Remote Development

There are several options for remote development in CLion, each targeting a particular subset of the setups: Full Remote Mode, WSL, and two variants of using GDB/gdbserver, GDB Remote Debug and Remote GDB Server.

To help you compare these options and choose the most suitable one, we summarized their details in the tables given below. Learn more from our webinar Remote Development with CLion and the articles dedicated to each option.

System and IDE configuration

	Full Remote Mode	WSL	GDB Remote Debug	Remote GDB Server
Local OS	macOS / Linux / Windows	Windows	macOS / Linux / Windows	macOS / Linux / Windows
Remote OS	Linux	Certain Linux distributions	Any OS supporting gdbserver	Any OS supporting gdbserver and SSH
Connection protocol	SSH	SSH	TCP / UDP or serial line	TCP / UDP or serial line; SSH for uploading
Required tools	rsync for macOS / Linux clients; tar for Windows clients	-	gdbserver on target	gdbserver on target
Sources location	Locally	Locally	Locally; symbol file also placed locally	Locally
Synchronization	Automatic for all sources; manual resync of header search paths	Not required	Manual	Automatic for the binary
Building	Remotely	On WSL	Not specified	Locally (cross-compilation required)
Running Debugging	Remotely	On WSL	Program runs remotely under gdbserver; CLion's GDB connects to the running process and debugs it locally	Similar to GDB Remote Debug

Project-level settings

	Full Remote Mode	WSL	GDB Remote Debug	Remote GDB Server
Project format	CMake	CMake / Compilation database	Any	CMake
Toolchain	Remote	WSL	Not specified	Default on macOS/Linux; MinWG, Cygwin, WSL on Windows
Path mappings	Created automatically, customizable in deployment entry	Not required	Not created automatically, should be set up in run/debug configuration	Not created automatically, should be set up in run/debug configuration

Steps of the workflow

Full Remote Mode

Create a Remote toolchain:
- provide credentials and check the connection,
- wait for tools detection, provide the paths manually if required.
Set the Remote toolchain as default
or create an associated CMake profile.
If needed, adjust path mappings in the deployment entry.
Use the default profile or select the profile from step 2 for build, run, and debug.

WSL

Configure WSL.
Create a WSL toolchain and provide credentials.
Set the WSL toolchain as default
or create an associated CMake profile.
Select the default profile or the profile from step 3 for build, run, and debug.

GDB Remote Debug

Place the binary on the remote machine and symbol file on the local machine.
In CLion, create a GDB Remote Debug configuration:
- provide the symbol file location,
- specify connection details,
- set up path mappings.
Launch the program under gdbserver on the remote machine.
In CLion, debug the configuration created on step 2.

Remote GDB Server

Create a Remote GDB Server configuration:
- provide the credentials to access the target,
- configure the uploading process,
- (optional) set the gdbserver connection details.
Select the Debug CMake profile and start a debug session for the created configuration.

Last modified: 20 February 2020