1# C
 2
 3C support is available natively in Zed.
 4
 5- Tree-sitter: [tree-sitter/tree-sitter-c](https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter-c)
 6- Language Server: [clangd/clangd](https://github.com/clangd/clangd)
 7- Debug Adapter: [CodeLLDB](https://github.com/vadimcn) (primary), [GDB](https://sourceware.org/gdb/) (secondary, not available on Apple silicon)
 8
 9## Clangd: Force detect as C
10
11Clangd out of the box assumes mixed C++/C projects. If you have a C-only project you may wish to instruct clangd to treat all files as C using the `-xc` flag. To do this, create a `.clangd` file in the root of your project with the following:
12
13```yaml
14CompileFlags:
15  Add: [-xc]
16```
17
18By default clang and gcc will recognize `*.C` and `*.H` (uppercase extensions) as C++ and not C and so Zed too follows this convention. If you are working with a C-only project (perhaps one with legacy uppercase pathing like `FILENAME.C`) you can override this behavior by adding this to your settings:
19
20```json [settings]
21{
22  "file_types": {
23    "C": ["C", "H"]
24  }
25}
26```
27
28## Formatting
29
30By default Zed will use the `clangd` language server for formatting C code. The Clangd is the same as the `clang-format` CLI tool. To configure this you can add a `.clang-format` file. For example:
31
32```yaml
33---
34BasedOnStyle: GNU
35IndentWidth: 2
36---
37```
38
39See [Clang-Format Style Options](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormatStyleOptions.html) for a complete list of options.
40
41You can trigger formatting via {#kb editor::Format} or the `editor: format` action from the command palette or by adding `format_on_save` to your Zed settings:
42
43```json [settings]
44  "languages": {
45    "C": {
46      "format_on_save": "on",
47      "tab_size": 2
48    }
49  }
50```
51
52## Compile Commands
53
54For some projects Clangd requires a `compile_commands.json` file to properly analyze your project. This file contains the compilation database that tells clangd how your project should be built.
55
56### CMake Compile Commands
57
58With CMake, you can generate `compile_commands.json` automatically by adding the following line to your `CMakeLists.txt`:
59
60```cmake
61set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON)
62```
63
64After building your project, CMake will generate the `compile_commands.json` file in the build directory and clangd will automatically pick it up.
65
66## Debugging
67
68You can use CodeLLDB or GDB to debug native binaries. (Make sure that your build process passes `-g` to the C compiler, so that debug information is included in the resulting binary.) See below for examples of debug configurations that you can add to `.zed/debug.json`.
69
70- [CodeLLDB configuration documentation](https://github.com/vadimcn/codelldb/blob/master/MANUAL.md#starting-a-new-debug-session)
71- [GDB configuration documentation](https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb.html/Debugger-Adapter-Protocol.html)
72
73### Build and Debug Binary
74
75```json [debug]
76[
77  {
78    "label": "Debug native binary",
79    "build": {
80      "command": "make",
81      "args": ["-j8"],
82      "cwd": "$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT"
83    },
84    "program": "$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT/build/prog",
85    "request": "launch",
86    "adapter": "CodeLLDB"
87  }
88]
89```