I was searching a lot through Qt forums and Google for the last few days, but I could not find any obvious answer to this question.
I found the -prefix option (not even documented on Windows) that can be supplied to configure to specify different install directory, but this is not clear separation of the sources and binaries at all, since the build is still done in the source directory and then the files needed for installation are copied to the install directoy. I tried this -prefix option, and came to some problems. (i.e It doesn't copy the .pdb files to the install directory.)
Then I found this link about doing shadow builds but it has the big limitation that the build dir must be at the same level as the source dir.
I'm guessing you didn't try make
install? So try that. It should
install Qt to a separate directory
away from the sources.
Are you saying that after I do configure, I should do nmake install instead just nmake? I know that nmake will process the generated makefiles from qmake and will place them in the source Qt dir, but what nmake install will exactly do i.e in which directory will install the files and how to specify the directory where the files will be installed.
Note that I already do this:
configure -prefix builddir -platform win32-msvc2005
nmake install
The effect of the above two lines was that qt was compiled in the source dir and not directly to my builddir specified with prefix. Then the compiled files were copied in my builddir. I was hoping for something that will build my Qt files directly to the build dir, cause this way I stil need 4 Gb space for my source dir during the compilation. Also the pdb files were not copied to my buildir which is another issue.
Basically, you just have to run configure.exe from your build directory. For example:
mkdir \qt\4.5.2-build
cd \qt\4.5.2-build
set PATH=%cd%\bin;%PATH%
\qt\4.5.2-sources\configure.exe -platform win32-msvc2005
Where sources are in \qt\4.5.2-sources, that would cause the build to go into \qt\4.5.2-build on the current drive.
Also, you must have perl in your PATH, ActiveState Perl is suggested.
I had not previously heard of this limitation where the build and source directories must be at the same level. If you hit this problem you could try working around it by creating a symbolic link (see mklink command).
IIRC on Windows, you have to do a sandbox install, you can't do the UNIX-typical "make install".
There are two options usually for building Qt, -prefix-install and -prefix /foo
You pick one, so if -prefix doesn't allow you to type make install, then I guess on Windows you have to use the -prefix-install route, which is a sandboxed install to the directory you extract Qt to.
I'm guessing you didn't try make install? So try that. It should install Qt to a separate directory away from the sources.
At least the problem with the missing include files (e.g. qscriptengine.h) may by solved by temporary adding \qt\4.5.2-sources\include\Qt to the include path.
I moved the shadow build out of my home folder to a folder in C: and it worked. I know it's weird, but that's what happened. I suspect it must be a bug in syncqt.
Related
This is my first time using QMake on my QT as I mostly use CMake as I am really used to it. In Cmake I use add_custom_command() to perform task post build.
How can I do similar things in qmake?
My initial check I know it is something related to QMAKE_POST_LINK
but how do I specify it is for the build directory? (which as setup/created by QT Creator during build)
also by basic googling, i only found for unix{} and win32{} whats for mac?
Since 4.8.0 is out, I've reinstalled Qt, and now I want to use cmake too. To make cmake work, I remember having to add the mingw bin folder (QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.7.3) to PATH back in Qt4.7.3, so I guessed that there would be a similar folder in QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.8.0 now but this is not the case. My question is, does anybody else have experience with setting up Qt and cmake? I could use some help right now, as I've googled for a bit and was unable to find any ways to make cmake work.
When trying to build, I get this well known message:
CMake Error at C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:91 (MESSAGE):
Could NOT find Qt4 (missing: QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE QT_INCLUDE_DIR)
Call Stack (most recent call first):
C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:252 (_FPHSA_FAILURE_MESSAGE)
C:/Program Files (x86)/CMake 2.8/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindQt4.cmake:1171 (FIND_PACKAGE_HANDLE_STANDARD_ARGS)
CMakeLists.txt:3 (find_package)
You just need to set the path to qmake in QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE, and then cmake can use qmake -query to find all the other paths it needs (similar to pkg-config on Linux).
