Don't force build to list tests

[sercxanto]

Brief Issue Summary

To list the tests the CMake tools forcibly build the project. It should be possible to list the tests without building them first for the following reasons:

• For very large projects it is not feasible to build the full project upfront if you just work on a subsets of targets and their tests
• Some of the tests might even not need to have any targets build

In other words it should to do the same with CMake tools as with command line CMake / ctest:

cmake --preset=my_default
# List tests:
ctest --preset=my_default -N
# Run helper test (does not need any compilation step):
ctest --preset=my_default -R helper

Steps to reproduce:

• Select configure preset
• Select test preset
• Now CMake tools automatically run a build
• Only after building its possible to see the list of tests

A simple CMake project to reproduce this issue is available in this github repo.

CMake Tools Diagnostics

{
  "os": "linux",
  "vscodeVersion": "1.82.2",
  "cmtVersion": "1.15.31",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "folder": "/home/gal/projekte/cmake_playground",
      "cmakeVersion": "unknown",
      "configured": false,
      "generator": "unknown",
      "usesPresets": false,
      "compilers": {}
    }
  ],
  "cpptoolsIntegration": {
    "isReady": false,
    "hasCodeModel": false,
    "activeBuildType": "",
    "buildTypesSeen": [],
    "requests": [],
    "responses": [],
    "partialMatches": [],
    "targetCount": 0,
    "executablesCount": 0,
    "librariesCount": 0,
    "targets": []
  },
  "settings": [
    {
      "communicationMode": "automatic",
      "useCMakePresets": "auto",
      "configureOnOpen": null
    }
  ]
}

Debug Log

No response

Additional Information

No response

[gcampbell-msft]

@sercxanto Thanks for the issue. I'm adding this to our list of ctest suggestions / issues.

@xisui-MSFT FYI.

[hippo91]

@gcampbell-msft this issue seems to be a duplicate of #2933. Am i wrong?

[gcampbell-msft]

Yes, I believe you are right, we should likely add a setting that controls whether we force a build before running ctest, similar to the cmake.buildBeforeRun setting. Closing this in favor of #2933