Kate

Kate is the feature-packed text editor from KDE.

A screen recording is available showing how to use Kate with kdesrc-build: KDE's Kate and kdesrc-build tutorial

kde-builder setup

Make sure that ~/.config/kde-builder.yaml contains the line:

cmake-generator: "Kate - Unix Makefiles"

kdesrc-build setup

Make sure that ~/.config/kdesrc-buildrc contains the lines:

cmake-options -G "Kate - Unix Makefiles"
# Build with LSP support for everything that supports it
compile-commands-linking true
compile-commands-export true

Kate

Kate provides its own tutorial on setting up Kate for kdesrc-build development: Building Kate from Sources on Linux.

In Kate, go to Settings -> Configure Kate... -> Plugins and enable:

• Project Plugin
• LSP Client
• Build & Run
• Kate Debugger

Some of the features available in Kate:

• LSP Client Symbol Outline
• Right click in text editor on a C++ identifier
  • LSP Client > Go to Declaration/Find References/ Switch Source Header F12/ Symbol Info/ Search and Go to Symbol Ctrl+Alt+P/ Format/ Rename/ Switch to diagnostics tab/ Quickfix This menu is also available from kate main menu > LSP Client.
• Tools > External Tools > Git
  • git blame
  • gitk
• Tools > External Tools > Tools
  • Clang Format Full File
  • Search KDE API
  • Search Qt API
  • JSON Format Full File
  • XML Format Full File

Build and debug

With the ".kateproject" file

cd ~/kde/src/kcalc
ln -s ~/kde/build/kcalc/.kateproject ~/kde/src/kcalc/.kateproject
kate . &

To build the project from within Kate:

• Build > Select Target... > Target Settings tab
  • Set the Working Directory of the project to "~/kde/build/kcalc". This will cause all of the CMake targets to be listed.
• Build > Build Default Target.

To use the Kate debugger:

• Debug > Targets > Target 1.
  • View > Tool Views > Show Debug View > Settings tab > Executable > select "~/kde/build/kcalc/bin/kcalc".
  • Click on a source code line.
  • Debug > Toggle Breakpoint.
  • Debug > Start Debugging.

To start debugging, you can use the options:

• Debug
  • Continue
  • Step Over
  • Step In
  • Step Out

Most of these options should show up on the Kate toolbar.

Without the ".kateproject" file

If we do not have a .kateproject file:

• Build

  1. Open Kate
  2. Go to Build → Select Target… → Target Set
  3. Set Working Directory to:

     ~/kde/build/kcalc

  4. Click OK
  5. Open Build Output tool view
  6. Switch to the Target Settings tab
  7. Double-click the Dir: cell and set it to:

     ~/kde/build/kcalc

  8. Press Enter
  9. Select Build → Build Default Target

• Debugger

  1. Go to Debug → Targets → Target 1
  2. Open View → Tool Views → Show Debug View
  3. In the Settings tab, set Executable to:

     ~/kde/build/kcalc/bin/kcalc

  4. Click a source code line
  5. Select Debug → Toggle Breakpoint
  6. Start debugging via Debug → Start Debugging
  7. Use the following controls as needed:
     • Continue
     • Step Over
     • Step In
     • Step Out