A `configuration` has these properties:

- `addressSanitizerRuntimeFlags`: runtime flags passed to AddressSanitizer via the ASAN_OPTIONS environment variable. Format: flag1=value:flag2=value2.

- `buildCommandArgs`: specifies native build switches passed to CMake after --build --. For example, passing -v when using the Ninja generator forces Ninja to output command lines. See [Ninja command line arguments](#ninja) for more information on Ninja commands.

- `buildRoot`: specifies the directory in which CMake generates build scripts for the chosen generator. Maps to **-DCMAKE_BINARY_DIR** switch and specifies where the CMake cache will be created. If the folder does not exist, it is created. Supported macros include `${workspaceRoot}`, `${workspaceHash}`, `${projectFile}`, `${projectDir}`, `${thisFile}`, `${thisFileDir}`, `${name}`, `${generator}`, and `${env.VARIABLE}`.

An *environment* encapsulates the environment variables that are set in the process that Visual Studio uses to invoke cmake.exe. For MSVC projects, the variables are those that are set in a [developer command prompt](building-on-the-command-line.md) for a specific platform. For example, the `msvc_x64_x64` environment is the same as running the **Developer Command Prompt for VS 2017** or **Developer Command Prompt for VS 2019** with the **-arch=amd64 -host_arch=amd64** arguments. You can use the `env.{<variable_name>}` syntax in *CMakeSettings.json* to reference the individual environment variables, for example to construct paths to folders. The following predefined environments are provided: