Problems getting OpenGL to work in VSCode on Mac

Question

I am trying to complie a basic openGL program in VSCode on mac. I am using glad and GLFW, and I have the Glad files in the same folder as the test.cpp file I am trying to run. However, the include statement throws an error no matter how I type it. This is the program I am writing

#include <iostream>  
#include "glad.h"

However, it throws the errors: screenshot of errors

VSCode cannot find the header files the program needs to run, and the compiler throws errors as a result. I should add, that autocomplete for these libraries is working, however, the file cannot be found by the editor.

Here is the c_cpp_properties.json code

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Mac",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**"
            ],
            "defines": [],
            "macFrameworkPath": [
                "/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks"
            ],
            "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/clang",
            "cStandard": "c17",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "macos-clang-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

Perhaps the problem could be realted to how I am trying to compile the file? Here is my tasks.json file

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: g++ build active file",
            "command": "/usr/bin/g++",
            "args": [
                "-fdiagnostics-color=always",
                "-g",
                "${file}",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",

            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${fileDirname}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
        }
    ],
    "version": "2.0.0"
}

Any guidance on how to set this project up correctly, any advice would be greatly appreciated. For reference, here is the tutorial I am trying to follow: https://learnopengl.com/Getting-started/Hello-Window.

Thank you so much!

Please do not post images of errors, instead post text compiler output. — blami, Dec 21 '22 at 01:33

Milan Š. · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-21T01:29:57.557

I'll start by pointing out a few things that aren't really important.

VSCode is not a compiler, nor an IDE. VScode is a text editor. As a text editor it may have some extensions that help you with developing (thus turning it into a make-shift IDE).

What is happening here is that the compiler (gcc) doesn't know where to look for include files. It is even hinting you that you need to update the includePath in a way that you point it to the correct folder with the header files. In the CLI this is done via the -I flag i.e. g++ main.cpp -Ipath/to/your/include_folder/.

If you look into the Getting Started section they even go through these steps and go as far as to suggest the usage of CMake (which is a build tool that helps you generate the makefile with which you build your binaries).

By looking at the tasks.json I can conclude that the extension which you are using in VSCode uses this file to pass down the correct arguments to g++. So the quickest solution for you right now is to specify another element in args that points to the header files i.e.:

"args": [
            "-fdiagnostics-color=always",
            "-g",
            "${file}",
            "-o",
            "-Ipath/to/your/include_folder/with_the_headers", <----
            "${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",

        ],

Hope it helps!

That is incredibly helpful, I was having a hard time wrapping my head around how to pass the compiler the needed information. Thanks again! — Taylor Attix, Dec 21 '22 at 01:25

Problems getting OpenGL to work in VSCode on Mac

1 Answers1