Get Involved/development/IDE configuration/KDevelop

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KDevelop is an IDE from KDE.

A screen recording version is available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcSfUNrd3S4

kdesrc-build

Make sure kdesrc-build works correctly. Make sure ~/.config/kdesrc-buildrc contains the lines:

cmake-options -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

Using kdesrc-build build a module. E.g.

kdesrc-build bluez-qt

Importing a kdesrc-build project into KDevelop

E.g. on Kubuntu 22.04.

apt install kdevelop clazy heaptrack

Start kdevelop. From the kdevelop main menu Session > make sure that you have a new/clean session. E.g. Delete Current Session...

From kdevelop main menu > Project > Open/Import Project... Name: /home/n/kde/src/bluez-qt/CMakeLists.txt > Next > Finish. If it asks to Override, override.

A dialog is shown: Configure a Build Directory for bluez-qt. It will guess all of the values: Build directory: /home/n/kde/build/bluez-qt. "Using an already created build directory.". Installation prefix: /home/n/kde/usr. Build type: Debug. CMake executable: /usr/bin/cmake. Press OK button.

Setting environment variables

By default kdesrc-build will install everything into separate usr directory to avoid messing with the system path. The file that contains these paths is called prefix.sh and can be found in the build directory of any project, for example /home/n/kde/build/bluez-qt/prefix.sh. By running source prefix.sh inside a terminal you will set up the environment for running a kdesrc-build project. By default the prefix should look something like this:

export PATH=/home/n/kde/usr/bin:$PATH

# LD_LIBRARY_PATH only needed if you are building without rpath
# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/n/kde/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export XDG_DATA_DIRS=/home/n/kde/usr/share:${XDG_DATA_DIRS:-/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/}
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/home/n/kde/usr/etc/xdg:${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:-/etc/xdg}

export QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/n/kde/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/plugins:$QT_PLUGIN_PATH
export QML2_IMPORT_PATH=/home/n/kde/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qml:$QML2_IMPORT_PATH

export QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_STYLE_PATH=/home/n/kde/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qml/QtQuick/Controls.2/:$QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_STYLE_PATH

To set up the environment inside KDevelop, first Select "Settings" -> "Configure KDevelop" in the menu bar. Then open the "Environment" settings page. Click the button on the right-hand side called "Batch edit mode" to open a new dialog with an empty text area. Copy and paste the contents of prefix.sh into this window and click "OK" to confirm the text dialog. Finally click "OK" to close the settings window.

Adding breakpoints

From kdevelop main menu > Window > Tool Views > Projects. Expand the treeview to one of the entrypoints (CMake targets). E.g. bluez-qt > autotests > managertest > managertest.cpp. The file "/home/n/kde/src/bluez-qt/autotests/managertest.cpp" will be opened in the text editor view.

Navigate to the method "bluezNotRunningTest()", put a breakpoint on the line with "{" (the opening curly bracket of the method). Right click on the line > Toggle Breakpoint.

In Projects view, right click on the CMake target "managertest" > Debug As... > Compiled Binary.

An error will be shown "Could not start debugger. Could not run 'lldb-mi'. Make sure that the path name is specified correctly.". From kdevelop main menu > Settings > Configure KDevelop... > Plugins > Debugging > uncheck "LLDB Support" > OK.

Navigate to method "bluezNotRunningTest()", put a breakpoint on the line with "{" (the opening curly bracket of the method). Right click on the line > Toggle Breakpoint.

In Projects view, right click on the CMake target "managertest" > Debug As... > Compiled Binary.

The debugger starts and breaks on the first line of C++ source code after the breakpoint. From the main menu > Run > Step Over (F10)/Step Into (F11)/Step Out (F12).