task1 and task2 are both background tasks that simulate a watcher. They both exit after approximately 10 seconds.

task1 has a matching endsPattern; whereas task2 has a non-matching endsPattern.

Launch w/task1 and Launch w/task2 are both launch confiruations, each configured with its respective preLaunchTask.

As expected, when debugging Launch w/task1, the application is launched as soon as task1's endsPattern is matched.

As expected, when debugging Launch w/task2, the application is launched only whentask2 exits (since it has no match for its endsPattern).

When running compoundtask1, it doesn't start untils its dependent task1 exits. This is unexpected, since its endsPattern matches 10 seconds before the task exits.

When running compoundtask2, it doesn't start untils its dependent task2 exits. This is expected, since its endsPattern does not match.

Besides the inconsistent behavior, the observed behavior makes it impossible to debug a launch configuration that is dependent on 2 or more background tasks.

The reason is that the only way to do this is to define a launch configuration with a preLaunchTask that references a compound task.

However, as demonstrated above, the compound task runs only when its dependent tasks exit, which means that the launch configuration never starts.