Previous versions of ml-cpp provided instructions on how to configure CLion using a compilation database format or
a Makefile project. Those methods of integrating CLion with the ml-cpp repository have now been superseded by
creating a CMake project. Before proceeding further delete any pre-existing .idea directory from the root of
your ml-cpp repository.
Note: this tutorial assumes that you have installed the correct version of GCC (Linux)
or XCode command line tools (macOS) installed on your system and it can be accessed
by simply calling g++ or clang++.
For testing and evaluation purposes you can use 30-day trial version of CLion or participate on the CLion early access program.
You need to install the current CLion (version 2021.3.4 or later) with the
File Watcher plugin.
You can install plugins either during the initialization dialog, when you first start CLion, or later using the menu Settings / Preferences | Plugins.
Open CLion and close any existing open project. From the Welcome to CLion screen click on Open and navigate to
your ml-cpp repo.
Ensure CMake project is selected and click the OK button. You will be presented with the CLion preferences
for the ml-cpp project.
By default CLion will opt for generating a Ninja build system. While this is a perfectly valid option, for
better compatibility with building from the command line it is preferred to configure CLion to generate
Unix Makefiles. To do this either select Unix Makefiles from the Generator drop-down or type
-G "Unix Makefiles" in theCMake options field, and add e.g. -j 10 to the Build options field. To be consistent
with our CI builds set the build type to be RelWithDebInfo which will generate an optimized build with debug symbols.
Of course if you have a specific need for it, it is always possible to switch to for another build type such as Debug,
although is advisable not to select the Default build type as its behaviour may change in subsequent releases of
CLion.
Make sure to leave the Build directory field blank as CLion will automatically determine it based on the build type
selected. (You may need to set the CPP_SRC_HOMEenvironment variable in theEnvironment field if this is missing or
incorrect in your environment).
CLion integrates so closely with CMake projects that there should be no need for any further configuration
to enable Run or Debug targets.
However, one common thing you may want to do is to run an individual test suite or a test case, to do this you
can click on Edit Configurations in the drop-down for targets, select the Boost.test that you're
interested in and specify any options to the test in the field Program arguments.
Of course, in the instance of wanting to run an individual test suite or case it is always possible to do this directly in the IDE. Navigate to the test source file in question and click the green "play" button in the gutter next to the suite or test case name and select the desired option, e.g.
Recent versions of CLion come with integrated support for clang-format. To ensure that clang-format is used
in preference to the built-in formatter navigate to Navigate to Settings / Preferences | Tools | clang-format and
ensure that Clang-format binary is set to clang-format and that the PATH field is empty. Then navigate to
Settings / Preferences | Editor | Code Style and tick Enable ClangFormat with clangd server.
Alternatively, you may wish to set up a File Watcher to invoke clang-format from
Settings / Preferences | Tools | File Watchers
File type: C/C++
Scope: Project Files
Program: clang-format
Arguments: -i $FileName$
Output paths to refresh: $FileName$
Working directory $FileDir
- Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher
- Trigger the watcher on external changes
Clion has full support for running and analyzing code using the valgrind suite.
Valgrind is readily available on most linux distributions but on macOS an experimental build is required
brew install --HEAD https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sowson/valgrind/master/valgrind.rb
Once installed go to Settings / Preference | Build, Execution, Deployment | Dynamic Analysis Tools | Valgrind
and specify the full path to the valgrind executable. In the Analysis options field you may wish to add e.g.
--leak-check=full --leak-resolution=med --track-origins=yes --vgdb=no
Valgrindcan now be used to analyzerun` configurations from
Run | Run Run Configuration with Valgrind Memcheck
For more information and useful screenshots regarding running and debugging, please refer to the following resources: running and debugging your code.