VS Code FAQ

This section provides answers to commonly asked questions about VS Code.

Variable substitution

VS Code supports variable substitution in Debugging and Task configuration files as well as some select settings. Variable substitution is supported inside some key and value strings in launch.json and tasks.json files using ${variableName} syntax.

Predefined variables

• ${userHome} - the path of the user’s home folder
• ${workspaceFolder} - the path of the folder opened in VS Code
• ${file} - the current opened file
• ${fileBasename} - the current opened file’s base name
• ${fileDirname} - the current opened file’s folder path

Environment variables

• Through the ${env:Name} syntax (for example, ${env:USERNAME}).

Configuration variables

• You can reference VS Code settings (“configurations”) through ${config:Name} syntax (for example, ${config:editor.fontSize}).

How to define and use custom variables

There are two methods:

1. Define your environment variables and reference them using ${env:VARIABLE_NAME}.
2. Add custom settings in settings.json, and reference those in tasks.json using ${config:myCustomVariable}.