[Bug] CTest Test Suite Delimiter causes error when building any targets

[HollowaySean]

Brief Issue Summary

While attempting to use the "CMake > CTest: Test Suite Delimiter" option, I found that if I use a delimiter which is used in any test name, then all build targets behave as normal, but then fail after the Build finished with exit code 0 message with the following error:
[rollbar] Unhandled exception: Unhandled Promise rejection: build SyntaxError: Invalid flags: dg {}

Note the following observed behavior:

• This only occurs if the delimiter is found in test names. i.e. my tests follow the name scheme of "Directory_File_method", and the failure occurs when I use an underscore, _, as the delimiter, but not if I use a character not present, such as a hyphen, -.
• This failure occurs even on targets completely unrelated to tests, such as compiling dependency submodules.
• This failure occurs for all types of target in my project, such as those labeled "Utility", "Executable", and "Meta"
• This failure occurs for all build variants in project
• This failure occurs whether the build is successful or unsuccessful
• The error is slightly different when attempting to run tests from the Testing pane:
  • [rollbar] Unhandled exception: Unhandled Promise rejection: refreshTestsAll SyntaxError: Invalid flags: dg {}

CMake Tools Diagnostics

{
  "os": "linux",
  "vscodeVersion": "1.103.2",
  "cmtVersion": "1.21.36",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "folder": "/home/sholloway/dev/BasilGL",
      "cmakeVersion": "4.1.1",
      "configured": true,
      "generator": "Unix Makefiles",
      "usesPresets": false,
      "compilers": {
        "C": "/usr/bin/gcc",
        "CXX": "/usr/bin/g++"
      }
    }
  ],
  "cpptoolsIntegration": {
    "isReady": true,
    "hasCodeModel": true,
    "activeBuildType": "Debug",
    "buildTypesSeen": [
      "Debug"
    ],
    "requests": [],
    "responses": [],
    "partialMatches": [],
    "targetCount": 41,
    "executablesCount": 4,
    "librariesCount": 6,
    "targets": []
  },
  "settings": [
    {
      "communicationMode": "automatic",
      "useCMakePresets": "auto",
      "configureOnOpen": true
    }
  ]
}

