Quick start guide

Is CLion a cross-platform IDE?

Yes, you can install and run CLion on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

• See Install CLion for OS-specific instructions.

• See CLion keyboard shortcuts for instructions on how to choose the right keymap for your operating system, and learn the most useful shortcuts.

What compilers and debuggers can I work with?

CLion supports GCC, Clang, and Microsoft Visual C++ compiler.

CLion bundles GDB and LLDB debuggers, and you can switch to a custom GDB binary (see the Debug chapter for details).

What build systems are supported? What are the project formats?

CLion fully integrates with the CMake build system: you can create, open, build and run/debug CMake projects seamlessly. CMake itself is bundled in CLion, so you don't need to install it separately unless you decide to use a custom version.

Apart from CMake, CLion supports compilation database, Gradle, and Makefile projects. Currently, you cannot create a new project of these types within CLion, but you can open and manage an existing one with full code insight available.

Refer to Project Formats for more detail.

Do I need to install anything in advance?

For C/C++ projects, CLion uses GCC/G++, Clang, or MSVC toolset.

On Windows, it means that you can select between the MinGW/ MinGW-w64 or Cygwin environment, WSL, or Visual Studio if you plan to use Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. For details, refer to Tutorial: Configure CLion on Windows.

On macOS, the required tools might be already installed. If not, update command line developer tools as described in Configuring CLion on macOS.

On Linux, compilers and make might also be pre-installed. Otherwise, in case of Debian/Ubuntu, install the build_essentials package and, if required, the llvm package to get Clang.

Are other languages besides C++ supported as well?

Yes, CLion fully supports Python, Objective-C/C++, HTML (including HTML5), CSS, JavaScript, and XML. Support for these languages is implemented via the bundled plugins, which are enabled by default. See CLion features in different languages for more details.

You can install other plugins to get more languages supported in CLion (such as Rust, Swift, or Markdown). See Valuable language plugins and explore the Plugins page in Settings / Preferences Ctrl+Alt+S.

Change the IDE appearance

The quickest way to switch between the IDE's color schemes, code styles, keymaps, viewing modes, and look-and-feels (UI themes) is the Switch... pop-up. To invoke it, click View | Quick Switch Scheme or press Ctrl+`:

To explore all the customizable options, go to the dedicated pages in Settings / PreferencesCtrl+Alt+S.

Tune the editor

Pages under the Editor node of the Settings / Preferences dialog help you adjust the editor’s behavior, from the most general settings (like Drag'n'Drop enabling and scroll configuration) to highlighting colors and code style options.

Code styles are configurable for each language separately in the pages under the Editor | Code Style node. For C/C++, you can set one of the predefined code styles or provide your own, and configure the desired naming convention including the header guard template:

Adjust the keymap

In CLion, almost every action possible in the IDE is mapped to a keyboard shortcut. To view the default mapping, call Help | Keymap Reference.

You can customize the shortcuts in Settings / Preferences| Keymap. Use one of the predefined keymaps (Visual Studio, Emacs, Eclipse, NetBeans, Xcode, and others) and tune it as required, or create your own keymap from scratch.

There are also plugins that extend the list of available keymaps. For example, VS Code Keymap or Vim emulation (which includes the Vim keymap). Find more useful plugins for the CLion editor in Valuable non-bundled plugins.

Auto-completion

Basic completion Ctrl+Space in CLion works as you type and gives a list of all available completions. To filter this list and see only the suggestions that match the expected type, use Smart completion Ctrl+Shift+Space:

Code generation

Even an empty class or a new C/C++ file contains boilerplate code, which CLion generates automatically. For example, when you add a new class, CLion creates a header with stub code and header guard already placed inside, and the corresponding source file that includes it.

One of the most useful code generation features is create from usage. It helps you focus on the ideas as they come up and takes care of the routine. For example, when you call a function that is not yet implemented, there is no need to break the flow: press Alt+Enter to generate stub code that you can come back to later. Create from usage works for variables and classes as well:

To get the list of code generation options at any place in your code, press Alt+Insert to invoke the Generate menu:

These options can help you skip a lot of code writing. In addition to generating constructors/destructors, getters/setters, and various operators, you can quickly override and implement functions:

Live templates are the tool to generate entire code constructs. Find the list of ready-to-use templates in Settings / Preferences | Editor | Live Templates. To paste a template in your code, call Code | Insert Live Template or press Ctrl+J, for example:

To quickly surround your code with loops and conditional statements like if, while, for, #ifdef, call Code | Surround With or press Ctrl+Alt+T:

Intentions and quick-fixes

When you see a light bulb next to a symbol in your code, it means that CLion's code analysis has found a potential problem or a possible change to be made:

• indicates an error and lets you choose a quick fix for it,

• indicates that one or several intention actions are available.

Click the light bulb icon (or press Alt+Enter) and choose the most suitable action or quick-fix:

Inspections

During on-the-fly code analysis, CLion highlights suspicious code and shows colored stripes in the right-hand gutter. You can hover the mouse over a stripe to view the problem description and click it to jump to the corresponding issue. The sign at the top of the gutter indicates the overall file status:

CLion detects not only compilation errors but also code inefficiencies like unused variables or dead code. Also, it integrates a customizable set of Clang-tidy checks.

To enable or disable inspections, configure their severity levels (whether an inspection should raise an error or just be shown as a warning) and set the scopes, go to Settings / Preferences | Editor | Inspections.

