Install CLion

System requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	2 GB of free RAM	8 GB of total system RAM
CPU	Any modern CPU	Multi-core CPU. CLion supports multithreading for different operations and processes making it faster the more CPU cores it can use.
Disk space	2.5 GB and another 1 GB for caches	SSD drive with at least 5 GB of free space
Monitor resolution	1024x768	1920×1080
Operating system	Officially released 64-bit versions of the following: Microsoft Windows 8 or later macOS 10.13 or later Any Linux distribution that supports Gnome, KDE, or Unity DE *. Pre-release versions are not supported.	Latest 64-bit version of Windows, macOS, or Linux (for example, Debian, Ubuntu, or RHEL)

* CLion is not available for some Linux distributions, such as RHEL6/CentOS6, which do not include glibc version 2.14 required by JBR 11.

You do not need to install Java to run CLion because JetBrains Runtime is bundled with the IDE (based on JRE 11).

Toolchain requirements

MinGW/ MinGW-w64 or Cygwin at least 2.8
In case of using MSVC compiler: Visual Studio 2013, 2015, or 2017
In case of using WSL: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (least version 1709, build 16299.15)

Xcode command line developer tools (to install, use the xcode-select --install command)

GCC/G++ or Clang

In case of using custom CMake: version 2.8.11 or later
In case of using custom GDB: version 7.8.x-10.1 or later

Install using the Toolbox App

The JetBrains Toolbox App is the recommended tool to install JetBrains products. Use it to install and manage different products or several versions of the same product, including Early Access Program (EAP) and Nightly releases, update and roll back when necessary, and easily remove any tool. The Toolbox App maintains a list of all your projects to quickly open any project in the right IDE and version.

Install the Toolbox App

Download the installer .exe from the Toolbox App web page.
Run the installer and follow the wizard steps.

After you run the Toolbox App, click its icon in the notification area and select which product and version you want to install.

Log in to your JetBrains Account from the Toolbox App and it will automatically activate the available licenses for any IDE that you install.

Install the Toolbox App

Download the disk image .dmg from the Toolbox App web page.
There are separate disk images for Intel and Apple Silicon processors.
Mount the image and drag the JetBrains Toolbox app to the Applications folder.

After you run the Toolbox App, click its icon in the main menu and select which product and version you want to install.

Log in to your JetBrains Account from the Toolbox App and it will automatically activate the available licenses for any IDE that you install.

Install the Toolbox App

Download the tarball .tar.gz from the Toolbox App web page.
Extract the tarball to a directory that supports file execution.
For example, if the downloaded version is 1.17.7391, you can extract it to the recommended /opt directory using the following command:
sudo tar -xzf jetbrains-toolbox-1.17.7391.tar.gz -C /opt

Execute the jetbrains-toolbox binary from the extracted directory to run the Toolbox App and select which product and version you want to install. After you run the Toolbox App for the first time, it will automatically add the Toolbox App icon to the main menu.

Log in to your JetBrains Account from the Toolbox App and it will automatically activate the available licenses for any IDE that you install.

Standalone installation

You can install CLion manually and have the option to manage the location of every instance and all the configuration files. This is useful, for example, if you have a policy that requires specific install locations.

Download the installer .exe.
Run the installer and follow the wizard steps.
On the Installation Options step, you can configure the following:
- Create a desktop shortcut for the launcher relevant to your operating system.
- Add the directory with CLion command-line launchers to the PATH environment variable to be able to run them from any working directory in the Command Prompt.
- Add an item Open Folder as Project to the system context menu (when you right-click a folder).
- Associate specific file extensions with CLion to open them with a double-click.
- Install the 32-bit version of JetBrains Runtime if you are running a 32-bit Windows version.

To run CLion, find it in the Windows Start menu or use the desktop shortcut. You can also run the launcher batch script or executable in the installation directory under bin.

Download the disk image.
There are separate disk images for Intel and Apple Silicon processors.
Mount the image and drag the CLion app to the Applications folder.

Run the CLion app from the Applications directory, Launchpad, or Spotlight.

Download the tarball .tar.gz.
Unpack the downloaded CLion-*.tar.gz archive. The recommended extract directory is /opt:
sudo tar xvzf CLion-*.tar.gz -C /opt/
Do not extract the tarball over an existing installation to avoid conflicts. Always extract to a clean directory.
Execute the CLion.sh from bin subdirectory to run CLion:
sh /opt/clion-*/bin/clion.sh

To create a desktop entry, do one of the following:

On the Welcome screen, click Configure | Create Desktop Entry
From the main menu, click Tools | Create Desktop Entry

When you run CLion for the first time, some steps are required to complete the installation, customize your instance, and start working with the IDE.

For more information, see Run CLion for the first time.

Silent installation on Windows

Silent installation is performed without any user interface. It can be used by network administrators to install CLion on a number of machines and avoid interrupting other users.

To perform silent install, run the installer with the following switches:

/S: Enable silent install
/CONFIG: Specify the path to the silent configuration file
/D: Specify the path to the installation directory
This parameter must be the last in the command line and it should not contain any quotes even if the path contains blank spaces.

For example:

clion.exe /S /CONFIG=d:\temp\silent.config /D=d:\IDE\CLion

To check for issues during the installation process, add the /LOG switch with the log file path and name between the /S and /D parameters. The installer will generate the specified log file. For example:

clion.exe /S /CONFIG=d:\temp\silent.config /LOG=d:\JetBrains\CLion\install.log /D=d:\IDE\CLion

Silent configuration file

You can download the default silent configuration file for CLion at https://download.jetbrains.com/cpp/silent.config

The silent configuration file defines the options for installing CLion. With the default options, silent installation is performed only for the current user: mode=user. If you want to install CLion for all users, change the value of the installation mode option to mode=admin and run the installer as an administrator.

The default silent configuration file is unique for each JetBrains product. You can modify it to enable or disable various installation options as necessary.

Install as a snap package on Linux

You can install CLion as a self-contained snap package. Since snaps update automatically, your CLion installation will always be up to date.

CLion is distributed via two channels:

The stable channel includes only stable versions. To install the latest stable release of CLion, run the following command:
sudo snap install clion --classic
The --classic option is required because the CLion snap requires full access to the system, like a traditionally packaged application.
The edge channel includes EAP builds. To install the latest EAP build of CLion, run the following command:
sudo snap install clion --classic --edge

When the snap is installed, you can launch it by running the clion.sh command.

To list all installed snaps, you can run sudo snap list. For information about other snap commands, see the Snapcraft documentation.