Using VSCode for qBittorrent development

Introduction

VSCode is a popular open source text editor with IDE-like functionality.

This is guide will help you setup a basic configuration for a good qBittorrent development experience, from editing to compiling and debugging.

Currently this guide is mostly targeted at Linux users, but Windows/macOS users should be able to follow along, as most steps are the same or analogous.

Extensions

The main extension required is MS's VSCode C/C++ tools:

• ID: ms-vscode.cpptools
• URL: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.cpptools

Optionally, you may also install the CMake Tools extension, for integration with qBittorrents (still experimental) CMake build support.

• ID: ms-vscode.cmake-tools
• URL: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.cmake-tools

Workspace settings

After cloning the qBittorrent repository (to /home/user/Documents/qBittorrent, for example), open the folder in VSCode. This is now your workspace.

Editing

NOTE If you're using CMake Tools, it should be able to create c_cpp_properties.json itself and you wouldn't need to do following steps,

For all editor features such as code completion, navigation, hovers and error reporting to work properly you need to configure the C/C++ settings.

1. Create a folder called .vscode in the root of the workspace, if it does not exist already.

2. Create a file called c_cpp_properties.json inside the .vscode folder if it doesn't already exist with the following contents:

   {
       "configurations": [
           {
               "name": "Linux",
               "includePath": [
                   "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                   "/usr/include/libtorrent/**",
                   "/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/**"
               ],
               "defines": ["QBT_VERSION_MAJOR=4", "QBT_VERSION_MINOR=3", "QBT_VERSION_BUGFIX=0", "QBT_VERSION_BUILD=0", "QBT_VERSION=\"v4.3.0alpha1\"", "QBT_VERSION_2=\"4.3.0alpha1\""],
               "cppStandard": "c++17"
           }
       ],
       "version": 4
   }
   

   • You may change the paths to the Qt and libtorrent headers in the includePath. The paths in this example are the defaults for Ubuntu.
   • If using an alternative Boost library version (if you compiled from source, for example), make sure to specify the proper include path for it as well (e.g. "/opt/boost/**").
   • You may change the QBT_VERSION* defines to your preference. This is only needed because VSCode does not read the version defines from the version.pri file, so it throws errors whenever it sees them otherwise.
   • Feel free to browse the documentation of this file and customize more of the available options to your liking.

Compiling

Manually

You can use VSCode's integrated terminal to run qBittorrent's traditional compilation commands.

For example, on Ubuntu:

./configure --enable-debug
make -j2
# optional: creates a .deb package and installs to /usr/local/*
sudo checkinstall --nodoc --strip=no --stripso=no --pkgname qbittorrent --pkgversion 4.2.x-test

For more information see https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/wiki#compilation

Using tasks

You can use VSCode tasks to automate the above process and run it from within VSCode. See https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks for more information.

Using CMake + CMake Tools extension

CMake Tools support both building and running for different targets from CMakeLists.txt, so you should be able to compile, run, and debug without needing to create launch.json and tasks.json.

Running and debugging

Create a launch.json inside the .vscode folder.

Here is an example for launching/attaching either qbittorrent or qbittorrent-nox with GDB and Qt pretty printer functionality (see https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/wiki/Setup-GDB-with-Qt-pretty-printers). Change the executable locations if needed.

You will be able to set breakpoints/watchpoints, step through the code, view variable values, call stack, etc from within VSCode.

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "(gdb) Launch qbittorrent",
            "request": "launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "program": "/usr/local/bin/qbittorrent", // change if needed
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "externalConsole": false,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    // make sure we are in the root of the workspace
                    "description": "Change gdb's working directory to the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-environment-cd ${workspaceFolder}",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "Execute the commands from the .gdbinit file in the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-interpreter-exec console \"source .gdbinit\"",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one is needed for pretty printers to work in the variables view
                    "description": "Enable custom pretty printers to work on the variables view",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one enables standard pretty printing in the debug console
                    "description": "Enable standard pretty-printing in the gdb console",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print pretty on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: no limit on print output for arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print elements unlimited",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: pretty print arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: show array indexes",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array-indexes on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                }
            ]
        },
        {   
            "name": "(gdb) Launch qbittorrent-nox",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "/usr/local/bin/qbittorrent-nox", // change if needed
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "externalConsole": false,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    // make sure we are in the root of the workspace
                    "description": "Change gdb's working directory to the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-environment-cd ${workspaceFolder}",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "Execute the commands from the .gdbinit file in the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-interpreter-exec console \"source .gdbinit\"",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one is needed for pretty printers to work in the variables view
                    "description": "Enable custom pretty printers to work on the variables view",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one enables standard pretty printing in the debug console
                    "description": "Enable standard pretty-printing in the gdb console",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print pretty on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: no limit on print output for arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print elements unlimited",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: pretty print arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: show array indexes",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array-indexes on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "name": "(gdb) Attach qbittorrent",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "attach",
            "program": "/usr/local/bin/qbittorrent", // change if needed
            "processId": "${command:pickProcess}",
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    // make sure we are in the root of the workspace
                    "description": "Change gdb's working directory to the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-environment-cd ${workspaceFolder}",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "Execute the commands from the .gdbinit file in the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-interpreter-exec console \"source .gdbinit\"",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one is needed for pretty printers to work in the variables view
                    "description": "Enable custom pretty printers to work on the variables view",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one enables standard pretty printing in the debug console
                    "description": "Enable standard pretty-printing in the gdb console",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print pretty on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: no limit on print output for arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print elements unlimited",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: pretty print arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: show array indexes",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array-indexes on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "name": "(gdb) Attach qbittorrent-nox",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "attach",
            "program": "/usr/local/bin/qbittorrent-nox", // change if needed
            "processId": "${command:pickProcess}",
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    // make sure we are in the root of the workspace
                    "description": "Change gdb's working directory to the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-environment-cd ${workspaceFolder}",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "Execute the commands from the .gdbinit file in the root workspace folder",
                    "text": "-interpreter-exec console \"source .gdbinit\"",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one is needed for pretty printers to work in the variables view
                    "description": "Enable custom pretty printers to work on the variables view",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    // this one enables standard pretty printing in the debug console
                    "description": "Enable standard pretty-printing in the gdb console",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print pretty on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: no limit on print output for arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print elements unlimited",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: pretty print arrays",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                },
                {
                    "description": "GDB: show array indexes",
                    "text": "-gdb-set print array-indexes on",
                    "ignoreFailures": false
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}