You can also run inspections on demand for the whole project or a custom scope, and view the results in a separate window. For this, call Code | Inspect Code or use Code | Run Inspection by Name Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I for a particular inspection. From the results window, you can batch-apply quick-fixes to several issues at a time: select the issues, click the bulb button (or press Alt+Enter) and select the resolution to be applied.

Refactorings

Refactorings help improve your code without adding new functionality, making it cleaner and easier to read and maintain. Use the Refactor menu or call Refactor This... Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T to get the list of refactorings available at the current location:

For example,

• Rename Shift+F6 renames a symbol in all references;

• Change Signature Ctrl+F6 adds, removes, or reorders function parameters, changes the return type, or updates the function name (affecting all usages);

• Inline Ctrl+Alt+N/ Extract inlines or extracts a function, typedef, variable, parameter, define, or constant;

• Pull Members Up/Down(Refactor | Pull Members Up / Push Members Down) safely moves class members to the base or subclass.

Search everywhere

To search for anything in CLion, be it an item in your codebase, action, or UI element, press Shift twice and start typing what you are looking for in the Search Everywhere dialog. Use the filter menu to narrow your search:

Find usages

To locate the usage of any code symbol, call Find Usages(Alt+F7 or Edit | Find | Find Usages). You can filter the results and jump back to the source code:

Navigate in the code structure

• Switch between header and source file Ctrl+Alt+Home

• Go to declaration/definition Ctrl+BCtrl+Alt+B

• Show file structure Alt+7

• View type hierarchy Ctrl+H

• View call hierarchy Ctrl+Alt+H

• View import hierarchy Alt+Shift+H

For your code, CLion builds the hierarchies of types, call, imports, and functions. To view them, use the shortcuts given above or the commands in the Navigate menu. For example, type hierarchy helps you not only to navigate the code but also to discover what type relationships exist in the your codebase:

To explore the structure of the currently opened file, call View | Tool windows | Structure or press Alt+7:

Also, use the left gutter icons to quickly jump to a declaration/definition or navigate through the class hierarchy (/ , / ).

View pop-up documentation

Quick Documentation popup (available on mousehover or via the Ctrl+Q shortcut) helps you get more information on a symbol at caret without leaving the current context. Depending on the element you invoke it for, the popup shows:

• function signature details,

• code documentation (either regular or Doxygen comments),

• inferred types for variables declared as auto:

  

• formatted macro expansions:

  

Besides, you can instantly view the definition of a symbol at caret. Press Ctrl+Shift+I to invoke the Quick Definition popup:

Run/Debug configurations

For each target in a CMake or Gradle project, CLion creates a Run/Debug configuration. It is a named run/debug setup that includes target, executable, arguments to pass to the program, and other options.

Run/Debug configurations are generated from templates, such as CMake Application, Google Test, or Remote GDB Debug. The templates are customizable: when you edit a template parameter, you change the default settings of all configurations that will be created from this template later.

Edit Configurations dialog is accessible from the Run menu or the configuration switcher. Here you can manage the templates and add, delete, or edit your configurations. For example, you can customize the steps to be taken Before launch- call external tools (including the remote ones), use CMake install, or even run another configuration.

To launch your program, select the desired configuration and use commands from the Run menu or press Shift+F10. Alternatively, invoke the Run Anything dialog by pressing Ctrl twice and start typing the configuration name:

Build actions

Build is included in many Run/Debug configuration templates as a default pre-launch step. However, you can also perform it separately by calling the desired action from the Build menu:

Notice the Recompile option that compiles a selected file without building the whole project.

Remote and embedded development

With CLion, you can also build and run/debug on remote machines including embedded targets. Refer to Remote development and STM32CubeMX projects for details.

Valgrind Memcheck

Valgrind Memcheck in CLion works on Linux, macOS, and Windows via WSL. You need to install Valgrind, point CLion to the binary, set up the analysis flags, and run the program using Run | Run Valgrind Memcheck or .

Google Sanitizers

Google Sanitizers are supported on Linux for certain versions of Clang and GCC. Take a look at our detailed guide on using Sanitizers in CLion.

CPU Profiler

CLion’s profiler, available on Linux and macOS, collects performance data for both user and kernel code of your application. The profiler collects performance metrics and visualizes them in flame charts and statistic views. To run it, call Run | Profile or use the button in the navigation bar.

Code Coverage

Code Coverage integration in CLion is based on llvm-cov/ gcov tools and is available for CMake applications and tests. Coverage results show the percentage of files per folder and lines per file covered during a launch. To get coverage measurements, set the necessary compiler flags and call Run with Coverage or click .

VCS

CLion integrates with several version control systems: Git (or GitHub), Mercurial, Perforce, and Subversion. To manage the settings of a particular VCS, go to Settings / Preferences | Version Control.

Use the VCS Operations Popup(Alt+` or VCS | VCS Operations Popup) to call version control commands. The list of actions in this popup includes both the currently enabled VCS and local history. For example:

No VCS Enabled	VCS Enabled

You can find all the available VCS commands in the VCS section of the main menu. Also, some basic commands are accessible from the toolbar:

Local history

In addition to full version control, you can go back and review changes step by step by browsing the local history. To view it for a file or folder, call VCS | Local History | Show History. Here you can revert changes and create patches: