How do I set up CLion to compile and run?

Question

I just downloaded CLion from https://www.jetbrains.com/ because I just love the rest of their products.

However, I'm having problems configuring it. I'm not able to compile and run my application (a simple "hello world").

When I try to run the application, it refers me to "Edit configuration", so I added a new application and now I have this problem:

1. I cannot specify the "target"; the only thing I can do is set "All targets".
2. I cannot specify the "configuration" (all tutorials I found have Debug or Run here).
3. Executable? Hmm. Should the path to GCC be here? (C:\MinGW\bin\gcc.exe)

The rest of the configuration looks optional.

My CMakeList.txt looks like:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3)
project(test)

set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")

set(SOURCE_FILES test.c test.h)
add_executable(test ${SOURCE_FILES})

I tried to run this with "All targets". I also tried to set the executable. I tried everything, but I'm not able to make it work.

Can anyone advise?

Answer 1

I ran into the same issue with CLion 1.2.1 (at the time of writing this answer) after updating Windows 10. It was working fine before I had updated my OS. My OS is installed in C:\ drive and CLion 1.2.1 and Cygwin (64-bit) are installed in D:\ drive.

The issue seems to be with CMake. I am using Cygwin. Below is the short answer with steps I used to fix the issue.

SHORT ANSWER (should be similar for MinGW too but I haven't tried it):

1. Install Cygwin with GCC, G++, GDB and CMake (the required versions)
2. Add full path to Cygwin 'bin' directory to Windows Environment variables
3. Restart CLion and check 'Settings' -> 'Build, Execution, Deployment' to make sure CLion has picked up the right versions of Cygwin, make and gdb
4. Check the project configuration ('Run' -> 'Edit configuration') to make sure your project name appears there and you can select options in 'Target', 'Configuration' and 'Executable' fields.
5. Build and then Run
6. Enjoy

LONG ANSWER:

Below are the detailed steps that solved this issue for me:

1. Uninstall/delete the previous version of Cygwin (MinGW in your case)

2. Make sure that CLion is up-to-date

3. Run Cygwin setup (x64 for my 64-bit OS)

4. Install at least the following packages for Cygwin: gcc g++ make Cmake gdb Make sure you are installing the correct versions of the above packages that CLion requires. You can find the required version numbers at CLion's Quick Start section (I cannot post more than 2 links until I have more reputation points).

5. Next, you need to add Cygwin (or MinGW) to your Windows Environment Variable called 'Path'. You can Google how to find environment variables for your version of Windows

[On Win 10, right-click on 'This PC' and select Properties -> Advanced system settings -> Environment variables... -> under 'System Variables' -> find 'Path' -> click 'Edit']

6. Add the 'bin' folder to the Path variable. For Cygwin, I added: D:\cygwin64\bin

7. Start CLion and go to 'Settings' either from the 'Welcome Screen' or from File -> Settings

8. Select 'Build, Execution, Deployment' and then click on 'Toolchains'

9. Your 'Environment' should show the correct path to your Cygwin installation directory (or MinGW)

10. For 'CMake executable', select 'Use bundled CMake x.x.x' (3.3.2 in my case at the time of writing this answer)

11. 'Debugger' shown to me says 'Cygwin GDB GNU gdb (GDB) 7.8' [too many gdb's in that line ;-)]

12. Below that it should show a checkmark for all the categories and should also show the correct path to 'make', 'C compiler' and 'C++ compiler'

See screenshot: Check all paths to the compiler, make and gdb

13. Now go to 'Run' -> 'Edit configuration'. You should see your project name in the left-side panel and the configurations on the right side

See screenshot: Check the configuration to run the project

14. There should be no errors in the console window. You will see that the 'Run' -> 'Build' option is now active

15. Build your project and then run the project. You should see the output in the terminal window

Hope this helps! Good luck and enjoy CLion.