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  1. Configure the IDE
  2. External tools

External tools

Last modified: 17 March 2022

You can define third-party applications as external tools and run them from CLion.

CLion allows you to pass contextual information from your project to the external tool as command-line arguments (for example, the currently selected file or the project source path), view the output produced by the tool, configure to launch the tool before a run/debug configuration, and more.

There are two types of external tools that you can add:

  • Local tools are applications that run locally on your machine.

  • Remote tools are applications executed on a remote machine over SSH.

Add a local external tool

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Tools | External Tools.

  2. Click the Add button and specify the following settings:

    Adding a remote external tool

    • Name: The name of the tool that will be displayed in the CLion interface.

    • Group: The name of the group to which the tool belongs. You can select an existing group or type the name of a new group.

    • Description: A meaningful description of the tool.

    • Program: The path to the application executable file.

    • Arguments: The arguments passed to the executable file, as you would specify them on the command line.

      note

      • Use spaces to separate individual arguments.

      • Use double quotes for arguments and paths that contain spaces.

      • Use a backslash to escape double quotes that are part of the argument or path.

      For example: -Dmy.prop=\"quoted_value\" "second arg" third" "arg

    • Working directory: The path to the current working directory from which the tool is executed.

  3. Click OK to add the tool and then apply the changes.

Run a local external tool

To run the added tool, do one of the following:

  • From the main menu, select Tools | External Tools and choose from the list of the available tools.

    Running an external tool from the main menu

  • In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Keymap, find the tool under the External Tools node, right-click it and select Add Keyboard Shortcut. Assign a shortcut and use it to run the tool.

    Assigning a shortcut for an external tool

  • Set the tool as a Before launch step of a run/debug configuration: go to the Run | Edit Configurations, select the configuration, click the Add button in the Before launch area, and select Run External Tool.

Add a remote external tool

warning

Make sure the bundled FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity and HTTP Client plugins are enabled. You can check that in Settings / Preferences | Plugins, the Installed tab.

Remote SSH external tools are configured similarly to local external tools, but also define the remote server on which they are executed and require credentials for connecting to it via SSH.

This example demonstrates how to add date as a remote SSH external tool that is executed on a remote server and returns the current date and time on it.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Tools | Remote SSH External Tools.

  2. Click the Add button and specify the following settings:

    Adding a remote external tool

    This dialog provides the same set of settings as when you add a local external tool, but selecting the remote server is also suggested.

    This can be one of your configured SSH configurations or a Vagrant box.

    By default, CLion will ask you for the host, port, and relevant SSH credentials every time you run the tool on the server.

  3. Click OK to add the tool and then apply the changes.

Run the added tool on a remote server

  • From the main menu, select Tools | Remote tools | Date and time.

  • Similarly to the case of a local external tool, you can add a shortcut to quickly run the remote tool. Go to Settings / Preferences | Keymap, find the tool under the Remote External Tools node, right-click it and select Add Keyboard Shortcut. Assign a shortcut and use it to run the tool.

CLion will prompt you to select an SSH configuration or provide the credentials manually:

Selecting an SSH configuration for remote external tool

After that, CLion will connect to the server via SSH and run the date command, returning the output to the Run tool window.

Export/import the External Tools settings

To export the External Tools settings, do the following:

  1. Call File | Manage IDE Settings | Export Settings from the main menu.

  2. In the dialog that opens, select the Tools checkbox:

    Exporting the external tools settings

  3. Specify the path to the target ZIP archive and click Ok.

To import the saved settings, use File | Manage IDE Settings | Import Settings.

Example: Uncrustify as an external tool

Uncrustify is a popular code formatter that you can configure as an external tool to use in addition or as an alternative to the CLion's built-in formatter or the integrated ClangFormat.

Assign a shortcut to the Uncrustify external tool

  1. Go to Settings / Preferences | Keymap and find uncrustify in the list of External Tools.

  2. Click the Edit button and choose Add Keyboard Shortcut.

  3. Press the keys to be used as shortcuts and click Ok.

Now the assigned shortcut is available, and you can see it next to the tool's name in the Tools | External Tools menu:

external tools menu

Automatically run Uncrustify before launch

  1. In the Run | Edit configurations dialog, choose the desired run/debug configuration.

  2. Click the Add button in the Before Launch section, and select Run External Tool:

    Before launch

  3. Choose uncrustify from the list of the available external tools.

As a result, the uncrustify external tool will be called every time you choose to run or debug the selected configuration.

Web browsers

You can use a web browser to open any file from your project. By default, it is used to preview the output of an HTML file or run and debug web applications.

Open a file in a web browser

To open a file that is intended to be rendered by a web browser (HTML, XML, JSP, and so on), do one of the following:

  • Press Alt+F2.

  • Right-click a file and select Open in Browser.

  • From the main menu, select View | Open in Browser.

  • Use the browser popup in the top right part of the editor window. Click the browser button to open the web server file URL, or Shift+Click it to open the local file URL.

The Open in Browser action is not available for other file types. However, you can still execute it using Find Action Ctrl+Shift+A.

View and configure the list of browsers

note

By default, CLion supports some of the most popular browsers, which are configured automatically, if available.

  • In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Tools | Web Browsers and Preview.

The Web Browsers page in Preferences

If a browser was installed using a standard procedure, the alias in the Path field should point to the right location. If it does not, specify the path to the corresponding executable file.

tip

To add a custom browser, click the Add button and specify the browser name, family, and location of the executable file or macOS application.

Use custom profile and settings

You can configure custom profiles for Firefox and Chrome family browsers.

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Tools | Web Browsers and Preview.

  2. Select the browser in the list and click the Edit button.

    • For Firefox, specify the path to the profiles.ini file and choose the profile to use. For more information, see Firefox browser profile.

    • For Chrome, select Use custom user data directory and specify the location of the user data directory.

      You can also specify additional command-line options to use when running Chrome from CLion. For more information, open chrome://flags in the Chrome address bar.