CLion Setup

How to set up VaRA/LLVM in CLion

1. Use vara-buildsetup vara -i to correctly clone and checkout the VaRa/LLVM repos (cf. How to setup VaRA)

2. Start CLion and from the menu select File | Open and point to <varats_root>/tools_src/vara-llvm-project/llvm/CMakeLists.txt. In the dialog that opens, click Open as Project.

3. Go to Settings/Preferences | Build, Execution, Deployment | CMake to configure the CMake project. Use the + symbol to create a new profile and adjust the settings as follows and confirm with Ok once you are done:

   • Debug/Dev build:

     • Name: Debug (or Dev)

     • Build type: Debug

     • Toolchain: Default (make sure that your toolchain is configured to use clang)

     • CMake options: .. code-block:

       -DBUILD_CLAR=OFF
       -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON
       -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG="-O2 -g -fno-omit-frame-pointer"
       -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG="-O2 -g -fno-omit-frame-pointer"
       -DCMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS="-Wl,--undefined-version"
       -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=17
       -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
       -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<varats_root>/tools/VaRA
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS=ON
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_BINDINGS=OFF
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_EH=ON
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_LLD=ON
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS="clang;lld;compiler-rt;clang-tools-extra;vara;phasar"
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_RTTI=ON
       -DLLVM_OPTIMIZED_TABLEGEN=ON
       -DLLVM_PARALLEL_LINK_JOBS=4
       -DLLVM_PHASAR_BUILD=ON
       -DLLVM_TOOL_PHASAR_BUILD=ON
       -DPHASAR_ENABLE_DYNAMIC_LOG=OFF
       -DPHASAR_BUILD_IR=OFF
       -DPHASAR_BUILD_UNITTESTS=OFF
       -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=X86
       -DLLVM_TOOL_PHASAR_BUILD=ON
       -DUSE_HTTPS=OFF
       -DUSE_SSH=OFF
       -DVARA_BUILD_LIBGIT=ON
       -DVARA_FEATURE_BUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=OFF
       -DVARA_FEATURE_BUILD_Z3_SOLVER=ON
       -DVARA_FEATURE_USE_Z3_SOLVER=ON
       

       Use -O0 for debug builds and -O2 for development builds.

     • Build directory: <varats_root>/tools_src/vara-llvm-project/build/dev-clion

     • Build options: leave empty

   • Release Build

     • Name: Release

     • Build type: Release

     • Toolchain: Default (make sure that your toolchain is configured to use clang)

     • CMake options: .. code-block:

       -DBUILD_CLAR=OFF
       -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON
       -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE="-O3 -DNDEBUG -march=native -fno-omit-frame-pointer -gmlt"
       -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE="-O3 -DNDEBUG -march=native -fno-omit-frame-pointer -gmlt"
       -DCMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS="-Wl,--undefined-version"
       -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=17
       -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON
       -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<varats_root>/tools/VaRA
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS=OFF
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_BINDINGS=OFF
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_EH=ON
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_LLD=ON
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS="clang;lld;compiler-rt;clang-tools-extra;vara;phasar"
       -DLLVM_ENABLE_RTTI=ON
       -DLLVM_OPTIMIZED_TABLEGEN=ON
       -DLLVM_PARALLEL_LINK_JOBS=4
       -DLLVM_PHASAR_BUILD=ON
       -DLLVM_TOOL_PHASAR_BUILD=ON
       -DPHASAR_ENABLE_DYNAMIC_LOG=OFF
       -DPHASAR_BUILD_IR=OFF
       -DPHASAR_BUILD_UNITTESTS=OFF
       -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=X86
       -DLLVM_TOOL_PHASAR_BUILD=ON
       -DUSE_HTTPS=OFF
       -DUSE_SSH=OFF
       -DVARA_BUILD_LIBGIT=ON
       -DVARA_FEATURE_BUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=OFF
       -DVARA_FEATURE_BUILD_Z3_SOLVER=ON
       -DVARA_FEATURE_USE_Z3_SOLVER=ON
       

     • Build directory: <varats_root>/tools_src/vara-llvm-project/build/dev-clion

     • Build options: leave empty

4. Call Tools | CMake | Change Project Root from the main menu and select the top-level repository folder, vara-llvm-project to see the entire repository in the Project tree.

5. Delete the old build directory llvm/cmake-build-debug that was created by clion after the first launch

6. Build the project using Build | Build Project

(This guide follows the section Work with a monorepo in the official CLion documentation)

Running applications within CLion

To run VaRA from within clion, you need to create run configurations. Choose CMake Application as a template and select the Targets and Executable depending on the application you want to run (e.g., clang, clang++, or opt). The targets check-vara and tidy-vara execute the VaRA regression tests and clang-tidy checks.

Tips & Tricks

Changes to the CMake project do not apply automatically

You can manually reload the CMake project via the reload button in the CMake tab.

Code completion or highlighting does not work

Wait until Building symbols, Indexing, etc. is done or reload the CMake project.

The debugger does stop at breakpoints and doesn’t show the source code.

This is most likely because the build does not include debugging symbols. Check if you have selected the Debug configuration for the build. If it doesn’t work even if you used the debug configuration, the problem might disappear if you clean the build directory (e.g., Build | Clean) and reload the CMake project.