C++ Tools Ecosystem C++ Tools Ecosystem C++ Tools

• Windows 10: WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
• Windows: MinGW-w64 project or STL's MinGW distro

download page

Only newer versions are largely conforming to the modern ISO C++ standard(s).

part of the NVIDIA HPC SDK

bundled with Embarcadero C++Builder

bundled with Oracle Developer Studio

• lets you run code through many different compilers
• shows nicely annotated assembly output
• lots of compilers with lots of different versions, also with experimental features
• supports several popular libraries (ranges, {fmt}, …)
• great text editor with multiple cursors, VIM mode, dark mode, …
• code round-trip between Compiler Explorer, C++ Insights and Quick Bench possible

• gcc
• clang
• C++03 - C++2a
• Boost

• gcc

• gcc 4.9
• Boost 1.55
• C++03 - 14

• C++14

• Intro

the GNU debugger

the LLVM project's debugger

• records program state over time
• replay & debug same recording many times
• reverse execution
• chaos mode for catching intermittent bugs
• claims to be faster and more memory efficient than gdb

does also provide record & replay debugging like rr (here called time travel debugging)

• Example Session

• runs in the command line
• split screen with source code window
• shows break points and current instruction
• install on Ubuntu/Debian/WSL: sudo apt install -y cgdb

• browser-based frontend for gdb
• install via pip: sudo pip install gdbgui

• official GNU debugger frontend
• The UI is a bit old-fashioned, but it is actually quite usable if you spend some time with it.
• install on Ubuntu/Debian/WSL: sudo apt install -y ddd

debugging with GDB in Microsoft Visual Studio

• Intro

• g++ -fsanitize=address
• clang++ -fsanitize=address
• cl.exe /fsanitize=address   MSVC (as of 10/2019)

• Intro

• g++ -fsanitize=undefined
• clang++ -fsanitize=undefined

• g++ -fsanitize=leak
• clang++ -fsanitize=leak

• g++ -fsanitize=thread
• clang++ -fsanitize=thread

• Intro
• Quick Start

• code instrumentation framework
• runs program on a VM
• --tool=memcheck leak, invalid read/write detection
• --tool=callgrind runtime profiling
• --tool=cachegrind cache profiling
• --tool=massif heap memory profiling
• integration into various IDEs

• dynamic instrumentation (runs on unmodified binaries)
• leak detection
• invalid memory read/write detection

• heap memory profiler
• annotation of memory allocations

• Official Tutorial

• memory leak detection
• integration into various IDEs

• source code analysis tool
• code quality metrics
• coding standard compliance analysis
• dependency visualization
• Visual Studio add-in

• ubiquitous
• free software
• some IDEs can present gprof results in a GUI

• free of charge
• GUI & command line interface
• sampling-based profiling
• hardware event sampling for Intel chips
• locks & waits analysis
• memory access analysis
• storage analysis
• integrates with MS Visual Studio

• unique approach to profiling
• creates causal profile: "optimizing function X will have effect Y"
• profile is based on performance experiments
• program is partitioned into parts based on progress points (that are set in source code)
• no additional instrumentation of source code required

• Official Tutorial
• Tutorial

• free software

• free software

• part of XCode

• profiling for NVIDIA GPUs (architectures: Pascal, Volta, Turing)
• supplants NVIDIA Visual Profiler

• free software

• instrumentation-based and sampling-based profiling
• GPU counters

• Apache-2.0

(originally Google Performance Tools)

• BSD-3-Clause

• high-performance multithreaded malloc()
• heap checker
• heap profiler
• cpu profiler

• Apache-2.0

• zlib

• BSL-1.0

• Tutorial 1
• Tutorial 2
• Tutorial 3
• Manual
• Cheat Sheet

Quite OK for small projects. Every C++ programmer should know how to use Make.

• ubiquitous, portable
• a lot of limitations
• not very expressive syntax

• Tutorial

Seems to be(come) the de-facto standard in the C++ world.

• available on a lot of platforms
• lot of tutorials, resources, etc.
• used as project model by some IDEs
• can be slow at times
• carries a lot of technical debt
• clumsy syntax

• C++ Starter Project with Complete CMake Setup by Jason Turner
• More Modern CMake Deniz Bahadir (Meeting C++ 2018)
• Effective CMake Daniel Pfeifer (C++Now 2017)
• Using Modern CMake Patterns… Mathieu Ropert (CppCon 2017)

• Tutorial

• fast, seems to scale well
• rather rigid project organization
• has many dependencies itself

• Command-line based build system from Microsoft packaged with Microsoft Visual Studio , but also available as stand-alone application.
• XML-based build files
• supported by , Embarcadero C++Builder

• uniform across platforms, no project generation step
• supports wildcard patterns
• support for C++ Modules
• support for cross-compilation
• skips recompilation of ignorable changes (comments, whitespaces, etc).
• dependency management
• no dependencies, only C++ compiler required

• automatic dependency analysis
• uses a real programming language (Python) for config files
• pretty verbose; even common tasks require a lot of code
• can be slow for big projects

My advice: stay away from autotools if you can.

• Tutorial
• Manual
• Quick Example

• MIT

• probably the best choice for small/quick projects
• approach allows for well-structured, self-documenting tests
• modeled after Catch2 (shares some code with it)
• easy to set up, one header only
• very fast compilation & execution
• very good and concise documentation

• Intro/Tutorial
• Manual
• Comparison of Catch and doctest

• BSL-1.0

• approach allows for well-structured, self-documenting tests
• relatively easy to set up
• very good and concise documentation
• data generation helpers
• set of predefined matchers for comparing values
• microbenchmarking tools
• logging

• BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised"

• BSL-1.0

• LGPL3

• header only
• part of Cevelop

• Apache-2.0

• LLVM-based

• MIT

• BSD-3-Clause

• decentralized
• build systems: CMake, MSBuild, …
• binary packages

• Visual Studio integration
• CMake support
• only builds from source

• programming-language agnostic (C, C++, Python, R, …)
• originated in HPC / scientific computing community
• can install many coexisting variants of library package versions and build configurations

• CMake only

• GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, …
• integrates into various IDEs

• Linux Setup
• Windows+WSL Setup
• CMake Setup

• VIM plugins
• Introductory Lecture
• Binaries for Windows

The de-facto industry standard for version control.

• very fast
• possible to set up elaborate workflows
• complex command line interface

Python-based source control management system.

• easier to learn than git
• beginner-friendly documentation
• a bit slower than git
• some, more involved workflows not possible out-of-the box

Command Line Git Frontend

• VIM-style key mapping
• commit view with branch graph
• (un-)staging, diff, stash, log, grep
• configurable UI

Git Merging / Commit Crafting Tool

• very fast UI
• line-by-line staging
• commit editing
• diff view, same syntax highlighting as Sublime Text
• multiple repositories (in tabs)
• can use external or bundled git client

• lets you run code through many different compilers
• shows nicely annotated assembly output
• lots of compilers with lots of different versions, also with experimental features
• supports several popular libraries (ranges, {fmt}, …)
• great text editor with multiple cursors, VIM mode, dark mode, …
• code round-trip between Compiler Explorer, C++ Insights and Quick Bench possible