Does cpptools really need to parse over 4 million files?

[whatdoidonow]

I am aware there are already several performance related issues open. But I came across this page https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/wiki/Troubleshooting-Performance-Issues which invites you to post performance details in an issue.
Basically, cpptools appears to run continuously, maxing out the core it runs on, and when I hover over the db icon, I see Discovering files: 4164330 (that number is on the rise). It is quite likely that my C++ extension is misconfigured, but I don't know where else to turn to. As far as I'm aware, I am using default settings and the proverbial "I didn't change anything" applies.
As instructed, I shall attach the screenshot of the performance report. That's for C/C++ ms-vscode.cpptools v1.4.0.

[sean-mcmanus]

It could be following a symlink to your root drive or a folder with a lot of files. You should be able to temporarily set C_Cpp.loggingLevel to the hidden value of "7" (change it back to "Debug" or lower or performance could be impacted) and look at the "C/C++" logging pane to see what folders are being iterated through and add those directories or symlinks that target those to C_Cpp.files.exclude . Look for the update_file_if_needed messages.

[sean-mcmanus]

Is C_Cpp.default.includePath or C_Cpp.default.systemIncludePath set? When "/" is filtered out, it should be replaced by the other subdirectories that were referenced prior to the "/" removing them. I'm not sure of a good place to add more logging since I don't know where it would be useful.

[whatdoidonow]

C_Cpp.default.includePath and C_Cpp.default.systemIncludePath are not set in my settings.json.
I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.
Things are better for me, however, since I changed C_Cpp.workspaceParsingPriority to low. (Or maybe something else has changed?)
Many thanks to the contributors.

[sean-mcmanus]

With https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/releases/tag/1.5.0-insiders we've added fix to filter out the root from directory iteration.

[whatdoidonow]

Thanks. I shall join the insiders as soon as possible.

[whatdoidonow]

Discovering files: 28489 file(s) processed
Seems reasonable to me (previously, I had 1.2 million being parsed).
Still took an hour and a bit for cpptools to settle down (remember I use "C_Cpp.workspaceParsingPriority": "low"). But that's okay.
So I'm happy for my issue to be closed. Thanks.
(I'd be happier still if we had discovered the weirdness in my system, but hey, I'm not going to be greedy.)