Steps for building a project using Qt and CMake usually are:
Check out / create project source folder
Create build folder outside the project folder
Start Qt command prompt / cmd and cd into build folder e.g. cd build\project
Run cmake or cmake-gui passing path to source folder e.g. cmake-gui ..\..\source\project
Set any variables, such as QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE and CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE
Run your build tool, or run cmake --build .
So, I found out what was the problem, and I think I should have known before. I simply added C:\QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.8.0\msvc2010\bin to my PATH variable. It may be useful to note that, in a default 4.8.0 install, qmake is located in C:\QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.8.0\msvc2010\bin as opposed to C:\QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.7.3\mingw\bin in 4.7.3. Notice the difference; msvc2010 vs mingw. It's actually glaringly obvious, as msvc2010 was the only folder in that directory.
I didn't try skyhisi's answer as it was no longer needed, but I'm guessing that it's another correct (if not better) way to make cmake work.
Just ran into the same problem... Take a look into findQt4.cmake
FIND_PROGRAM(QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE NAMES qmake qmake4 qmake-qt4 qmake-mac PATHS
"[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Trolltech\\Qt3Versions\\4.0.0;InstallDir]/bin"
"[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Trolltech\\Versions\\4.0.0;InstallDir]/bin"
"[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Trolltech\\Versions\\${qt_install_version};InstallDir]/bin"
$ENV{QTDIR}/bin
DOC "The qmake executable for the Qt installation to use")
You can either alter registry keys, or, I personally prefer deleting all those keys altogether and modify $ENV{QTDIR} variable. Good luck.
I had this problem for a slightly different reason. Maybe this will help someone else:
I uninstalled Qt 4.8.3 and then installed qt 4.8.4. Based on Slava's answer I discovered that CMake is getting the value of $(qt_install_version} from:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Trolltech\\Versions\\DefaultVersion]
This was still set to 4.8.3 even though all the other registry entries were updated to 4.8.4. Changing the value of the DefaultVersion key to 4.8.4 fixed the problem for me.
I had the same problem and I solved providing the path to qmake,
QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE /opt/qt-4.8.7/bin/qmake
On Mac, while the binaries are saved in /usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.8.7/bin
the required qmake required as value of QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE is, for my OS, stored in the path /opt/qt-4.8.7/bin/qmake . Hope this help as well.
I'm compiling Qt from source, but I don't want to extract the source each time I want to build it.
How can I clean previous configuration with the configure tool?
For Qt4 and earlier, try this:
nmake confclean
You can then re-configure and re-compile QT.
As noted in the comments, this no longer works in QT 5. This is due to the fact that the Qt project now uses separate sub-modules for different parts. If you have a local clone of the Qt git repos, you can try calling this from the main Qt directory:
git submodule foreach --recursive "git clean -dfx"
As noted here, there may be some problems if you have a downloaded source archive. The link I posted suggests using a shadow build instead so the process of making a clean configuration is as simple as configuring to build at a new shadow build destination.
As of today (Qt 5.9.0 beta2) there is no confclean target in Linux, and you need to manually remove .config.cache file to reconfigure.
Note that make distclean doesn't help at all.
For the latest versions, use a shadow build, then you can just nuke your directory. My batch file for configuring effectively creates a new folder, moves into it, then calls configure.
Then you just go into the shadow directory and run 'jom'.
When you want to make a different configuration, just use a different shadow directory.
This effectively means that your source tree doesn't get filled with build artifacts, which are impossible to remove when you want a different configuration. Trust me, this is the thing to do....
mkdir shadow_dir
cd shadow_dir
%~dp0\src\configure.bat ....
On Ubuntu:
make confclean
BTW, the following text displayed after run configure:
Qt is now configured for building. Just run 'make'.
Once everything is built, you must run 'make install'.
