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External Tools

Last modified: 09 January 2023

File | Settings | Tools | External Tools for Windows and Linux

CLion | Settings | Tools | External Tools for macOS

Ctrl+Alt+S the Settings icon

This page describes the settings that you can configure for local external tools. For information about adding and using external tools, see External tools.

The External Tools settings page

Use the toolbar buttons to manage the list of available external tools. Clear checkboxes for tools and groups that you want to keep but not have available in menus.

the Add button Add Alt+Insert

Add a new external tool.

the Remove button Remove Ctrl+Y

Remove the selected tool or group.

the Edit button Edit Enter

Edit the selected tool.

App actions previous occurence Up Alt+Up

Move the selected tool up in the list.

App actions next occurence Down Alt+Up

Move the selected tool down in the list.

App actions copy Copy

Move the selected tool down in the list.

When you create, edit, or copy an external tool, you need to provide the tool's settings.

Creating, editing, or copying an external tool
Name

The name of the tool that will be used as the action for running the tool 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. For example, if you have many external tools configured, you may want to separate them into groups, such as Linters, Preprocessors, Postprocessors, and so on.

Description

A meaningful description of the tool.

Tool Settings

warning

Make sure that you specify the absolute paths for the tool's settings, not paths relative to the project.

Program

The absolute path to the executable file (script, utility, application, and so on).

Arguments

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

  • 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 absolute path to the working directory from which the tool should be executed.

tip

You can use built-in IDE macros to specify the name of the current file, paths relative to the project root, and other contextual information for the tool.

Advanced Options

Synchronize files after execution

Automatically load the changes to your project files made by the external tool. If the tool does not modify any files in your project, you can disable this option.

Open console for tool output

Open a console with the tool's standard output and error streams.

Make console active on message in stdout

Activate the console when the tool uses the standard output stream.

Make console active on message in stderr

Activate the console when the tool uses the standard error stream.

Output filters

Specify filters to turn absolute file paths, line and column numbers in the output messages into hyperlinks. This will allow you to jump from the console output directly to the relevant location in the file. Each line is a regular expression that defines a separate filter.

For example, let's say some tool produces lines of output similar to the following:

/path/to/file.conf:42:10 WARNING: Some message

Then you can define a filter like this one:

$FILE_PATH$:$LINE$:$COLUMN$.*

note

For these filters to work correctly, the tool must output the absolute path to the file. Line and column numbers, if it is present, must be on the same line as the file path.

See also

How tos

Reference