Name debug console automatically using launch.json file

[alon710]

Today users can change consoles names manually after executing their code

I want to be able to change to console name before I launch my application using to launch.json configuration file
for example:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Module Name",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "module": "path.to.module",
            "consoleName": "My Console Name",
        }
    ]
}

More info here

[vscode-triage-bot]

This feature request is now a candidate for our backlog. The community has 60 days to upvote the issue. If it receives 20 upvotes we will move it to our backlog. If not, we will close it. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!

[gkesaev]

Great idea!

[Gagam9]

Pro!

[AjayChambers]

I answered this question on "Stack Overflow", which was a post also created by Alon, and initially I though I had offered up a solution that would work for him (solution is below). I wrote two tasks, the first task changed the name using an input(defined in tasks.json), and then I wrote another nearly identical task that used a second tasks.json input. I coupled the two tasks with the launch.json "hooks" in such a way that, one task would be set to "preLaunchTask", and it would change the name of the console while debugging, and the other would be set to "postDebugTask", and it would change the name back when the debugger finished debugging. At the time I was writing a VSCode extension, in VSCode (obviously), and I used that debugger to test the tasks I wrote for Alon. It worked beautifully! Often I try writing these wild little solutions to offer something new, and more times than not, they don't work out. My joy was short lived, as it turns out, the solution works for some cases, and not others. In this case, it worked for VSCode extension debugging, but not for Alon's Python Debugger. The reason for this, is because the preLaunch hook in launch.json is exactly that (Pre Launch); meaning, the debugger runs the task's code, then in, most cases, it attaches the debugger to a new console.

The tool to do this is already supported by VSCode. The VSCode command "workbench.action.terminal.renameWithArg" works perfectly, and the inputs that are defined in the tasks.json file, gives VSCode users the ability to set the argument. The only thing that is missing is a...

Post-launch hook

...which is needed for running a task after the Debugger runs. It would be nice if we could have, pre & post tasks, sorta like what NPM offers with package.json scripts. In a nutshell, launch.json would have the following properties for running tasks i the launch.json file:

• preLaunchTask
• postLaunchTask
• preDebugCloseTask
• postDebugTask

A lot more could be done with tasks & debugging if this were the case.

{
    // .../.vscode/launch.json

    "configurations": [
        {
            "args": ["--extensionDevelopmentPath=${workspaceFolder}"],
            "name": "Launch Extension",
            "outFiles": ["${workspaceFolder}/out/**/*.js"],
            "request": "launch",
            "type": "pwa-extensionHost",
            "preLaunchTask": "task|renameConsolePre",
            "postDebugTask": "task|renameConsolePost"
        }
    ]
}

{
  // .../.vscode/tasks.json
 
   "version": "2.0.0",

    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "task|renameConsolePre",
            "command": "${input:renameConsolePre}"
        },

        {
            "label": "task|renameConsolePost",
            "command": "${input:renameConsolePost}"
        }
    ],

    "inputs": [
        {
            "id": "renameConsolePre",
            "type": "command",
            "command": "workbench.action.terminal.renameWithArg",
            "args": {
                "name": "DEBUGGING" // Changes console name to this value
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "renameConsolePost",
            "type": "command",
            "command": "workbench.action.terminal.renameWithArg",
            "args": {
                "name": "BASH" // Resets console name to this value
            }
        }
    ]
}

[vscode-triage-bot]

🙂 This feature request received a sufficient number of community upvotes and we moved it to our backlog. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!

[cyrlop]

I would love to see this feature implemented!
If this happens, I guess it won't hurt to add the color and icon change as well since these three commands go together (see here)

workbench.action.terminal.rename
workbench.action.terminal.changeIcon
workbench.action.terminal.changeColor