Fix: Add env object syntax to launch.json schema for cppdbg and cppvsdbg

[Prashant Kumar Rai (8prashant)]

Problem

#12537 : Using the shorthand env object syntax in launch.json produces a false validation warning:

Property env is not allowed.

"env": {
    "PATH": "/usr/local/bin"
}

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds schema support for shorthand env objects in C++ launch configurations, addressing issue #12537.

Changes:

• Adds env schemas for cppdbg and cppvsdbg.
• Adds localized documentation for the syntax.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
Extension/package.json	Defines shorthand env objects.
Extension/package.nls.json	Documents the new schema property.

Suppressed comments (1)

Extension/package.json:6059

• The newly validated env form is silently ignored when this cppvsdbg configuration is started with Run Without Debugging. debugAdapterDescriptorFactory.ts:59-61 selects the inline adapter for these launch configurations, while runWithoutDebuggingAdapter.ts:62-80 reads only environment. Please merge config.env into the process environment (and cover that path in the existing no-debug tests), or treat env as unsupported so the normal adapter is used.

                            "env": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "description": "%c_cpp.debuggers.env.description%",

---

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[Bob Brown (bobbrow)]

I don't think we should have two properties that do the same thing (also, this PR does not update the optionsSchema.json which means the next time package.json is generated, this will be deleted).

Adding Andrew Wang (@WardenGnaw) for comment.

[Andrew Wang (WardenGnaw)]

Thanks for the contribution. This change will work for cppvsdbg because it can also deserialize env and env has higher precedence than environment.

One issue with this change is that cppdbg does not currently support it. MIEngine only reads the environment array.

Aside from updating the OptionsSchema.json. There needs to be a change to MIEngine to support this or limit the new schema entry to cppvsdbg.

The other option is to add a cpptools configuration-provider conversion from env to environment but that adds an additional layer of transforms / errors that can happen when p;umbling the environment variables to the target process.

[Prashant Kumar Rai (8prashant)]

Thanks Andrew Wang (WardenGnaw) for the review. I’ve pushed updates to address this by fixing the no-debug path so the inline adapter now merges both environment and env with env taking precedence, adding cppdbg normalization in the configuration provider to convert env to environment so MIEngine receives the format it currently supports, updating OptionsSchema.json so the new env schema entries are preserved during regeneration, and adding Run Without Debugging integration coverage to verify env is applied and correctly overrides duplicate environment entries. I intentionally kept this fix in cpptools rather than making MIEngine changes in this PR because it resolves both normal launch and Run Without Debugging immediately, whereas a MIEngine-only change would not cover no-debug, and this approach avoids cross-repo dependency and release-coordination risk while keeping the change scoped and low risk; native MIEngine env support can still be added later as a separate follow-up enhancement.

[Prashant Kumar Rai (8prashant)]

Hi Sean McManus (@sean-mcmanus)
Can u please review the changes again!!

[Sean McManus (sean-mcmanus)]

Prashant Kumar Rai (@8prashant) Yeah, sorry, I've been busy with other stuff and forgot about these PRs.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[Sean McManus (sean-mcmanus)]

Reviewed the current head; see the inline comments.

[Sean McManus (sean-mcmanus)]

✨Copilot (agent117): [Minor] The added scenario never exercises this conversion. It starts with { noDebug: true }, which selects RunWithoutDebuggingAdapter; that adapter independently consumes env, so the test would still pass if resolveEnvObjectForCppdbg were removed. Please cover the normal cppdbg path or directly assert the provider's resolved configuration, including env precedence, so the MIEngine compatibility behavior introduced here is protected.

[Sean McManus (sean-mcmanus)]

✨Copilot (agent117): [Minor] This can complete before the no-debug session has terminated: envTest.cpp writes its file before exiting, while the inline adapter emits terminated only after the terminal-shell execution ends. The test neither subscribes to onDidTerminateDebugSession before launch nor stops the session on failure, so it can leave an active session for later cases; the current Linux run has both following cases timing out while waiting for debug events. Please await this session's termination and clean it up in finally.

[Sean McManus (sean-mcmanus)]

✨Copilot (agent117): [Nit] Please use the structured { message, comment } form and lock the JSON example plus the literal environment key. The adjacent c_cpp.debuggers.environment.description does this; without locks, localization can translate schema syntax or property names and leave a misleading launch.json example.

[Sean McManus (sean-mcmanus)]

✨Copilot (agent117): [Nit] This new asset was committed with CRLF while the neighboring C++ assets use LF, so every added line is reported as trailing whitespace by git diff --check. Please normalize the file to LF.