C++ Software Setup: Linux Edition

As described in this week's lessons, in CS 70 we use the Clang compiler.

Step 1: Install the Clang Compiler

To begin, open a terminal. The exact name of the terminal app in Linux varies by distro, but it's usually something like “Terminal”, “Console”, or “Konsole”.

Next, in the terminal, you'll use the system's package manager—a tool that allows you to install, uninstall, and update software packages—to install Clang. Different Linux distributions use different package managers, but these days most distros use either “debs” (originally created for the Debian distro) or RPMs (originally created for the Red Hat distro).

For Debian or Ubuntu (and Debian or Ubuntu derivatives such as Mint and Pop!_OS)

sudo apt install clang

For Fedora/Red Hat and derivatives

sudo dnf install clang

The sudo at the start of these command lines tells the system to run the command that follows it as “root”, which allows it to make changes to files and directories that regular users can't change. Then we have the package-manager command, followed by install clang to tell it to install the clang package.

When you hit Return, the system will prompt you to enter your password, which is the password you use to log into your computer.

Once you've authenticated, depending on what's already installed on your machine, you may see a list of additional packages the package manager needs to install for Clang to work. If so, say yes and let it do its thing.

Checking Your Clang Installation

To test whether the installation worked, run the following command in the terminal:

clang++ --help | head

You should see the first ten lines of what's actually a massive chunk of documentation for the Clang compiler (over 1800 lines!), which should start with something like the following:

OVERVIEW: clang LLVM compiler

USAGE: clang [options] file...

OPTIONS:

Step 2: Install Git

The process for installing Git is very similar. Just run the same package-manager command as you did before, but replace clang with git. If you install Git within a few minutes of installing Clang, you won't even need to type your password again.

Checking the Git Installation

You can quickly test that Git is working by running

git --help

This should print a ~50-line help summary that starts with something like the following:

usage: git [-v | --version] [-h | --help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
           [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
           [-p | --paginate | -P | --no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
           [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
           [--config-env=<name>=<envvar>] <command> [<args>]

Step 3: Install GitHub CLI

GitHub CLI is a command-line interface for GitHub, and it's the easiest way to authenticate with GitHub from your own machine—which you'll be doing once you finish this page.

In most distributions the GitHub CLI package is just called gh (which is also the name of the program you run to do things). So, as above, you run sudo apt-get install gh, sudo dnf install gh, or an equivalent for your particular distro. You may get another list of additional packages gh needs; install them too.

Step 4: Install Helix (Recommended, but Optional)

Helix is the text editor we use on the CS 70 server, and if you install it on your machine, you can do your work just like you would on the server. Unfortunately, Helix is the one piece of the toolchain that isn't packaged the same way everywhere, so installing it is a bit more complicated.

On Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivatives, the package is called helix, so run

sudo dnf install helix

On Debian, it's hx, so

sudo apt-get install hx

On Ubuntu and derivatives, Helix isn't available in the standard package repositories (not in 24.04 LTS, which is what the CS 70 server itself runs) so the easiest route is to use the Snap package, with

sudo snap install --classic helix

Once it's installed, you start it by typing hx.

(When logged in, completion status appears here.)