Debug Log

[main] Building folder: /home/sholloway/dev/BasilGL/build 
[main] Saving open files before configure/build
[build] Starting build
[driver] Start build Basil_test
[proc] Executing command: /usr/bin/cmake --build /home/sholloway/dev/BasilGL/build --config Debug --target Basil_test -j 4 --
[proc]   with environment: {"CHROME_DESKTOP":"code.desktop","CLUTTER_DISABLE_MIPMAPPED_TEXT":"1","DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS":"unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus","DEBUGINFOD_URLS":"https://debuginfod.ubuntu.com ","DESKTOP_SESSION":"ubuntu","DISPLAY":":0","ELECTRON_NO_ATTACH_CONSOLE":"1","GDK_BACKEND":"x11","GDMSESSION":"ubuntu","GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE":"/usr/share/applications/github-desktop.desktop","GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE_PID":"2963","GJS_DEBUG_OUTPUT":"stderr","GJS_DEBUG_TOPICS":"JS ERROR;JS LOG","GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID":"this-is-deprecated","GNOME_SHELL_SESSION_MODE":"ubuntu","GPG_AGENT_INFO":"/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent:0:1","GSM_SKIP_SSH_AGENT_WORKAROUND":"true","GTK_MODULES":"gail:atk-bridge","HOME":"/home/sholloway","INVOCATION_ID":"b736686a2d214654958ea8c29a9a787a","JOURNAL_STREAM":"9:16762","LANG":"en_US.UTF-8","LOCAL_GIT_DIRECTORY":"/usr/lib/github-desktop/resources/app/git","LOGNAME":"sholloway","MANAGERPID":"1474","MEMORY_PRESSURE_WATCH":"/sys/fs/cgroup/user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/org.gnome.Shell@x11.service/memory.pressure","MEMORY_PRESSURE_WRITE":"c29tZSAyMDAwMDAgMjAwMDAwMAA=","ORIGINAL_XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP":"Unity","PATH":"/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/snap/bin","PWD":"/home/sholloway","QT_ACCESSIBILITY":"1","QT_IM_MODULE":"ibus","SESSION_MANAGER":"local/sean-desktop:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/1819,unix/sean-desktop:/tmp/.ICE-unix/1819","SHELL":"/bin/bash","SHLVL":"0","SSH_AUTH_SOCK":"/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh","SYSTEMD_EXEC_PID":"1860","USER":"sholloway","USERNAME":"sholloway","VSCODE_CLI":"1","VSCODE_CODE_CACHE_PATH":"/home/sholloway/.config/Code/CachedData/6f17636121051a53c88d3e605c491d22af2ba755","VSCODE_CRASH_REPORTER_PROCESS_TYPE":"extensionHost","VSCODE_CWD":"/home/sholloway","VSCODE_ESM_ENTRYPOINT":"vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess","VSCODE_HANDLES_UNCAUGHT_ERRORS":"true","VSCODE_IPC_HOOK":"/run/user/1000/vscode-ae05fec0-1.10-main.sock","VSCODE_NLS_CONFIG":"{\"userLocale\":\"en-us\",\"osLocale\":\"en-us\",\"resolvedLanguage\":\"en\",\"defaultMessagesFile\":\"/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/nls.messages.json\",\"locale\":\"en-us\",\"availableLanguages\":{}}","VSCODE_PID":"3198","WINDOWPATH":"2","XAUTHORITY":"/run/user/1000/gdm/Xauthority","XDG_CONFIG_DIRS":"/etc/xdg/xdg-ubuntu:/etc/xdg","XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP":"Unity","XDG_DATA_DIRS":"/usr/share/ubuntu:/usr/share/gnome:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/var/lib/snapd/desktop","XDG_MENU_PREFIX":"gnome-","XDG_RUNTIME_DIR":"/run/user/1000","XDG_SESSION_CLASS":"user","XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP":"ubuntu","XDG_SESSION_TYPE":"x11","XMODIFIERS":"@im=ibus","ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE":"1","VSCODE_L10N_BUNDLE_LOCATION":"","NINJA_STATUS":"[%s/%t %p :: %e] "}
[build] [  1%] Built target libglew_static
[build] [  4%] Built target fmt
[build] [ 26%] Built target glfw
[build] [100%] Built target Basil_test
[driver] Build completed: 00:00:00.118
[cmakefileapi-parser] Read reply folder: /home/sholloway/dev/BasilGL/build/.cmake/api/v1/reply
