# Teaching VS Code where to find symbols in fpm dependency

**URL:** <https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643>\
**Category:** Visual Studio Code\
**Created:** [September 23, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643 "2024-09-23T15:24:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nshaffer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/nshaffer/32/161_2.png) [@nshaffer](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/nshaffer)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/1 "2024-09-23T15:24:06Z")

</div>

I am trying to play with gtk-fortran. Since it is a huge library, I’d like to take advantage of VS Code + Modern Fortran’s nice features for autocomplete, jump-to-definition, etc. I am using gtk-fortran as an fpm dependency and am able to run some of the simple examples that come with gtk-fortran.

The problem I am having is that VS Code cannot locate the gtk-fortran modules. For example, the linter flags the line `use gtk` and complains that there is no “gtk.mod” file. I confirmed that when I build the application, fpm puts all the gtk-fortran module files in one of the “build/gfortran\_…” directories. So I set up a workspace “settings.json” as follows:

```json
{
    "fortran.linter.includePaths": [
        "${workspaceFolder}",
        "${workspaceFolder}/build/*"
    ],
   "fortran.fortls.suffixes": [".in"]
}

```

However, VS Code still cannot find “gtk.mod” or any other gtk-fortran module.

Now, if I copy all the module files into the project directory, then VS Code _does_ find them and provides autocomplete, etc. for symbols provided by those modules. But I prefer not to copy these module over. I would think the search paths I provided should be able to detect modules in any fpm build subdirectory. Am I mistaken?

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**Author:** ![gnikit](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/gnikit/32/1213_2.png) [@gnikit](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/gnikit)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 5:14pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/2 "2024-09-23T17:14:17Z")

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I’m on the go so I’ll edit my response later, but if you use

```auto
"${workspaceFolder}/build/**"

```

It should include all directories under build.  
I can probably provide you with a task that installs things locally under workspace/build and you can point the linter to that, otherwise you won’t be fetching consistently the correct mod files of your project

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nshaffer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/nshaffer/32/161_2.png) [@nshaffer](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/nshaffer)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 10:56am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/3 "2024-09-25T10:56:00Z")

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Hm, I tried that too and it does not seem to help. I thought `${workspaceFolder}/build/**` should recursively search all directories. For completeness, here is the workspace directory structure

```plaintext
+---.vscode
| settings.json
| 
+---app
| main.f90
|   
+---build
| | .gitignore
| | cache.toml
| |           
| +---dependencies
| | \---gtk-fortran
| | [gtk-fortran sources, etc.] 
| |           
| +---gfortran_5C85107C14DBE362
| | | [gtk-fortran ".mod" files]
| | \---fsplits
| | [project & gtk-fortran ".o" and ".log" files]
| |           
| +---gfortran_B5ACFFEC01CB0F6A
| | \---app
| | fsplits.exe
| | fsplits.exe.log
| |           
| \---gfortran_E9E562C8AB03E1B8
| \---fsplits
| libfsplits.a
| libfsplits.a.log
|               
+---src
| handlers.f90
|       
\---test
        check.f90

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ivanpribec](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/ivanpribec/32/3290_2.png) [@ivanpribec](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/ivanpribec)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 12:21pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/4 "2024-09-25T12:21:07Z")

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Side question, what command do you use to display the file-tree?

---

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**Author:** ![FedericoPerini](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/federicoperini/32/1750_2.png) [@FedericoPerini](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/FedericoPerini)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 12:29pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/5 "2024-09-25T12:29:32Z")

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Perhaps not the elegant solution you’re looking for, but, would it make sense that you install gtk-fortran somewhere and then point to the installation directory? Something like

```sh
fpm install --prefix=/to/gtk/fortran 

```

will install all `.mod` files in `/to/gtk/fortran/include`

(you could customize `include` with `--includedir "custom_mod_dir"`).

That would create a stable folder at least for the dependencies in your project.  
PS I’m no VS code user so I may be suggesting something silly.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![egio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@egio](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/egio)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/6 "2024-09-25T12:37:52Z")

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I assume it is the command

