title: Visual Studio Code: running preLaunchTask with multiple tasks
body: <p>I am trying to figure out how to run multiple tasks at once in the prelaunchtask of the launch.json file.</p>
  
  <p>My code in the tasks.json is as follows:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
      {
          "label": "CleanUp_Client",
          "type": "shell",
          "command": "rm",
          "args": [
              "-f",
              "Client"
          ],
      },
      {
          "label": "Client_Build",
          "type": "shell",
          "command": "g++",
          "args": [
              "-g",
              "client.cpp",
              "-o",
              "Client",
              "-lssl",
              "-lcrypto"
          ],
          "group": {
              "kind": "build",
              "isDefault": true
          },
          "problemMatcher": "$gcc"
      }
  ]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the launch.json for the preLaunchTask parameter if I only put the build task it works, however I want to run multiple tasks, in this case is the CleanUp_Client and Client_Build.</p>
  
  <p>I tried adding another preLaunchTask - However it looks like you can only use that parameter once, so then I tried:</p>
  
  <p><code>"preLaunchTask": "build" + "clean",</code>
  <code>"preLaunchTask": "build"; "clean",</code>
  <code>"preLaunchTask": "build" &amp; "clean",</code>
  <code>"preLaunchTask": "build" &amp;&amp; "clean",</code></p>
  
  <p>All with no success, not the correct syntax.</p>
  
  <p>Also as a second part to this I would like to know how the group part of this works, and what it means for "isDefault": true.</p>
  
  <p>For your reference: <a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks" rel="noreferrer">https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks</a></p>