`showOutput` setting is not respected anymore if a build task is programmatically started when an extension is activated (appeared in 1.9)

[rotemdan]

• VSCode Version: 1.9.0
• OS Version: Windows 10 x64

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install the Blade Runner extension (an extension that starts a build task whenever a workspace is opened).
2. Set up a build task for the workspace.
3. Make sure showOutput is set to never in tasks.json.
4. Open the workspace.

In 1.8 everything worked as expected, the output panel didn't show up when showOutput was set to never or silent (and the task had a matcher). In 1.9 this doesn't seem to work anymore. So the output panel now pops up every time the project is opened (which is a bit annoying).

The source code used by the extension is:

import * as vscode from 'vscode'; 

export function activate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
    vscode.commands.executeCommand("workbench.action.tasks.build");
}

Is there a change in the API that needs to be addressed? or is this a bug?

[dbaeumer]

Is there anything in the output panel. A warning or error message? I added code that if the parsing of the tasks.json issues any error, warning or info message then I bring the output panel to front.

[rotemdan]

I looked at the output, typescript console, Git, extensions and developer tools, and couldn't see anything special.

The tasks output shows:

5:05:56 PM - Compilation complete. Watching for file changes.

TypeScript console shows:

[Info  - 17:07:06] Using tsserver from location: C:\Users\X\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\typescript\lib\tsserver.js

These all look normal.

The panel seems to pop-up immediately, before these messages.

I've also disabled all custom settings and all extensions except "Blade Runner" and that didn't seem to make a difference.

I tried to run the task manually and the panel didn't pop-up.

[rotemdan]

Here's my tasks.json:

{
    "version": "0.1.0",
    "command": "node",
    "isShellCommand": true,
    "args": [
        "node_modules/typescript/lib/tsc.js",
        "-w",
        "-p",
        "."
    ],
    "showOutput": "never",
    "problemMatcher": "$tsc-watch",
    "isBackground": true
}

[DeRoquefeuille]

I experience the same problem. I tried setting the global and the task specific setting of showOutput to never or silent and the ouput window still opens everytime.

[dbaeumer]

OK. This only seems to happen when the task is run the first time. Thereafter the output window is kept in the background when a task runs.

[dbaeumer]

OK. I found the issue. Caused by a change I did for 1.9 to support running tasks in the terminal. Will fix.

[dbaeumer]

Fixed.