VSCode C/C extension IntelliSense not working on Linux
Jul 13, 2025 am 12:08 AMIntelliSense cannot work properly. You can check the following steps: 1. Confirm that Microsoft's official C/C extension is installed and enabled, and restart VSCode if necessary; 2. Configure includePath, compilerPath and other fields in the c_cpp_properties.json file to ensure the correct path; 3. Perform Reset Database to rebuild the index and check the log; 4. Troubleshoot permissions, special characters in the path and remote development environment problems.
If you find that IntelliSense does not work properly when using VSCode's C/C extension (provided by Microsoft) on Linux, such as not having automatic completion, invalid jump definitions or missing code prompts, then this article should help you troubleshoot problems.

1. Check whether the extension is installed correctly and enabled
Make sure you have installed the official C/C extension, written by Microsoft. Sometimes users may mistakenly install other plug-ins with similar names, resulting in incomplete functions.

- Open VSCode and click the extension icon in the activity bar on the left (or press
Ctrl Shift X
) - Search for "C/C" and confirm that the installation is the one provided by Microsoft
- If it is installed but disabled, click "Enable"
Also, sometimes VSCode needs to be reloaded or restarted to make the plugin take effect. You can try refreshing by entering Reload Window
through the command panel ( Ctrl Shift P
).
2. Configure the c_cpp_properties.json
file
Whether IntelliSense works properly depends largely on whether your compiler path and include path are configured correctly.

- Find or create a
c_cpp_properties.json
file under the.vscode
folder - Make sure that
"includePath"
contains all the header file paths used in your project, including the system header file paths
For example:
{ "configurations": [ { "name": "Linux", "includePath": [ "${workspaceFolder}/**", "/usr/include", "/usr/local/include" ], "defines": [], "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/gcc", "cStandard": "c17", "cppStandard": "c 14", "intelliSenseMode": "linux-gcc-x64" } ], "version": 4 }
- If you use clang, remember to change
compilerPath
to/usr/bin/clang
and adjustintelliSenseMode
- These items can be set graphically by executing
C/C : Edit Configurations (UI)
through the command panel
Tips: If the system header file cannot be found, you can run
echo | gcc -E -v -
view the default include path and add it manually.
3. Check whether the index is proceeding normally
Sometimes, even if the configuration is correct, IntelliSense still fails to respond, maybe the index is stuck.
- Open the command panel (
Ctrl Shift P
), executeC/C : Reset Database
to clear the cache and regenerate the index - Observe whether there is a prompt for "Loading symbols" in the status bar in the lower right corner. If it has not been moved, it means that the index has not started running.
- You can also open the output panel (
Ctrl Shift U
) and selectC/C
output channel to view log information.
Frequently asked questions include:
- Too many unresolved include files causing the index to stop
- Insufficient memory or too large the project will affect index performance
4. Permissions and path issues
Sometimes the parsing fails because the current user does not have permission to access certain header file directories, or special characters such as Chinese and spaces in the path.
- Check whether the project path contains non-English characters or spaces, and try to keep it simple and clear
- If you are developing remotely (Remote - SSH), make sure that the dependencies on the remote server are also installed in full, such as
build-essential
orclang
toolchain - Run VSCode with normal user permissions, do not start with root, otherwise it may cause path confusion
Basically, these common check points. Sometimes it seems to be just a small configuration problem, but it is easy to ignore the incorrect writing of a certain field. It is recommended to do it step by step, first confirm the basic configuration and then in-depth debugging.
The above is the detailed content of VSCode C/C extension IntelliSense not working on Linux. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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