I have installed xeus, xeus-cling and jupyter extension. I changed the kernel to one of the C++ versions, the cell language to C++ but when I click run the cell never outputs. Can someone please help me solve this?
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do you use the conda environment ? – abu_bua Apr 05 '21 at 01:02
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yes. Also, I am on a macOS – Horia Turcuman Apr 06 '21 at 09:45
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it works perfectly on jupyter notebook/lab but i didn't try it on vscode. will check it on afternoon on vscode. – abu_bua Apr 06 '21 at 10:50
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I can agree, it works on jupyter notebook for me as well, the issue is with vscode though. – Horia Turcuman Apr 07 '21 at 12:53
2 Answers
Running xeus-cling under vs-code
Ceus works in the vs-code environment. You have to activate your conda environment and invoke vs-code from it (i use the code insiders edition). In linux this looks like
conda activate xeus-cling # my env for xeus-cling; where i compiled cling
then invoke code (insiders) in your project directory
code-insiders .& # or code .& if you are using the stable version
If you have still problems try the following:
start a jupyter notebook from command line (of course in your conda environment described above)
jupyter notebook --no-browser
Copy or remember the line with the token, which looks like
http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=8daf8f57bef55918defb467defc55f0305803caa27dd01d2
next go to code-insiders and click on the bottom bar Jupyter Server: Remote
on the top of the window a list will pop up, looking like
select Existing or copy the token into it
now a message should appear reload kernel , click on the button to do so
in the bottom bar select the kernel to e.g. C++14
create a new blank jupyter worksheet and don't forget to change the cell to C++ !!

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1Thank you for the answer. It indeed seems to work, I am probably doing something wrong. Trying to replicate your steps, when I run a cell I always get a notification with "Connecting to kernel:C++14" which immediately changes to "Canceled". Do you know what the problem might be? – Horia Turcuman Apr 08 '21 at 20:09
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Thanks, it works now! As I understand, the problem is that vscode does not properly start or connect to the local notebook server? – Horia Turcuman Apr 12 '21 at 15:00
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yes, seem so. however, i prefer to start the notebook this way as i have full control over extensions, ... – abu_bua Apr 12 '21 at 15:08
Heres a solution without having to activate the conda environment. The following commands are what worked on ubuntu:focal
Update conda:
conda update conda --yes
Create the environment to install xeus-cling kernel:
conda create -n xeus-cling --yes
Install xeus-cling kernel in the xeus-cling environment created earlier:
conda install xeus-cling -c conda-forge -n xeus-cling --yes
Find where your conda environments are installed by looking for envs directories
in the output of the following command:
conda info
My conda environments were located in /etc/miniconda/envs
. Thus there will be a subdirectory for each environment which holds all the installed packages. The kernels are located in xeus-cling/share/jupyter/kernels
. The path starts with xeus-cling
because that's what we named the conda environment earlier.
Inside of the kernels/
directory you will find a few c++ kernels. To install the conda xeus-cling kernel directly into Jupyter do the following:
jupyter kernelspec install /etc/miniconda/envs/xeus-cling/share/jupyter/kernels/xcpp11 --sys-prefix
jupyter kernelspec install /etc/miniconda/envs/xeus-cling/share/jupyter/kernels/xcpp14 --sys-prefix
jupyter kernelspec install /etc/miniconda/envs/xeus-cling/share/jupyter/kernels/xcpp17 --sys-prefix
Open VS Code as you normally would. No need to activate the conda environment. Create a new Jupyter Notebook. Finally, make sure you select the C++ Kernel in the upper right corner of the screen.
I used @abu_bua answer above and these docs from the xeus-cling project to figure this out. I hope this helps.
Happy coding!

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How can you change the cell language mode to c++ in vscode? In my jupyter notebook there seems to be no option for cpp – William Le Dec 16 '22 at 16:00
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The code cell language will change by selecting the kernel in the upper right corner. – HDubz Feb 18 '23 at 18:25