Vscode: Task>Presentation should allow to clear the terminal output.

[dbaeumer]

[SE2Dev]

Does this issue refer to automatically clearing the terminal output when a task begins? I've been searching for a way to do that.

[dbaeumer]

Yes, this is the feature request.

[sanny-io]

I really wish this was a thing.

[pryszkowski]

+1

[leNEKO]

+1

[philipedwards]

+1

[mateuszuram]

Hi,
One way to do that is to add clear command before actual task command like below.
"command": "clear;ninja",
I'm using tcsh shell and ninja to build.
Regards,
Mat

[Geobert]

Does not work for me, VSCode on Win10.

[mateuszuram]

Windows doesn't have clear command, but you can try cls:
"command": "cls;ninja",

[Geobert]

No luck neither :(

Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.

> Executing task in folder cobalt.rs: cls;cargo check <

[RookieZn]

It works for me by just adding a "clear" command before my real task command. Like this

      "command":[
        "clear;",
        "clang++ -g -O0 a.cpp"
      ],

Do NOT miss the semicolon after "clear"

[Geobert]

Still no luck on Windows 10. using 1.25.

Funny enough, without the the semicolon, I lose all the command output:

> Executing task: cls cargo check <

Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.

[WSLUser]

@Geobert Try using WSL. The workaround will work there (on Linux side ofc) plus plenty of benefits to using it.

[Geobert]

I can't, Win 7 :(

[anssilap]

+1

I've tried so many workarounds for this it is starting to wear me out. Even a build task that depends on another task that clears the terminal doesn't work. I suppose because clearing uses "type": "process" and my gcc build task uses "type": "shell". I am either stuck periodically deleting all the new terminal instances created for each build or spending time figuring out where output of latest build ends and old one begins.

[mmatrosov]

Any progress on the issue? Any workaround working on Windows 10?

[dbaeumer]

As always a PR will help to speed things up.

[mikbal54]

cls command in task runner does not work. I dont like scrolling to the bottom to check the error messages.

[kostyan5]

+1 Also looking for this functionality.

[dbaeumer]

@alexr00 This would actually be a good first feature-request. Only limited changes.

[ambye85]

As a workaround, try creating a composite task, where the actual task you want to execute depends on the task to clear the terminal. For example:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "clear terminal",
      "type": "shell",
      "command":"clear",
      "presentation": {
        "echo": false,
        "reveal": "always",
        "focus": false,
        "panel": "shared",
        "showReuseMessage": false
      }
    },
    {
      "label": "mix test",
      "dependsOn":["clear terminal"],
      "type": "shell",
      "command":"mix",
      "args": ["test", "--color", "--trace"],
      "options": {
        "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
        "requireFiles": [
          "test/**/test_helper.exs",
          "test/**/*_test.exs"
        ],
      },
      "problemMatcher": "$mixTestFailure",
      "presentation": {
        "echo": false,
        "reveal": "always",
        "focus": false,
        "panel": "shared",
        "showReuseMessage": false
      }
    }
  ]
}

[Geobert]

As a workaround, try creating a composite task, where the actual task you want to execute depends on the task to clear the terminal.

At first I thought it worked, but it only "hides above" the previous launch (at least on Windows). If you scroll up, you'll see the previous launches output

[ambye85]

So it does. I hadn't noticed that. What's even more interesting is that if (in my example) I bin the Task - mix test terminal and run the task, then it only sometimes exhibits that behaviour, whilst at other times it "hides above".

For my example, it seems to be if I run a passing test suite then the behaviour is as I would expect, whether that is from the command pallet or a custom key binding. If I run a failing test suite at any time, it reverts to the "hide above" behaviour until I bin the terminal. I wonder why that would be?

Very frustrating. Is there perhaps a way to run a shell task, e.g. echo "" which takes the focus and then simulate a keypress to terminate the shell? This could then be run as a predecessor task. Or is there some way to execute the workbench.action.terminal.kill command from a task?

Another workaround, broadly similar to the above is to change the task to give the shell the focus. Rebind cmd+k or equivalent from workbench.action.terminal.clear to workbench.action.terminal.kill and then make this a step in the workflow (not great if the task runs for more than a second or so). It's another keypress but it's a step closer.

{
  "key": "cmd+k",
  "command": "workbench.action.terminal.kill"
}

[Geobert]

At home with my gaming mouse (with buttons on thumb side), I've done this exactly: focus term, press space, run task. But at work I don't have such mouse ^^'