Why are certain flags hardcoded?

[FranciscoPombal]

Brief Issue Summary

Some flags like --no-warn-unused-cli are hardcoded.

Occasionally it could be useful to be able to see what CLI arguments are unused by looking at the Output view. Because this flag is currently hardcoded, this is not possible.

Here:

vscode-cmake-tools/src/drivers/driver.ts

Line 620 in 6adc289

const common_flags = ['--no-warn-unused-cli'].concat(extra_args, this.config.configureArgs);

Expected:

Don't hardcode certain flags that cannot be overridden even with configuration options.

Apparent Behavior:

It is not possible in anyway to run cmake from VSCode without certain flags, like --no-warn-unused-cli

CMake Tools Log

Not relevant

Developer Tools Log

Not relevant

Platform and Versions

• Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04
• CMake Version: 3.16.4
• VSCode Version: 1.42.1
• CMake Tools Extension Version: 1.3.0
• Compiler/Toolchain: Any

Other Notes/Information

I noticed that -j 4 was also appended to make when building (I am not sure if this is hardcoded or if it was autodetected). In this case, this is ok: make says -j can be supplied multiple times, and only the last one will take effect, allowing the user to override any hardcoded/auto-detected values in the extension config (note: the fact that buildToolArgs is (correctly) appended last is what also makes it possible).

[bobbrow]

This line has been there prior to us maintaining the extension. I suspect it was added for cases such as the one you mentioned as well as for always setting EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS even for build systems that don't support it.

To remove it, I think we'll have to audit the commands currently being added and ensure that they are always valid.

[dreua]

Tried adding "cmake.configureArgs": ["--warn-unused-cli"] but it is ignored by cmake.

Best workaround I found is copy and pasting the cmake invokation from output to terminal and then running without the no-warn-unused-cli.

[vaibhav1618]

I am not using the extension for configuring because of these unnecessary flags (have disabled all options to auto-configure). I have my source code on a nfs mount and with --no-warn-unused-cli flag, for some reason it doesn't print the full path of the files. So it prints this:
/home/vk/share/ns/ns1/infrastructure/common/src/sockformat.c

instead of this:

/misc/sjcinfrafiler/home/vk/share/ns/ns1/infrastructure/common/src/sockformat.c

(Note that while opening the workspace, I give the full path as other extensions like clangd work properly with that.)

Without the full path, Errors, Warnings etc don't get marked in the editor upon running the build. As a workaround, always configuring from terminal.

[github-actions]

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[VjayMathad]

A suggestion would be add these hardcoded things by default in settings.json file and let user decide to stay with those or modify them. The more customizable we make it. The more people would love it.
Also, I have set EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS "True" in a toolchain file which would be used by default from windows env variable (CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE). This would ensure me less interference of extensions in different IDE's. Because end of the day, it's the command/terminal that would be invoked for running any tool.