Qt will be installed into /home/ben/qt/qt-everywhere-opensource-4.7.4-debug
To reconfigure, run 'make confclean' and 'configure'.
I've been working on a project using OpenCV for a while, and am ready to upgrade my user interface from using cvWaitKey() to get key presses and emulating buttons with trackbars. Ha. So I've decided to use Qt.
I'd like to continue developing in the same directory I've been using, which is, of course, outside of the Qt install directory, C:\Qt\2010.05\qt. Using the "Qt Command Prompt", I'm able to compile the Hello Notepad example in directories both in and out of C:\Qt\2010.05\qt, namely C:\Qt\2010.05\qt\abc and C:\Qt\2010.05\abc.
However, while compiling under C:\ ... \qt produces executables in both the debug and release directories, compiling outside of it only produces the debug executable, along with a .o file (object code?). I did some comparisons using WinMerge, and found that the following lines (among others) differ in the two makefiles (generated using qmake -project and then qmake):
Inside qt\
first: all
install: debug-install release-install
uninstall: debug-uninstall release-uninstall
Outside qt\
first: debug
install: debug-install
uninstall: debug-uninstall
That's clearly the problem (the .pro files generated by qmake -project differ only in timestamp). I'm sure there's an easy answer out there to what's causing this... I hope there's an easy answer to how I can work around it. Also, I intend to use QtCreator some; hopefully the solution is the same for the IDE as the Command-Line compiler.
Thanks!
Nolan
p.s.: I don't think this is the same issue: Qmake does not support build directories below the source directory ...in any case, I'm not sure I understand the answer.
You should be able to add
CONFIG += release
to your .pro file, to build for release target. There's also
CONFIG += debug_and_release
iirc.
QtCreator has a GUI element for toggling between build targets, you might try opening the .pro with that application if you find you need to switch back and forth often.
I am new to qmake and I am trying to build an existing application. Qt was originally installed in /usr/local/lib/Qt-4.3.5 and 'qmake -query QT_INSTALL_PREFIX' returns that path.
I have moved the Qt library to another location and the generated Makefiles are peppered with the /usr/local original path.
How can I force qmake to use the new location I selected without recompiling Qt?
I was looking into this and found a way that works (in qt 4.7.2) by customizing qt with a qt.conf file.
In my case, I added a qt4-4.7.2/bin/qt.conf (It must be in the same place as the qmake executable)
With the following contents:
[Paths]
Prefix = c:/my_path/to/qt4-4.7.2
and the qmake -query started returning the proper paths!
See: http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/qt-conf.html for more details
[Update:] Since at least Qt 5.3.1 (tested with static versions of 5.3.1 and 5.5 on Windows 8) you can simply do
[Paths]
Prefix = ..
and deploy the Qt installation anywhere.
This is a 'builtin' compiled into qmake from qconfig.cpp. The best way is to reconfigure Qt with another -prefix and rebuild unfortunately. For most other variables, you can use a .qmake.cache file. See
http://doc.qt.digia.com/qt/qmake-environment-reference.html
for more info
As pointed out by Henrik Hartz, QT_INSTALL_PREFIX is built-in and can't be changed. However, if you just want to work around having to rebuild Qt temporarily, then you can try the following:
Query qmake for it's install prefix, recreate the reported directory structure, and use a symlink or hardlink to where the relocated Qt version is. E.g. on Linux
Get the path reported by /new/Qt/location/bin/qmake -query QT_INSTALL_PREFIX. Say this reports /Parent/Dirs/Prefix.
Create any parent directories of the path, e.g. mkdir -p /Parent/Dirs/
Symlink to new location, e.g. ln -s /new/Qt/location /Parent/Dirs/Prefix
The above can be also useful if you have a bunch of developers who need to work with the same prebuilt version of Qt, where this Qt version isn't necessarily copied to the same path on all the developers' computers, and where you only need to bundle the Qt shared libs with you application for end users (i.e. you won't be shipping headers or build tools).