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2021.2
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  2. Valuable non-bundled plugins

Valuable non-bundled plugins

Last modified: 22 July 2021

CLion plugin repository contains over 1200 plugins that you can install to enrich the out-of-the-box CLion functionality. Some of those plugins are already bundled in CLion, and no prior action is required to start using them. However, there are other helpful and qualitative plugins that can improve or even transform your workflow in CLion. This article gives a selection of such valuable plugins.

note

Please note that the 3rd party plugins are not officially tested or supported by the CLion team, so we cannot guarantee their stability. Selection criteria for this compilation were: download statistics, rating, maintenance status, and user feedback.

The plugins are grouped by the tasks they target, each described in the corresponding chapter:

Learn the IDE

Plugin

Description

CLion Help

Bundles the entire CLion web help for offline use.

Keymap exporter

Prints the PDF version of the selected CLion keymap.

Key Promoter X

Shows keystroke equivalents to mouse presses:

key promoter x plugin

Get comfortable with the UI

Plugin

Description

Main Menu Toggler

Switches visibility of the main menu on and off by a single action or a shortcut.

Frame Switcher

Lets you switch between projects, windows, and frames, alternatively to Alt+Tab and the View menu. The switcher works even with multiple IDE instances, and lets you assign shortcuts to various actions, customizing or expanding the pre-defined shortcut set.

Active Tab Highlighter

Highlights the currently active tab. The highlighting color is easily configurable, which is especially useful for the Darcula scheme.

Focus on Active Task

Filters the project tree to show only the currently opened and related paths and files.

As an example, here is how your CLion screen on macOS with Darcula scheme would look like with the filtered project tree, highlighted active tab, and the invoked frame switcher:

ui extension plugins

Tune the code editor

Plugin

Description

CMake Plus

Extends the built-in CMake language support with variables reference and navigation, folding actions, structure view, and other handy features.

CMake Highlighter

Provides syntax highlighting and navigation for CMakeLists.txt files.

The screenshot below illustrates how these two plugins work in pair (notice the pop-up with the name of the action invoked, shown by the Presentation Assistant plugin):

cmake highlighted and quick documentation for cmake

Integrate more frameworks and build systems

Plugin

Description

Conan CLion plugin

Lets you create and upload cross-compilation Conan packages in the lines of your CMake workflow:

conan plugin

Take a look at the Getting Started blog post and our webinar to learn more on working with Conan in CLion.

Add languages and file types support

Plugin

Description

IntelliJ Rust

Provides the IDE support for Cargo -based Rust applications. Learn more in the plugin's documentation.

Facilitate Debugging

Plugin

Description

Compiler Explorer plugin

Lets you work with Compiler Explorer right from CLion: you can view compilation results got from various remote compilers and easily switch between them. The plugin shows the list of sources taken from your project tree and provides a way to pass compiler flags and set additional options to tune the disassembly layout for your needs.

compiler explorer plugin

Grep Console

Helps in analyzing logs and parsing console output. Grepping means searching for plain-text lines that contain a match to some regular expression. The plugin enables you to grep the application output, highlight and filter the results, and even change the output or execute an action upon a match:

grep console plugin

UndoDB

Integrates the Undo ’s record, rewind and replay technology for Linux C/C++ applications in CLion.

With Undo, you can record the program’s execution down to single instruction for further replay and analysis. This way, the debugger gets reversible: you can step forwards and backwards in your code and see exactly what is happening, leading up to easier bug capturing. Take a look at this blog post to find out more on using Undo in CLion.

Run Configuration as Action

Lets you register Run/Debug configurations as actions in CLion, and call them via shortcuts or additional toolbar buttons.

Monitor CPU usage

Plugin

Description

CPU Usage Indicator

Adds the CPU load indicator to the status bar, lets you get a thread dump and configure the settings of the Performance Watcher (which is the CLion’s frozen UI thread dumper):

cpu usage indicator

Gather statistics

Plugin

Description

Statistics

Collects the overall project-level statistics: project files with line counts, sorted by extension and size.

Code::Stats

Tracks the changes you make in project files and detects the syntax of the language you use. The results are presented in infographics of your XPs (Experience Points, roughly the amount of keystrokes) for different languages.

Expand the scope of VCS-related actions

Plugin

Description

GitScope

Highlights the changed code, analogically to the git diff command.

GitToolBox

Enriches the default Git integration with features like Git status display, Auto fetch, Behind tracker, and others.

Find Pull Request

Finds GitHub pull requests for the selected line.

Git Commit Template

Provides templates for Git commit messages.

GitLink

Opens files and commits to storages like GitHub or Stash in default browser via a single shortcut.

Automate builds, track issues, and review code

Plugin

Description

TeamCity plugin

Integrates the JetBrains’ TeamCity, a continuous integration server. This plugin lets you configure notifications, run builds and tests, view changes, assign investigations, and perform other TeamCity actions without leaving the IDE.

Azure DevOps

Enables you to work with Git and TFVC repositories on Azure DevOps Services or Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015+.

Wrike

Links your commits with the corresponding Wrike tasks.

Stay creative and productive

Last but not least, CLion plugin repository contains a collection of time management plugins, as well as other tools to increase your productivity. Find a few notable examples below.

Time management plugin

Description

Darkyen’s Time Tracker

Implements simple time management technique of tracking the time you actually spend on a project: it adds a tracking bar widget that you manually start for counting.

Pomodoro-tm

Helps you manage the time spent on a task using Pomodoro Technique.

Git Time Metric

Tracks the time of reading and working on the code that you store in a Git repository.

WakaTime

Performs time tracking and collects the language, OS, branch/commit, and other statistics of your work session.

Also, if you like mind mapping to visually structure your ideas, the IDEA Mind Map plugin will let you create and edit mind maps in MMD format right in CLion.

And just for fun, try the Nyan Progress Bar nyan cat progress bar to brighten the status bar when waiting for some of the time-consuming CLion actions to finish, or enjoy emojis in commits with the Emoji for Git Commits plugin.