Why does VSCode not complain my #include when my path is not correct ( not enough ../ in path)-CodePudding

I have some C - code where in a cpp-file I include a header-file like that:

#include "../../../c/win/c_pp/include/abc.h"

Now my file abc.h is actually in a folder that should be addressed like this ( with an additional ../ ) :

#include "../../../../c/win/c_pp/include/abc.h"

The strange thing is:

There is no file abc.h in ../../../c/win/c_pp/include/ but VSCode does not complain and compiles fine. I can use either way. Why is that that the case?

CodePudding user response：

There are multiple possibilities:

First:

Your compiler gets additional arguments in the form of -I PATH or /I PATH.

-I .. would add .. to the given include path so transforming

#include "../../../c/win/c_pp/include/abc.h"

#include "../../../../c/win/c_pp/include/abc.h"

Therefore correctly accessing the correct file.

Second:

Your seem to use a mingw or similar toolchain on windows. If the correct path of "abc.h" in your filesystem is: "C:\win\c_pp\include\abc.h"

Prefixing this path with ".." (aka parent directory) does not change that.

So "../../../c/win/c_pp/include/abc.h" is the same as "../../../../c/win/c_pp/include/abc.h"

as "/c" or C: has no parent directory.

glaure@Harr MSYS /c
$ cd /c/           
                   
glaure@Harr MSYS /c
$ cd ..            
                   
glaure@Harr MSYS / 
$ cd ..            
                   
glaure@Harr MSYS / 
$

I hope that helps.

Bye Gunther