As part of the programming module you study on the course, you are required to interact with the Python programming language. This interaction will be undertaken using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which will be installed within the Linux-based operating system.
In this guide, you shall be taken through the journey of installing the Jetbrains CLion IDE and how it will interact with the Linux (Debian-based) operating system for any module that may make use of the IDE.
The IDE recommended by this course, is the JetBrains suite of applications. The JetBrains suite is payware, and as such they do not come for free. However, as students at this university, you are able to get a free educational licence. To get your free license, follow the instructions at the following URL:
Important
You will want to use your Coventry University e-mail address to register for your JetBrains account. It is also very important you remember the password for this account, as you will need to use these details to activate the IDE and renew your licence every year you are a student.
The JetBrains CLion application is an IDE and is relatively useful for the course you are studying as it provides a means to develop applications for the C++ programming language.
Downloading the IDE is relatively straight forward, you can use a single command. Before you can execute the command, you will need to open the Terminal window. To do this, you can either use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T or search for Terminal in the Application.
In the terminal window, you can proceed with downloading the IDE file by entering the following command:
This will begin the process of downloading the CLion installation files from the JetBrains server. Once the files have
been downloaded, they are stored in a compressed archive (.tar.gz). This will require being uncompressed to an
appropriate area of your Linux system. To Uncompress an archive, the tar command can be used. However, before you
begin to uncompress the archive, you are required to decide which directory to uncompress the archive to. For this
guide, the archive will be uncompressed to the /opt directory.
The opt directory is a root-privileged only directory, as such you are required to use the sudo command to escalate
privileges on the machine. To uncompress the archive to the opt directory, the following command can be used:
The -C flag is used to denote which directory you would like the contents of the compressed archived to be extracted
to. When the command is executed, you will be asked for the password of your user account. In this instance, you will
want to enter the password you would normally use to log in to the system.
Note
When you enter the password it may come across as if you are not entering anything, and this is normal. You should continue entering the password as usual and then push the Enter key.
With your password entered to run the escalated command, the process will begin for extracting the contents of the
archive. To confirm whether the files have been extracted to the opt directory, the following command can be executed
in the terminal window:
The outcome of this command should list the folders and files that are located in the /opt directory. In this
instance you should see a directory has been created called CLion-*. The asterisk (*) is a placeholder for a
version number.
Before you can begin using the CLion IDE, there are a couple of extra things that need to be done. This will tidy up
the opt directory, and ensure that you can access the IDE from the Application screen.
The first step is relatively straight forward; to rename a directory you can move the contents of the folder to another
folder with the new name. This can be achieved with using the mv command:
The asterisk (*) in the above command is a wildcard placement. This means that anything that comes after the
clion- will be accepted. The command above is essentially renaming the clion-* directory to clion, omitting the
version number. Remember, that the sudo command is also being used as the opt directory is a root-privileged only
directory, thus any changes made to this directory needs root/administrator access.
To confirm whether the changes have been successfully applied, you can list the contents of the /opt directory using
the ls command:
The outcome from this command can be seen in Figure 5, and you can observe that the old clion-* directory has
been renamed to clion.
The next step is to add the CLion binary to the Application screen so it can be easily accessible for you, instead of
having to run a command when you want to access the IDE. To achieve this, a file needs to be created in the directory
/usr/share/applications. Once again, this directory requires root-privileges and as such the sudo command will be
required. In this directory, you are required to create a file called CLion.desktop and this can be achieved using the
nano command:
The nano command will open a text-editor in the terminal window, in which you will be able to type (or paste) content
into the newly created file IntelliJ.desktop. The contents of this file should be the following:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=CLion
Icon=/opt/clion/bin/clion.svg
Exec=/opt/clion/bin/clion
To save the contents of the file, press the following key combination on the keyboard, Ctrl + X. This will then create a shortcut to the CLion binary on the Application screen. You can now search for the IDE in the Application screen, by clicking on the grid of dots in the bottom left-hand corner and searching for CLion.
To open the IDE click on the icon in the Application screen. Before the main IDE window is opened, the CLion user agreement will be shown, click on the checkbox to agree to the user agreement and click the Continue button. Another window will be presented, asking whether you want to share your data, click on the Don't Send button.
Once the relevant user agreements and data sharing processes have been completed the CLion application will begin to load.
On the first instance of following this guide, and the IDE has been installed and loaded, it will ask for you to activate your software. In order to do this, you need to click on the Log In to Jetbrains Account... button. This will open an internet browser window, whereby you will need to sign-in with your JetBrains account you created earlier.
Once you have logged in to your account, the internet browser will close automatically, and you should now see an Activate button appear. Click on this button and your IDE will be activated.
In this section of the guide, we shall begin the process of creating a new C++ project. Once the IDE has loaded, you will be met with a splash screen. On the splash screen, you will see a button labelled New Project, click on this button. A new window will pop up with a variety of different options.
In this window you will need to select the C++ Executable option on the left hand-side. Once this item has been selected, you will then be asked to provide a name of the project. This will be appended to the end of the path shown next to the label Location.
You will notice that the project is currently called Untitled. Delete this piece of text, and replace it with the
name My_First_Project.
Note
Notice the underscores in the name of the project? The Ubuntu Linux distribution does not like blank spaces in filenames or directory names. As our project will create a new directory, we need to replace the blank spaces with an underscore.
On the same screen, you can see an option to select the Language Standard. In this instance, as we are concerned with using C++23, ensure you select this option from the drop down box. Once these settings have been applied you can proceed and click on the Create button. This will begin the process of creating the new Python project.
That is the end of this guide on setting up the JetBrains CLion IDE. If you have followed all the necessary steps correctly, you should have a fully functional IDE which will enable you to complete any necessary programming based lab activities you will participate with on this course.
If you have spotted any errors or issues within this tutorial, you can e-mail Dr Ian Cornelius. Ensure to include in your message a description of the error or issue and a possible resolution. Also remember to include a URL to the page with the issue or error.