I am new to QT and I am enjoying the experience except for the fact I cannot manage to statically link the QT library to the output binaries. When I run the output file outside of the QT directory, I get The program can't start beacuse QtCored4.dll is missing. Obviously QT is dynamically linking their libraries and requesting a .dll I do not have. Is there a way to statically compile QT's libraries into a static binary so none of QT's dlls are required? I ask this because I am already up to 11 .dlls for my project, and I would really like to cut down the amount of files that have to be distributed with my software. Size is not a problem for me. Thanks.
I have tried adding CONFIG += static to the .pro file, but to no avail.
First off, you can't statically link Qt unless you've bought a commercial license. To do so would put you in violation of the LGPL license under which the non-commercial version is distributed. I feel your pain, I've got many, many DLL's to go with my software.
Thankfully, you probably do have the DLL's if you used the installer: you don't need to build from source, that should have been done automatically. You'll find them in Qt\Version\bin, where Qt is the directory you installed Qt, and version is the version of Qt you installed. For example, mine is found in G:\Libraries\Qt\4.7.1\bin.
I did, however, have some issues with not having one of the DLL's built - one for working with OpenGL - and performed a rebuild to do so. I've also done so when I've switched versions of Visual Studio. I think it's handy to be able to do so, it's easy, Open a terminal in the Qt directory, and execute:
configure.exe -platform XXX'
Where XXX denotes the type of build you want to perform. Valid options include win32-msvc2005, win32-msvc2008, win32-msvc2010. So I use:
configure.exe -platform win32-msvc2010'
Other options are detailed here. These instructions apply if you've downloaded the source code, however you might have to add the current directory to the path variable like so:
set PATH=%cd%\bin;%PATH%
The whole procedure should take about an hour.
You need to download the source packet of QT and compile it. It takes some time but is not really complicated.
Download and unzip QT source
Start a compiler shell (Visual Studio or mingw)
Execute configure in the QT source directory - add a flag for static compile here
execute make (Visual Studio nmake)
Wait some hours depending on the speed of your machine
Related
Whenever I want to use 3rd party library code in my Qt creator CMake project, I have to link the library to my executable in my CMakeLists.txt so that the code can be used.
However, if I want to use code from e.g, MSVC 2010, or the Windows 10 software development kit, all I have to do is download and install it, and if then the code is ready to use.
Why is this?
Thanks.
The default behavior while searching dependencies in Windows is to look in all the system locations first, then the current directory, and finally any user-defined paths. That is why you don't have to explicitly link the Windows 10 SDK libraries.
Can someone tell me if it's possible to compile a project that works with Qt but without installing the entire sdk ? I mean, something like recompile Qt source code and link the libraries or something like this.
I know my problem is weird but I work in special conditions : I am on a linux machine and I have to work on a windows project therefore I use a distant server on windows to compile but I can't install anything on this serveur. I need an idea to have a fully portable folder with Qt who can compile without installing anything.
I hope I was clear in my explications.
Thank you for your help.
I has combined comments in answer.
You need to install compiler (e.g minGW) and Qt Library (as needed version).
You should add into environment variable 'PATH' your path to qmake and compiler.
Start terminal and move to directory with your source code of Qt project.
Run qmake and then exec make (e.g. It, for minGW, is mingw32-make).
For your case, you may choosen 2 way:
Build static Qt Library from source code and use static linking with your project.
Install Qt Library and copy libraries near your project with dynamic linking (recomended).
Does it make sense to add relevant Qt Libs and headers (opensource version) to a projects repository or should I just reference them from the sdk directory ?
I (alone) am developing a cross-platform (windows/linux) c++ application which, will be using a number of thirdparty opensource libraries including Qt, OpenCV, log4cpp to name a few.
I started off development in Qt Creator for convenience (speedy GUI creation). Currently I have the Qt Sdk installed on both Linux and Windows outside the project directory.
I'm planning to move to CMAKE to for better configurability, e.g out-of-source builds and independance from Qt Creator and I would like to have all dependencies included in the project directory structure -so that I or anyone else can checkout the project and build without needing to install any other dependancies.
I have added all libs but Qt's to the directory as I am a little unsure weather its worth it -it seems like CMAKE depends on the Qt Sdk for compiling Qt specific files i.e moc, ui etc... (see here) is this the case ? or is there a better suited build tool ? (Originally I was I going to use Scons but I decided not to as the there seemed to be limited support.. and there hasn't been developement on Qt4 Tools since 2010, which doesnt inspire confidence either.)
Qt is too big to be put in a project directory, even if you include only one of its modules. Also you have some convenient functions in CMake to use Qt (add moc, rcc, ui). You can even write these functions by yourself (in fast, they just add a pre-build command).
For the build operations: you will need to use the moc (and maybe ui, rcc, ...), which is not provided by CMake. So, a person wanting to build your application must have the Qt SDK installed. Luckily, this installation is very easy.
