[Bug] Compile File terminal closes immediately

[audetto]

Brief Issue Summary

When I click the icon "compile file" a terminal is created and closed as soon as the task completes, so I cannot see the list of errors.

The exit code 1 is correct since there is a compilation error, but the only reason that task exists is to let people compile single files and see the output.

CMake Tools Diagnostics

{
  "os": "linux",
  "vscodeVersion": "1.116.0",
  "cmtVersion": "1.23.51",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "folder": "/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e",
      "cmakeVersion": "3.28.3",
      "configured": true,
      "generator": "Ninja",
      "usesPresets": false,
      "compilers": {
        "C": "/usr/bin/gcc-14",
        "CXX": "/usr/bin/c++"
      }
    }
  ],
  "cpptoolsIntegration": {
    "isReady": false,
    "hasCodeModel": false,
    "activeBuildType": "",
    "buildTypesSeen": [],
    "requests": [],
    "responses": [],
    "partialMatches": [],
    "targetCount": 0,
    "executablesCount": 0,
    "librariesCount": 0,
    "targets": []
  },
  "settings": [
    {
      "communicationMode": "automatic",
      "useCMakePresets": "auto",
      "configureOnOpen": true
    }
  ]
}

Debug Log

[main] Saving open files before configure/build
[extension] [4607] cmake.compileFile finished (returned {"name":"File Compilation","processId":{},"creationOptions":{"name":"File Compilation","pty":{}},"state":{"isInteractedWith":false}})
[proc] Executing command: /usr/bin/c++ -DIMGUI_IMPL_OPENGL_ES2 -DIMGUI_USER_CONFIG=\"frontends/sdl/imgui/sa2_imconfig.h\" -DSDL_ENABLE_OLD_NAMES -DUSE_FILE32API -D_DEBUG -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/build/Debug-sdl3/source/frontends/sdl -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/imgui/imgui -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/imgui/imgui/backends -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/imgui/imgui_club/imgui_memory_editor -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/build/Debug-sdl3/source -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/linux/libwindows -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/libyaml/include -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/minizip/.. -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/zlib -isystem /home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/sdl3/install/include -g -std=gnu++17 -fPIE -Werror=return-type -Wno-switch -Werror=format -Wno-error=format-overflow -Wno-error=format-truncation -Wno-psabi -Wno-multichar -o source/frontends/sdl/CMakeFiles/sa2.dir/sdlappmain.cpp.o -c /home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/sdlappmain.cpp
[proc]   with environment: {"AC":"/opt/vms/andrea/emulators/AppleWin/AC/AppleCommander-ac-1.8.0.jar","ANDROID_HOME":"/home/andrea/Android/Sdk","CHROME_DESKTOP":"code.desktop","CITRIX":"/opt/Citrix/ICAClient","CLUTTER_DISABLE_MIPMAPPED_TEXT":"1","DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS":"unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus","DEBUGINFOD_URLS":"https://debuginfod.ubuntu.com ","DENO_INSTALL":"/home/andrea/.deno","DESKTOP_SESSION":"ubuntu","DISPLAY":":0","EDITOR":"emacs","EMSDK":"/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/emsdk","EMSDK_NODE":"/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/emsdk/node/22.16.0_64bit/bin/node","FC_FONTATIONS":"1","GDK_BACKEND":"wayland","GDMSESSION":"ubuntu","GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE":"/usr/share/applications/code.desktop","GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE_PID":"38789","GJS_DEBUG_OUTPUT":"stderr","GJS_DEBUG_TOPICS":"JS ERROR;JS LOG","GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID":"this-is-deprecated","GNOME_SETUP_DISPLAY":":1","GNOME_SHELL_SESSION_MODE":"ubuntu","GSM_SKIP_SSH_AGENT_WORKAROUND":"true","GTK_MODULES":"gail:atk-bridge","HOME":"/home/andrea","IM_CONFIG_CHECK_ENV":"1","IM_CONFIG_PHASE":"1","INVOCATION_ID":"7bdef42956244c179b58872d683c419a","IP65":"/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/ip65","JOURNAL_STREAM":"8:31192","LANG":"en_GB.UTF-8","LANGUAGE":"en_GB:en","LESSCLOSE":"/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s","LESSOPEN":"| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s","LIBVIRT_DEFAULT_URI":"qemu:///system","LOGNAME":"andrea","MANAGERPID":"6656","MEMORY_PRESSURE_WATCH":"/sys/fs/cgroup/user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/org.gnome.Shell@wayland.service/memory.pressure","MEMORY_PRESSURE_WRITE":"c29tZSAyMDAwMDAgMjAwMDAwMAA=","NVM_BIN":"/home/andrea/.nvm/versions/node/v21.5.0/bin","NVM_DIR":"/home/andrea/.nvm","NVM_INC":"/home/andrea/.nvm/versions/node/v21.5.0/include/node","PASSWORD_STORE_CHARACTER_SET":"a-zA-Z0-9?_!%*@+=","PATH":"/home/andrea/.local/share/pnpm:/home/andrea/bin:/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/emsdk:/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/emsdk/upstream/emscripten:/home/andrea/.cargo/bin:/home/andrea/.deno/bin:/home/andrea/.nvm/versions/node/v21.5.0/bin:/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/mxe/usr/bin:/home/andrea/.local/share/pnpm:/home/andrea/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin","PNPM_HOME":"/home/andrea/.local/share/pnpm","PWD":"/home/andrea","QTWEBENGINE_DICTIONARIES_PATH":"/usr/share/hunspell-bdic/","QT_ACCESSIBILITY":"1","QT_IM_MODULE":"ibus","SDL3_DIR":"/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/sdl3/install/lib/cmake","SDL3_image_DIR":"/home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/sdl3/install/lib/cmake/SDL3_image","SESSION_MANAGER":"local/ubuntu:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/6943,unix/ubuntu:/tmp/.ICE-unix/6943","SHELL":"/bin/bash","SHLVL":"0","SSH_AUTH_SOCK":"/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh","SYSTEMD_EXEC_PID":"6994","USER":"andrea","USERNAME":