I have a custom Manifest file and would like to embed it inside the executable. I use MS Visual Studio 2010 compiler and Qt 5.2.1.
I use Qt Creator as the IDE and CMake for making release builds.
What options should I set in .pro and CMake files?
I tried to pass '/MANIFEST...' like flags to the linker, but they seem to be unsupported by VS 2010 linker.
Eventually I've found the solution.
First it is necessary to add the following line to the .pro file:
CONFIG -= embed_manifest_exe
this will disable embedding of the default manifest file. After that it is necessary to add a windows resource file:
RC_FILE = app_resources.rc
.rc file is usually included to embed version information into .exe, but as soon as manifest is also a part of the executable resources we could reference a custom manifest file in it, just add the following line into app_resources.rc:
1 24 myapp.exe.manifest
where 1 is the resource ID, 24 is the resource type - RT_MANIFEST, and myapp.exe.manifest is the file with our custom manifest.
If you don't need version info then app_resources.rc may contain just this single line.
That's it.
For CMake the steps are as follows:
1) include app_resources.rc in the list of sources of the target
2) add the following line to disable embedding of a default manifest file:
set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "/MANIFEST:NO")
For some unknown for me reasons /MANIFEST:NO didn't work in .pro file. The linker failed with an unknown option error. However it works in CMake. The linker is the same from VS 2010...
Using below qmake script based manifest injection you do not need to include the manifest in any *.rc file (works for MakeFile based compile where qmake does generate the MakeFile)
QMAKE_MANIFEST = $$PWD/x86_user.manifest.xml
Note:
this works even if we have set the RC_FILE = Res.rc (i.e. since this takes action and injects the manifest to .exe after the compile is done)
you need to recompile to see effect...
I can't help you with the qmake side, but for CMake, you should be able to just list the manifest file as one of the sources of the target. This requires CMake 3.4 or later (see release notes).
Related
I have a QT Project I am working on, it has a couple of sub-modules, which I list in my project's .pro file as:
if(!include(module/my_module.pri)){
error("module my_module not found")
}
What I tried:
Well, I have found a library which I intend to use, which is a CMake project libcrashreporter-qt. I am just linking the project for completeness - there is nothing wrong with this library (to my knowledge)
Problem:
I figured I will try an include the CMakeLists.txt file as I would a .pri file:
if(!include(libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt)){
error("module libcrashreporter-qt not found")
}
where the libcrashreporter-qt folder is in the root of my project
Some Code:
In doing so, I get a horde of compiler errors:
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:1: 'project' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:2: 'cmake_minimum_required' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:4: Extra characters after test expression.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:5: 'cmake_policy' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:6: 'endif' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:10: 'find_package' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:12: Opening parenthesis without prior test name.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:16: 'string' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:17: 'string' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:18: 'endif' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:20: 'add_subdirectory' is not a recognized test function.
$project_dir/libcrashreporter-qt/CMakeLists.txt:21: 'add_subdirectory' is not a recognized test function.
CMake file content (note, I changed the file slightly trying to resolve build issues by removing the multi-line if-statement and commented the option line):
project(libcrashreporter-qt)
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1)
if(POLICY CMP0071)
cmake_policy(SET CMP0071 NEW)
endif()
#option(ENABLE_GPL_CODE OFF)
find_package(Qt5 COMPONENTS Core Network Widgets)
if((CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX AND CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS) OR (UNIX AND NOT APPLE AND CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID MATCHES "Clang"))
# Breakpad uses GNU compiler extensions like typeof.
# Luckily these features are not used on OSX, so we can build the
# crashreporter there with the normal C++11 standard.
string(REPLACE "-std=c++11" "-std=gnu++11" CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS})
string(REPLACE "-std=c++14" "-std=gnu++14" CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS})
endif()
add_subdirectory(3rdparty)
add_subdirectory(src)
This leads me to believe there is an issue with Qt .pro file compatibility and CMake projects being used within each other.
Question:
How can access the library functions of this CMake project, and compile it with my project (i.e. w/o changing the CMake project itself), or alternatively how best can I convert the CMake project to a compatible .pro project?
AFAIK CMake and QMake cannot be mixed together in one project, they are two different build systems and if you want to use a CMake project in a QMake project you have "two" options:
if you want to use the source files (.cpp and .h) or even modify them in your project you have to import them to your QMake project (you can easily do that in your QtCreator) and compile all of the files of your project
if the CMake library that you are using doesn't need any change (most of the times it's like this when you're using a third party library) and you just want to import it to your project and link it against your executable, you just run and compile the CMake project (separate from your own QMake project) and then use the output dynamic or static library of that project to link against your QMake project
As far as I remember, in Qt you can specify the custom compiler settings for the extra target, so, if you need your CMake project to be rebuilt just before the target Qt application is built, you can try to use this way
A possible solution is here:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/15766946/2333496
I finally built a static version of Qt 5.1.1 using microsoft visual studio. I created my .exe standalone file using this code:
qmake Hello.pro
nmake release
cd release
mt.exe -manifest Hello.exe.manifest -outputresource: Hello.exe;1
what is mt.exe and what does the last line do with the "Hello.exe" file?
You could just use CONFIG += embed_manifest_exe though, but in essence you need to put the manifest file beside your executable and the last line seems to take care of that.