I want to make my Qt C++ program a stand alone single application. By the way, I am using Qt creator 2.2.1 which is based on Qt 4.7.4. I followed the instructions from http://www.formortals.com/how-to-statically-link-qt-4/ to statically link the libraries. I did not know where to find the configure.exe in the QtSDK folder so I downloaded "qt-everywhere-opensource-src-4.7.3" and followed the instructions.
I was unsure in Step 4 because the windows Qt options do not look similar. Its not a path to a folder but rather a path to qmake location and I am not sure what to choose for that option.
If anyone knows how to create the program as a stand alone without needing any dlls and can help me out, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks
Regarding the step 4 you mentioned, in QtCreator you need to point the qmake executable you will find it in the build tree (where you built Qt statically) in the bin folder.
I guess if you have problems on step 4 you should have built the static version of Qt, you've done 95% of the work !
The moment QtCreator will accept the qmake you made, you will just have to select this version use any wizard to get you first app, then add CONFIG += static to you .pro file.
Here some Qt tutorial just in case.
I have developed an application with mac and for one month now, Im trying to link Qt with ImageMagick on windows.
I just cant find the files and the version of Imagemagick library that need to be linked to Qt in order to make my application work on windows.
I have tried most of the libraries from here
Thats the only thing I added to the .pro file while I was developing on a mac
INCLUDEPATH += . /opt/local/include/ImageMagick
LIBS += -L/opt/local/lib -lMagick++
When I add this to my .pro
INCLUDEPATH += C:/im6/include/ImageMagick
LIBS += C:/im6/lib/libMagickWand.a
LIBS += C:/im6/lib/libMagick++.a
LIBS += C:/im6/lib/libMagickCore.a
C:/im6/lib/libMagick++.a
I get 10.000 + simmilar errors to that:
(Image.o):C:\msys\1.0\home\cristy\ImageMagick-6.6.6-0/Magick++/lib/Image.cpp:4157: undefined reference to `__gxx_personality_sj0'
C:/im6/lib/libMagick++.a(Image.o):C:\msys\1.0\home\cristy\ImageMagick-6.6.6-0/Magick++/lib/Image.cpp:4157: undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Register'
C:/im6/lib/libMagick++.a(Image.o):C:\msys\1.0\home\cristy\ImageMagick-6.6.6-0/Magick++/lib/Image.cpp:4178: undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Unregister'
For more errors check this
Has anyone tried to build and deploy an ImageMagick application using qt on windows ?
Which files do I need to link while building and which files while deploying ?
The error message tells me that you
use mingw (with qtcreator). Your
library might not work with this
compiler. You need a mingw version
of the library, probably named
libmagick.a.
LIBS += -L$$quote(c:/Program Files/ImageMagick-6.6.5-Q16/lib) -lmagick
(see the documentation about qmake Project Files
I have found that the minGW tool set is very much treated as a "stepchild" in the Windows world. I know it doesn't help your particular situation, but we had numerous problems with third-party libs while trying to use Qt with minGW. There were always extra steps, or non-existent build instructions that we had to figure out or tweak.
Once we switched to the MSVC version, all of those problems went away. Note that this doesn't mean you have to use Visual Studio (you can still use Qt creator), it just means that the Visual Studio compiler is being used. You can get the compiler for free using the Platform SDK. If this is an option, you might save yourself a lot of pain by switching now. It's unfortunate, but that is just the current status quo, at least as we discovered.
Please go get ImageMagick source package.
I can’t give direct instructions how to work with MinGW of Qt Creator, but basically following. I prefer to use qtvars.bat that comes with binary distributions of Qt to set environment.
Open Windows cmd
Set PATH to have /path/to/mingw/bin and /path/to/qt/bin before other paths
Go to directory where you have extracted ImageMagick source
read README, INSTALL and such to compile the ImageMagick (most likely just ./configure ; mingw32-make, but never be sure)
Edit your .pro file with something like LIBS += -L$$quote(/path/to/imagemagick/lib/dir) -lmagick . The lib may be in bin dir or in lib dir. See hmuelner’s answer for more information.
At this point, the configuration should be ready. Compilation at Qt Creator should work, but you can as well use this cmd windows to compile your program: go to program directory, run “qmake” and “mingw32-make”.
You cannot link against a ImageMagick++ library built with MSVC, as mingw and MSVC DLLs are incompatible for C++ libraries. You can't link a MSVC-built C++ library into a mingw project, nor vice versa. C-only libraries work fine. Also, according to this fortum thread, using builds against old mingw-versions with current mingw versions doesn't work as the exception handling changed (as you get more errors than that, I wouldn't expect that to be the only problem though). If there is no binary package for your mingw version (and I don't see any on the imagemagick website), your only option is to use a source package, as Smar suggests.
Another option of course is to install Visual Studio, download Qt for MSVC and build your project with MSVC.