C/C++ Pro: Fast C/C++ Extension for Visual Studio Code

C/C++ Pro combines the blazing index and AST completion speed of LLVM's clangd with the turnkey developer experience of modern IDEs. It provides instant symbol search, zero-configuration compiler discovery, integrated DAP debugging, native Visual Studio solution (.sln / .slnx) support, struct memory layout inspection, build time bottleneck analysis, and unit test discovery right out of the box.

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Wiki | Issues

Why C/C++ Pro?

Feature	Microsoft vscode-cpptools	Official vscode-clangd	C/C++ Pro
Completion & AST Latency	Slow (Disk AutoPCH, 500–1000ms)	Ultra Fast (In-memory AST)	Ultra Fast (clangd backend)
Workspace Indexing	Sluggish (SQLite token database)	Instant (Compacted AST index)	Instant (clangd index)
Out-of-the-Box Experience	High (Auto compiler detection)	Manual (Requires compile_commands.json)	Turnkey (Auto-probing & synthesis)
Integrated Debugging	Yes (cppdbg, cppvsdbg)	None (Manual launch configs)	Yes (Built-in lldb-dap, GDB, MSVC)
Visual Studio Solutions	Limited	None	Native (.sln, .slnx, .vcxproj)
Memory Layout Inspector	None	None	Interactive (Padding & cache lines)
Build Bottleneck Analysis	None	None	Yes (Clang -ftime-trace & include tree)
Test Explorer	Requires separate extension	None	Built-in (GTest, Catch2, doctest, Boost)
Configuration GUI	Yes (Webview panel)	None (Raw YAML)	Modern Webview Configuration Editor
Memory Footprint	Heavy (Multi-process cpptools-srv)	Lean (Single daemon)	Lean (Single daemon + DAP bridge)

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Features

1. High-Performance Language Intelligence

• Clangd Substrate: Fast semantic completions, instant signature help, precise go-to-definition, find-references, and rename refactorings.
• Rich AST Hover Transformer: Enriches documentation with standard library insights, algorithmic complexity guarantees, exception safety notes, and direct links to cppreference.com.
• C++ Postfix Completion Templates: Expand expressions fluently using postfix operators like .if, .for, .var, .unique, .shared, .cast, .return, and .beg...end.
• Inactive Preprocessor Region Dimming: Inactive #if, #ifdef, #elif, and #else code blocks are dimmed accurately based on compiler preprocessor evaluation.
• Automated Doxygen Generation: Type /** above functions, structs, or classes (or invoke the code action) to generate complete Doxygen docstrings with parameter and return tags.

2. Zero-Configuration Compiler & SDK Discovery

• Automatic Compiler Probing: Detects installed MSVC (cl.exe), Clang (clang++), GCC/MinGW (g++), and WSL toolchains without manual path configuration.
• Flags Synthesis: Generates compile_flags.txt on-demand via the Command Palette (C/C++ Pro: Generate compile_flags.txt) and synthesizes compilation flags for single-file scripts and unstructured projects.
• Ecosystem & SDK Discovery: Out-of-the-box detection of common graphics and system SDKs:
  • Vulkan SDK (C:\VulkanSDK\<version> or $VULKAN_SDK)
  • raylib (C:\raylib or /usr/local/include/raylib)
  • CUDA Toolkit ($CUDA_PATH)
  • Boost C++ Libraries (C:\local\boost_*, /usr/include/boost)
  • SDL2 / SDL3
  • vcpkg and Node-API (node-addon-api, nan) includes

3. Visual Studio Solution & Project Integration

• Solution Formats: First-class support for traditional .sln and the modern XML-based .slnx solution formats.
• Project Parsing: Extracts include directories, preprocessor definitions, language standards, and forced includes from .vcxproj files across all configurations (Debug/Release, x64/x86/ARM64).
• Compilation Database Generation: Generates a unified compile_commands.json covering all C++ source files in the active solution.
• MSBuild Task Provider: Generates build, rebuild, clean, and per-project tasks automatically accessible via VS Code's Task runner.

4. Integrated DAP Debugging & Run Controller

• Zero-Setup Debugging: Seamlessly hooks into lldb-dap, GDB (--interpreter=dap), or MSVC for native C/C++ debugging.
• Automatic Launch Generation: Pre-configured launch configurations with dynamic workspace variable resolution (${fileBasenameNoExtension}, ${workspaceFolder}).
• Interactive Process Picker: Select running processes to attach with cross-platform PID and name resolution.
• Evaluatable Expression Provider: Evaluate nested member accesses (a->b.c), indexed arrays (arr[i]), and pointers when hovering during debug breaks.
• Run & Debug Editor Title Actions: One-click play and debug buttons in the editor title bar with automated Visual Studio Developer Shell (vcvarsall) environment injection on Windows.

5. Type & Memory Layout Inspector

• Inspect struct and class memory layouts directly inside the editor (c-cpp-pro.inspectMemoryLayout).
• Visualize field byte offsets, member sizes, struct alignment, and wasted memory from padding holes.
• Visual indicators for 64-byte CPU cache line boundaries to optimize data structures for cache locality.

