• 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).

bundled with C++Builder

bundled with Oracle Developer Studio

Compiler Explorer

• 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 4.9
• Boost 1.55
• C++03 - 14

• C++14

gdb

• Intro

the GNU debugger

lldb

the LLVM project's debugger

rr

• 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

WinDbg

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

cgdb

• 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-get install -y cgdb

gdbgui

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

DDD

• 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-get install -y ddd

WinGDB

debugging with GDB in Microsoft Visual Studio

Online GDB

ASAN

• Intro

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

UBSAN

• Intro

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

LeakSanitizer

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

ThreadSanitizer

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

valgrind

• 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

Dr. Memory

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

HeapTrack

• heap memory profiler
• annotation of memory allocations

Application Verifier

Deleaker

• Official Tutorial

• memory leak detection
• integration into various IDEs

GNU Profiler (gprof)

• Quick Tutorial

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

Intel VTune Profiler

• 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

OProfile

perf

• Official Tutorial
• Tutorial

• free software

Valgrind

• free software

Apple Instruments

• part of XCode

NVIDIA Nsight Compute

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

DTrace

• free software

Optick

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

GlowCode

SmartBear AQTime

Arm MAP

Oracle Performance Analyzer

Easy Profiler

Google Benchmark

• Apache-2.0

gperftools (originally Google Performance Tools)

• BSD-3-Clause

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

Celero

• Apache-2.0

plf::nanotimer

• zlib

GNU Make

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

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

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

CMake

• 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 techincal 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)

Bazel

• Tutorial

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

MSBuild

• 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 , C++Builder

build2

• 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

QMake

SCons

• 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

Premake

Ninja

Meson

FASTbuild

Gradle

Waf

Evoke

GNU autotools

My advice: stay away from autotools if you can.

Catch2

• BSL-1.0

• one header only

DocTest

• Manual

• MIT

• one header only

Boost Test

• BSL-1.0

Google Test

• BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised"

CUTE

• LGPL3

• header only
• part of Cevelop

QtTest

Mull

• Apache-2.0

• LLVM-based

Bandit

• MIT

CppUTest

• BSD-3-Clause

conan

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

vcpkg

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

Hunter

• CMake only

Buckaroo

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

NIX

Qt Creator

JetBrains CLion

Microsoft Visual Studio

Eclipse CDT

Apple XCode

Android Studio

• C++Builder
• C++Builder (Community Edition)

Cevelop

Kdevelop

Oracle Developer Studio

CodeLite

CodeBlocks

Visual Studio Code

nice modern UI, thriving extension ecosystem; origin of the Language Server Protocol

VIM

• VIM plugins
• Introductory Lecture

A classic and insanely powerful. Has quite a steep learning curve, but the modal editing paradigm is really worth learning. Only real drawback: once you grok it, you want VIM-style editing everywhere. highly customizable, large plugin ecosystem

Emacs

Also a classic; also super powerful.

Sublime Text

sleek UI, probably the fastest of all text editors, highly customizable

atom.io

nice UI, customizable, large plugin ecosystem; sometimes a bit sluggish

Notepad++

A classic in the Windows world. Quite OK, but not as powerful as the other editors in this list.

clang format

Artistic Style

Git

The de-facto industry standard for version control.

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

Mercurial

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

tig

Command Line Git Frontend

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

Sublime Merge

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

Compiler Explorer

• 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

C++ Insights

Quick Bench

Online GDB