That is, it is adding a manifest to your "Hello.exe" executable file.
If you do not happen to know what manifest files are, then you can read the MSDN documentation below, but in short: they are carrying run time information for your executable in this particular case:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374191(v=vs.85).aspx
I compiled a library using the MinGW toolchain provided with Qt 5.0.2 on Windows. As a result I received a library.so file. First I failed using the library in a Qt application, but now I found out that everything works fine when I make a copy of the liblibrary.so file and call it liblibrary.dll or liblibrary.lib (which is the only file ending supported by the add library wizard in QtCreator).
Now I wonder if this is normal or if I should change something in order not to have both files (which are exact copies). Leaving one away makes the application crash during start up. I added the library as follows to my Qt pro file:
LIBS += -L"../path/to/library" -llibrary
INCLUDEPATH += $$quote(../path/to/library)
EDIT: I compiled the library using the MinGW of Qt, not as Qt project but using mingw32-make and the provided Makefile. As a result I get the liblibrary.so.
EDIT: It seems to work also when renaming the copy to liblibrary.dll instead of .lib. But still, I need two files to make the application work -- the .so and the .dll.
Chris
That's weird, I think you should get a *.a and *.dll files when building a shared lib with MinGW on Windows, as said in the documentation:
In windows, MinGW will output .a and .dll, MSVC2010 will ouput .lib and .dll. In linux, MinGW will output .so, .so.1, .so.1.0 and .so.1.0.0 – .lib, .a and .so are import libraries.
You definitely shouldn't rename your file!
Be careful to:
not to include the "lib" prefix after "-l" in your project file.
put everything after after "-l" in lower case as you're on Windows
not adding any extension to your library name after "-l"
add and reference the .h file used in your library
A real example using QtWebsocket lib:
INCLUDEPATH += "$${PWD}/include/"
LIBS += -L"$${PWD}/libs/" -lqtwebsocket
...
HEADERS += ... \
$${PWD}/include/QWsSocket.h \
...
In my include/ folder, I have the following file:
QWsSocket.h (taken from original project - required)
In my libs/ folder, I have the following file:
libQtWebsocket.a
QtWebsocket.dll
Edit: I struggled with this too initially. Have you tried to build your lib as a static lib instead (CONFIG += staticlib in your library project)? This might help you getting you *.pro file right before switching to using the shared library.
Edit 2: Ok, the fact that you get a *.so file is still a bit odd. In this question
the user has the same issue as you and keep both files, which is just a workaround. According to a later answer it seems that you need to modify your makefile to generate a file with the proper extension. Maybe this will help: http://www.mingw.org/wiki/sampleDLL
I want to build qt application that will gather all the necessary binaries for standalone execution on install.
I know that can be done in lines of:
QT_DIR=C:/Qt/4.8.4
dlls_to_move.files += $$DIR/bin/QtCore.dll
however that seems clumsy. Is there a way to retrieve Qt binary folder actually used, like project directory that can be retrieved with $$PWD?
From qmake Advanced Usage:
The special $$[...] operator can be used to access various configuration options that were set when Qt was built:
So I think you'd want to do this in your project file:
dlls_to_move.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/QtCore.dll
I'm trying to subclass from ProjectExplorer::ProjectExplorerPlugin but I'm getting error telling me about undefined references. Any ideas how to fix it?
class MyPluginPlugin : public ProjectExplorer::ProjectExplorerPlugin
{
Q_OBJECT
...
};
error: undefined reference to `imp__ZN15ProjectExplorer21ProjectExplorerPluginC2Ev'
The fact that you don't get a compilation error, but an undefined reference usually means that your project knows where the header files are, but it doesn't know where the library is which contains the already compiled source code.
I've never written a plugin for Qt Creator but I've taken a quick look at its source code structure and I see the following options:
Option A)
There is a projectexplorer.pro file in Qt Creator's source under src/plugins/projectexplorer. You could manually build that project in order to get a ProjectExplorer.lib (plus a .dll or a .a) and then reference this library.Example: Assuming the library would be created in the same directory as its .pro file (I have no idea if it is like that) and you created your plugin withing Qt Creator's source under src/plugins/myplugin, you would define your LIBS variable like this:
LIBS += -L../projectexplorer \
-lProjectExplorer
The first line adds "../projectexplorer" as an additional library directory and the second line adds "ProjectExplorer" as a library to search in any of the defined directories (it automatically adds the OS-specific file extensions like .lib on windows etc).
Obviously if your project or the library is located somewhere else, you need to change the first line accordingly.
Option B)
You could include the source and header files of the projectexplorer directory to your own .pro file using the HEADERS and SOURCES variables. I'm not sure if this wouldn't interfere with any other plugins (including projectexplorer itself) though.
Option C)
There probably is a way to include the projectexplorer.pro file so that you have a master project which first builds the project explorer library and then your own plugin. This would be the safest way to go as it ensures the Project Explorer library is built and up-to-date before your own project is linked against it.
However I have limited experience on this.
If anyone reading this can give a detailed explanation on this option, feel free to edit or provide your own answer.
If you are using Qt Creator built from source coded after April 2013 which includes Commit: #66a3553 - make library and plugin dependencies declarative, then you can simply specify dependencies for your plugin in its .pro file:
# myplugin.pro
QTC_PLUGIN_DEPENDS += \
coreplugin \
projectexplorer