6. Include Tree & Build Bottleneck Visualizer

• Header Dependency Hierarchy: Analyze #include trees, detect circular inclusion cycles, and receive optimization tips for heavy headers (c-cpp-pro.analyzeIncludes).
• Clang -ftime-trace Profiling: Inspect Chrome tracing JSON files to pinpoint slow template instantiations and expensive header parse times (c-cpp-pro.visualizeTimeTrace).

7. Modern C++ Test Explorer

• Native VS Code Test Explorer integration for modern C++ testing frameworks.
• Automatically discovers tests, suites, and scenarios for:
  • GoogleTest (TEST, TEST_F, TEST_P)
  • Catch2 (TEST_CASE, SCENARIO)
  • doctest (TEST_CASE)
  • Boost.Test (BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE)

8. Macro Expansion & Compile-Time Evaluation

• Step-by-Step Macro Expansion: Preview complex object-like and function-like macro expansions directly at cursor position (c-cpp-pro.expandMacro).
• constexpr Evaluation: Preview compile-time evaluations and constant folding results (c-cpp-pro.evaluateConstexpr).

9. Inline Disassembly & Compiler Explorer

• Open inline assembly output alongside your C++ code (c-cpp-pro.viewDisassembly).
• Filter compiler directives, labels, and comments with customizable optimization flags (-O0, -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os, -Oz).

10. Semantic Symbol Hierarchy Graphs

• Generate Mermaid diagrams visualizing class inheritance and symbol relationships (c-cpp-pro.showTypeHierarchy).

11. Configuration Editor & Multi-Target Profiles

• Modern graphical Webview editor (c-cpp-pro.openSettings) to configure include paths, preprocessor defines, compiler paths, and C/C++ language standards.
• Supports .vscode/c_cpp_properties.json and Linux/RTOS Kconfig (.config) files.
• Visual Studio Developer Environment switcher (c-cpp-pro.setVsDeveloperEnvironment) to quickly initialize compiler environments.

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Getting Started

1. Install C/C++ Pro from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.
2. Open any C or C++ folder or source file.
3. If clangd is not installed on your system, C/C++ Pro will prompt you to automatically download and install a managed LLVM release.
4. C/C++ Pro detects your local compiler (MSVC, Clang, or GCC) and configures your project automatically.

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Key Commands

Command	Title
c-cpp-pro.openSettings	C/C++ Pro: Open Configuration Panel
c-cpp-pro.restartServer	C/C++ Pro: Restart Language Server
c-cpp-pro.switchSourceHeader	C/C++ Pro: Switch Header/Source (Alt+O)
c-cpp-pro.inspectMemoryLayout	C/C++ Pro: Inspect Type & Memory Layout
c-cpp-pro.analyzeIncludes	C/C++ Pro: Analyze #include Hierarchy & Dependencies
c-cpp-pro.visualizeTimeTrace	C/C++ Pro: Visualize Clang -ftime-trace Build Bottlenecks
c-cpp-pro.refreshTests	C/C++ Pro: Discover & Refresh Unit Tests
c-cpp-pro.expandMacro	C/C++ Pro: Expand Macro at Cursor
c-cpp-pro.evaluateConstexpr	C/C++ Pro: Evaluate constexpr Expression at Cursor
c-cpp-pro.viewDisassembly	C/C++ Pro: Open Inline Compiler Disassembly
c-cpp-pro.showTypeHierarchy	C/C++ Pro: Show Visual Type & Inheritance Hierarchy Graph
c-cpp-pro.selectSolution	C/C++ Pro: Select Active Solution (.sln / .slnx)
c-cpp-pro.buildSolution	C/C++ Pro: Build Solution (MSBuild)
c-cpp-pro.setVsDeveloperEnvironment	C/C++ Pro: Set Visual Studio Developer Environment
c-cpp-pro.generateDoxygenComment	C/C++ Pro: Generate Doxygen Documentation Comment
c-cpp-pro.runClangTidyOnActiveFile	C/C++ Pro: Run Clang-Tidy Analysis on Active File
c-cpp-pro.resetIndex	C/C++ Pro: Reset Clangd Symbol Index

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Configuration Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
c-cpp-pro.path	string	"clangd"	Path to the clangd language server executable.
c-cpp-pro.arguments	array	[...]	Command-line flags passed to clangd on startup.
c-cpp-pro.compilerPath	string	""	Path to the preferred C/C++ compiler. Auto-detected if omitted.
c-cpp-pro.cppStandard	string	"c++20"	C++ language standard (c++98, c++11, c++14, c++17, c++20, c++23, c++26).
c-cpp-pro.cStandard	string	"c17"	C language standard (c89, c99, c11, c17, c23).
c-cpp-pro.inactiveRegions.enabled	boolean	true	Dim inactive preprocessor blocks (#ifdef, #if 0).
c-cpp-pro.inactiveRegions.opacity	number	0.45	Opacity for dimmed preprocessor regions (0.1 to 1.0).
c-cpp-pro.postfixCompletions	boolean	true	Enable C++ postfix completion templates (.if, .for, etc.).
c-cpp-pro.doxygen.generateOnType	boolean	true	Auto-generate Doxygen comments when typing /**.
c-cpp-pro.codeAnalysis.clangTidy.enabled	boolean	true	Enable Clang-Tidy background linter analysis.
c-cpp-pro.debugger.preferred	string	"auto"	Preferred debugger backend (auto, lldb-dap, gdb, msvc).

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.