Question 134191 in Visual Studio Code Question posted in
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Visual Studio Code – How can I have multiple platform-specific workspace settings.json files? Is it possible?

Is there a way in Microsoft VS Code to create two files for settings.json (different names or different subfolder) and switch between them?

Background: We use the Java Extension in VS Code. Our source code repository contains the settings for a Java project in a Unix environment. In specific cases we want to run the code in Windows environment and need a different settings.json.

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  1. 0

    I have a nice workaround for this.

    Make two files, settings.json and _settings.json and keep them in the same folder, for example, C:/Users/USER/Project/.vscode.

    Now make a script or program that alternates their name.

    I’ll give an example Java Program.

    package com.example.program;

import java.io.File;

public class SettingsJSON{

  public static void main(String... args){
    final String dir = "C:/Users/USER/Project/.vscode/";  // Example path to directory.

    File s1 = new File(dir + "settings.json"), s2 = new File(dir + "_settings.json");

    s1.renameTo(dir + "temp.json");  // Temporarily renaming the file.

    s2.renameTo(dir + "settings.json");
    s1.renameTo(dir + "_settings.json");
  }

}

    Now just call the main method and you have the settings.json file switched.
    Since you’re using vscode, you’ll have an option above the main method to Run|Debug it. Click on that to run the program.

    You can even put this class in the same project or a different one if you wish.

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  2. 0

    Is there a way in Microsoft VS Code to create two files for settings.json (different names or different subfolder) and switch between them?

    Not by default- no.

    You can wait for this feature-request gets implemented (though you might be waiting a while): Allow to scope settings by platform
    #5595    . You can show your support for the issue ticket by giving a thumbs up reaction to the issue. But please don’t make a "me too" comment. "me too" comments generally come off as annoying to repo maintainers because they clutter up discussion and don’t contribute anything of significant value.

    In the meantime, you could create a script to do so with your technology of choice and write a VS Code task to run the script, but that sounds like a footgun for accidental thrashy git changes. I’d instead suggest writing two template files named something like .vscode/settings.unix.json and .vscode/settings.windows.json and committing those to version control, but putting .vscode/settings.json in the gitignore.

    Certain other settings already have mechanisms to allow you have different values for different platforms: terminal profile definitions, and keybindings. But those are more user settings and not workspace settings.

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