-MIEngine-Out-nnudexwd.kuo' '--stderr=Microsoft-MIEngine-Error-owqt32o4.s4r' '--pid=Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-2gm0d35o.zwf' '--dbgExe=C:\msys2\mingw64\bin\gdb.exe' '--interpreter=mi'
--- hello ---