[cmakefileapi-parser] Found index files: ["cache-v2-e5d83e85fc62ad307483.json","cmakeFiles-v1-9eb747e5f7aff816e64e.json","codemodel-v2-11fa938fd35898c7dc39.json","directory-.-Debug-f5ebdc15457944623624.json","directory-docs-Debug-c463161ff6ebad611835.json","directory-examples-Debug-1c8b83b621b6ef38a245.json","directory-examples.panes-Debug-e74b6a42e18bd07490a7.json","directory-examples.raytracer-Debug-6ae4615900137cc88e15.json","directory-examples.raytracer.glm-Debug-442b33c4fa8f2471c2d2.json","directory-examples.raytracer.glm.glm-Debug-aa7f325a6676e419b7c6.json","directory-examples.shadertoy-Debug-41a5d840df8860f903bd.json","directory-extern-Debug-d9e4f83ac47f6c6be250.json","directory-extern.catch2-Debug-0cb2a47c62b492a5e297.json","directory-extern.fmt-Debug-ba6d5518b1cfcd3fee4c.json","directory-extern.glew-Debug-746e5b3f048b4663e14e.json","directory-extern.glfw-Debug-c6a06dbe42ec955fb21a.json","directory-extern.glfw.src-Debug-06b54e1a243215744a6f.json","directory-extern.nlohmann_json-Debug-ee5e56e99da10cded55b.json","directory-src-Debug-b6cf2213fc5053b67c22.json","directory-tst-Debug-2ee6eb19ba6271739849.json","index-2025-08-30T19-52-51-0761.json","target-Basil_coverage-Debug-c149f23bb6f6d8dcc35b.json","target-Basil_docs-Debug-92e609767cb664f46c89.json","target-Basil_example_panes-Debug-7cee2fd1c2aec68f7b4b.json","target-Basil_example_raytracer-Debug-5eb932632639001c29a7.json","target-Basil_example_shadertoy-Debug-186cfa49c75fb605a8fd.json","target-Basil_lib-Debug-14dc355a4cf1cfe409a8.json","target-Basil_test-Debug-3bcb8e0ec922e88f309b.json","target-Continuous-Debug-4ff17107dbd813c11186.json","target-ContinuousBuild-Debug-8ee40323384ad1b79841.json","target-ContinuousConfigure-Debug-963a0abda38207e02932.json","target-ContinuousCoverage-Debug-27f1283f9e36f8aad7ab.json","target-ContinuousMemCheck-Debug-85f7b2c7930e9b0642d0.json","target-ContinuousStart-Debug-790d304973316cd2f398.json","target-ContinuousSubmit-Debug-5ac27bb37a7c92a02668.json","target-ContinuousTest-Debug-cbd3cbfa834c66207a1d.json","target-ContinuousUpdate-Debug-e7a677cc4975d1d50973.json","target-Experimental-Debug-dc8629535d3da8ff3a3d.json","target-ExperimentalBuild-Debug-2d884e66db8206ca1acb.json","target-ExperimentalConfigure-Debug-82f36012e7bb2e96c5c1.json","target-ExperimentalCoverage-Debug-d3496ba0d2130015d7b5.json","target-ExperimentalMemCheck-Debug-f72fe4d39b74d607f482.json","target-ExperimentalStart-Debug-46af2620230b4629e120.json","target-ExperimentalSubmit-Debug-50c4f8011d213c2c03be.json","target-ExperimentalTest-Debug-417bc13291ae9bec0fd5.json","target-ExperimentalUpdate-Debug-920f50c8faad0c66ebea.json","target-Nightly-Debug-f02a473a69a9a21c710b.json","target-NightlyBuild-Debug-c88c3cbae23b83bfe265.json","target-NightlyConfigure-Debug-2ff68c3ba22bc10e2875.json","target-NightlyCoverage-Debug-1f86c42fd5685a16cacb.json","target-NightlyMemCheck-Debug-981cf493e5e4d8598776.json","target-NightlyMemoryCheck-Debug-b62ec9d0548bda2950df.json","target-NightlyStart-Debug-e07cc7a8abe3a8bf1794.json","target-NightlySubmit-Debug-c4da5c4c834929d89d15.json","target-NightlyTest-Debug-14d0f7af336b9209327e.json","target-NightlyUpdate-Debug-c6c2ad16186f5988d863.json","target-fmt-Debug-27a6f019962f21a69181.json","target-glfw-Debug-8307d20fe097f3170f10.json","target-glm-Debug-cf3319f817b43e6d8b53.json","target-libglew_shared-Debug-f1a79bffe3cdcf1ef5c8.json","target-libglew_static-Debug-0c601c345c76410baff7.json","target-update_mappings-Debug-a1f7789c0e5677b41207.json","toolchains-v1-de13eb4a293a7f94668f.json"]
[expand] expanded ${workspaceFolder}/build
[build] Build finished with exit code 0
[cache] Reading CMake cache file /home/sholloway/dev/BasilGL/build/CMakeCache.txt
[cache] Parsing CMake cache string
[rollbar] Unhandled exception: Unhandled Promise rejection: build SyntaxError: Invalid flags: dg {}

Additional Information

I will try and set up an example repo which replicates this issue with minimal settings, and will update this thread if successful.

[yanghhhhhhh]

Hi @HollowaySean , thank you for reporting this issue. We tried to check this issue in Visual Studio Code v1.103.2 + CMake Tools v1.21.36. But we can't reproduce this issue. Could you help to take a look at it? If we missed something, please let us know. In order for us to investigate this further, could you please provide a sample project to us that can reproduce this issue? Thanks.

repro.webm

[9inefold]

@HollowaySean Do you have todo tree enabled? It modifies regex behaviour and can sometimes cause this issue

[yanghhhhhhh]

@HollowaySean Thanks for the report. Could you recheck this issue? If you are still able to reproduce this issue, in order for us to investigate this further, could you please provide a sample project to us that can reproduce this issue? Thanks.