```auto
tree

```

At least in Ubuntu it can be easily installed

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gnikit](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/gnikit/32/1213_2.png) [@gnikit](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/gnikit)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 9:44pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/7 "2024-09-26T21:44:03Z")

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If not in pre-release version please install it, set the logging level to Debug, and post the OUTPUT of Modern Fortran. That will help clarify what’s going on under the hood.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nshaffer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/nshaffer/32/161_2.png) [@nshaffer](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/nshaffer)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/8 "2024-09-27T00:15:02Z")

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Sounds good. I will try that and report back.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nshaffer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/nshaffer/32/161_2.png) [@nshaffer](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/nshaffer)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 11:57am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/9 "2024-09-28T11:57:04Z")

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Hi @gnikit, I’ve done the following:

1. Updated fortls to the latest version on PyPI (3.1.2)
2. Toggled to the pre-release version of the Modern Fortran extension (v3.4.2024090901)
3. Added a .fortls.json to enable “debug\_log”: true

I’ve attached both the fortls log and the VS Code extension log generated from a fresh session. I opened VS Code in the project workspace, gave the extension some time to load, saved “main.f90” to let the linter run, and hovered over a “use gtk” statement to get the problem tooltip.

[2-Modern Fortran.txt](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/uploads/short-url/2K3c7BtQPIGhXSCsKgcB6jJV39S.txt) (14.0 KB)  
[fortls\_debug.txt](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/uploads/short-url/hnhPgiZJ8h8ZZwJhFIfmDqYCCd0.txt) (9.7 KB)

If push comes to shove, I can continue just putting all the .mod files in the top-level directory while developing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gnikit](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/gnikit/32/1213_2.png) [@gnikit](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/gnikit)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 5:15am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/10 "2024-09-30T05:15:40Z")

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From the vscode logs I can tell that the linter paths are not properly resolved, only the manually specified `modOutpout` directory is present. On Windows, I think the separator is `\\` so your settings should look something like this:

```json
{
    "fortran.linter.includePaths": [
        "${workspaceFolder}\\lint\\**",
        "${workspaceFolder}\\build\\**",
    ],
   "fortran.fortls.suffixes": [".in"]
}

```

You will know that Modern Fortran has correctly expanded your linter includes when the following OUTPUT in the logs looks like this (this is on Linux)

```auto
[DEBUG - 07:58:29] [lint] glob paths:
[
  "${workspaceFolder}/build/vscode/**"
]
[DEBUG - 07:58:29] [lint] resolved paths:
[
  "/home/gn/Code/Fortran/fortran-lang/fpm/build/vscode",
  "/home/gn/Code/Fortran/fortran-lang/fpm/build/vscode/lib",
  "/home/gn/Code/Fortran/fortran-lang/fpm/build/vscode/include",
  "/home/gn/Code/Fortran/fortran-lang/fpm/build/vscode/bin"
]

```

Here is also a [link](https://github.com/fortran-lang/fpm/discussions/479#discussioncomment-2942179) for `tasks.json` and `launch.json` for integration with fpm. I think it only needs some minor edits to work on Windows.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jordan4ibanez](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/jordan4ibanez/32/5314_2.png) [@jordan4ibanez](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/jordan4ibanez)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 10:23am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/11 "2024-09-30T10:23:38Z")

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This is what I use for my projects.

```json
{
  "fortran.linter.compiler": "gfortran",
  "fortran.linter.includePaths": [
    "${workspaceFolder}/build/**"
  ],
  "fortran.fortls.directories": [
    "${workspaceFolder}/build/**"
  ],
  "fortran.formatting.formatter": "findent",
  "fortran.formatting.findentArgs": [
    "-i2"
  ],
  "todo-tree.regex.regex": "(//|#|<!--|;|/\\*|!|^|^[\\t]*(-|\\d+.))\\s*($TAGS)",
  // We don't want to see the mod files or the build directory because it clutters everything up.
  "files.exclude": {
    "**/.git": true,
    " **/**.mod": true,
    "build/": true,
    "scripts/": true
  }
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nshaffer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/nshaffer/32/161_2.png) [@nshaffer](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/nshaffer)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 10:04am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/teaching-vs-code-where-to-find-symbols-in-fpm-dependency/8643/12 "2024-10-05T10:04:24Z")

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Great, indeed the escaped forward slash is what was needed. I had also tried “${/}” as a path separator, but somehow that didn’t work…