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Linux & Geany Setup

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Errichto edited this page Jan 24, 2021 · 3 revisions

Video tutorial: https://youtu.be/ePZEkbbf3fc

For competitive programming, I use Ubuntu (a popular free Linux distribution) dual booted alongside Windows. My favorite IDE is Geany and it's perfect for short codes in CP, but I don't recommend it for work and big projects. Here's setup instructions.

  1. Download Ubuntu from https://ubuntu.com/download.
  2. Create a bootable USB with https://rufus.ie or any other software.
  3. Install Ubuntu from your USB, preferably alongside the current OS (like Windows).
  4. Open terminal in Activities or with ctrl+alt+T.
  5. Install Geany and g++:
    sudo apt install geany
    sudo apt install g++
  6. Configure Geany preferences:
    6.1. Open preferences with ctrl+alt+P.
    6.2. In Keybindings tab, set Switch to Editor as F1 and confirm overriding, then Switch to VTE as F2 (VTE is built-in terminal).
    6.3. In Terminal tab, mark Follow path of the current file. Terminal will now automatically change a path after you open a new file.
    6.4. (optional) In General -> Miscellaneous, unmark Beep on errors.
    6.5. (optional) In Editor, change Comment toggle marker to an empty string or a single space.
    6.6. (optional) In Editor > Display, unmark Stop scrolling at last line and Long line marker Enabled.
  7. Open any C++ file in Geany, go to Build -> Set Build Commands and copy my flags.
    Compile (F8): g++ -std=c++17 -Wshadow -Wall -o "%e" "%f" -O2 -Wno-unused-result
    Build (F9): g++ -std=c++17 -Wshadow -Wall -o "%e" "%f" -g -fsanitize=address -fsanitize=undefined -D_GLIBCXX_DEBUG
    If you get compilation errors, try changing from c++17 to c++14 and/or removing sanitizers (two fsanitize flags).
  8. Open a file ~/.bashrc and uncomment a line #force_color_prompt=yes in order to get colorful terminal in Geany. In the same file, add a line ulimit -s 2000123 to set the stack limit to around 2GB. Restart geany (or your PC) or run source ~/.bashrc to trigger the change.

Optional steps which I use:

  1. Hide Toolbar and Sidebar by unmarking them in View.
  2. Install Guake and make it run on start-up:
    sudo apt install guake
    Activities (top-left corner) -> Startup Applications Preferences -> Add -> set name and command as guake
  3. Open system settings (top-right corner of the screen) and mark Auto-hide the Dock in Dock tab.
  4. Download Monokai theme from https://www.geany.org/download/themes/, change comment color to comment=#FF00FF and apply it in View > Change Color Scheme.
  5. If underscores are not visible for some font sizes, use [styling]\nline_height=0;2; (https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1387).
  6. Grab testlib from https://github.com/MikeMirzayanov/testlib/blob/master/testlib.h, add first line #pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wshadow" and last line #pragma GCC diagnostic pop, move the file to /usr/local/include.

More info and details below.

  • You can install stuff by using Software Center or typing a command in terminal, usually sudo apt install program_name. This should be displayed if you just type geany (Command 'geany' not found, but can be installed with: sudo apt install geany). If this doesn't work, I usually google ubuntu how to install program_name from terminal and follow the instructions.
  • Guake allows you to summon a fullscreen terminal by clicking the F12 button, which is more comfortable than a new terminal window that you can open with ctrl+alt+T. It isn't important if you use Geany built-in terminal though.
  • Comment toggle marker refers to a special character added to comments created with shortcut ctrl+E in Geany. The default ~ means that commented lines will look like //~ int a = 2 + 2;. It's ok to get rid of the ~ character.
  • In Preferences -> Interface, you can switch the position of Geany terminal (and message window) between bottom and right.
  • python3 is likely already installed, consider defining python as the same command (more info) in terminal:
    update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 10

Update: At the end of 2020, I decided to switch from dual boot to VM. The setup takes more effort but then I can code in Ubuntu while recording and drawing with Windows software.

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