"andrea","VISUAL":"emacs","VSCODE_CODE_CACHE_PATH":"/home/andrea/.config/Code/CachedData/560a9dba96f961efea7b1612916f89e5d5d4d679","VSCODE_CRASH_REPORTER_PROCESS_TYPE":"extensionHost","VSCODE_CWD":"/home/andrea","VSCODE_ESM_ENTRYPOINT":"vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess","VSCODE_HANDLES_UNCAUGHT_ERRORS":"true","VSCODE_IPC_HOOK":"/run/user/1000/vscode-67951057-1.11-main.sock","VSCODE_NLS_CONFIG":"{\"userLocale\":\"en-gb\",\"osLocale\":\"en-gb\",\"resolvedLanguage\":\"en\",\"defaultMessagesFile\":\"/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/nls.messages.json\",\"locale\":\"en-gb\",\"availableLanguages\":{}}","VSCODE_PID":"38789","WAYLAND_DISPLAY":"wayland-0","XAUTHORITY":"/run/user/1000/.mutter-Xwaylandauth.8407N3","XDG_CONFIG_DIRS":"/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/etc/xdg","XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP":"ubuntu:GNOME","XDG_DATA_DIRS":"/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop","XDG_MENU_PREFIX":"gnome-","XDG_RUNTIME_DIR":"/run/user/1000","XDG_SESSION_CLASS":"user","XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP":"ubuntu","XDG_SESSION_TYPE":"wayland","XMODIFIERS":"@im=ibus","_":"/usr/share/code/code","ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE":"1","VSCODE_L10N_BUNDLE_LOCATION":"","APPLICATION_INSIGHTS_NO_STATSBEAT":"true","COPILOT_OTEL_ENABLED":"true","OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_GENAI_CAPTURE_MESSAGE_CONTENT":"true","COPILOT_OTEL_EXPORTER_TYPE":"file","COPILOT_OTEL_FILE_EXPORTER_PATH":"/dev/null"}
[proc] The command: /usr/bin/c++ -DIMGUI_IMPL_OPENGL_ES2 -DIMGUI_USER_CONFIG=\"frontends/sdl/imgui/sa2_imconfig.h\" -DSDL_ENABLE_OLD_NAMES -DUSE_FILE32API -D_DEBUG -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/build/Debug-sdl3/source/frontends/sdl -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/imgui/imgui -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/imgui/imgui/backends -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/imgui/imgui_club/imgui_memory_editor -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/build/Debug-sdl3/source -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/linux/libwindows -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/libyaml/include -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/minizip/.. -I/home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/zlib -isystem /home/andrea/projects/cvs/3rdParty/sdl3/install/include -g -std=gnu++17 -fPIE -Werror=return-type -Wno-switch -Werror=format -Wno-error=format-overflow -Wno-error=format-truncation -Wno-psabi -Wno-multichar -o source/frontends/sdl/CMakeFiles/sa2.dir/sdlappmain.cpp.o -c /home/andrea/projects/cvs/a2e/source/frontends/sdl/sdlappmain.cpp exited with code: 1
[proc] Error: 
	at Object.execute (/home/andrea/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.cmake-tools-1.23.51/dist/main.js:63094:24)
	at Object.open (/home/andrea/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.cmake-tools-1.23.51/dist/main.js:15823:38)
	at Db.startSendingEvents (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:501:57675)
	at ih.$startExtensionTerminal (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:501:63177)
	at i._doInvokeHandler (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:407:157693)
	at i._invokeHandler (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:407:157441)
	at i._receiveRequest (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:407:156223)
	at i._receiveOneMessage (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:407:155061)
	at rp.value (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:407:153136)
	at E._deliver (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:403:3043)
	at E.fire (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:403:3361)
	at as.fire (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:405:8437)
	at rp.value (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:831:9911)
	at E._deliver (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:403:3043)
	at E.fire (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:403:3361)
	at as.fire (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:405:8437)
	at MessagePortMain.<anonymous> (file:///usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:831:8082)
	at MessagePortMain.emit (node:events:519:28)
	at MessagePortMain._internalPort.emit (node:electron/js2c/utility_init:2:2959)

Additional Information

No response

[audetto]

Actually there is a real cmake / compilation / command error: in the little time I can see it, it complains about a missing ".

Just to be clear, a full build either inside VSCode or outside succeeds. There are no compilation errors.

[audetto]

Is is a recording of what happens. I have no idea what is it doing.

But this now happens in the office and at home on totally unrelated projects, different versions of linux, gcc, etc. Only common factor is recently updated VSCode and the extension.

This is the relevant line in compile_commands.json:

I take a screenshot to avoid quoting issue:

[audetto]

I think there are multiple issues at once here.

1. terminal disappearing
2. bad command line

If I try another file (without the \") in the command line, the compilation succeeds / fails normally, but the terminal goes again.

[yanghhhhhhh]

Hi @audetto , thanks for reporting issue here!
We can reproduce this issue on Visual Studio Code v1.116.0 + CMake Tools v1.23.51 release version. Our results did not display the error message, but when we tried to compile the file, the command did not respond. If we missed something, please let us know.

Repro Steps:

1. Quick start a new project on linux machine.
2. Open .cpp file, run command "CMake: Compile Active file" and observe the result.

Details please see following video:

Screencast.from.2026-04-20.16-49-27.webm

FYI: @gcampbell-msft