I believe I have too dynamically link my program. How do I link my program too QT and then install it by an nsis installer, on Windows? Do I use QMake?
Just ship your program with the Qt dll's you have used - assuming you have made no changes to the Qt source.
On linux you can assume they have the correct dlls or will get them from their distribution's repository automatically with the dependencies checker.
On windows you really need the Dlls for the same compilers so it's safer for you to include them.
If you have changed the Qt source for your own needs then you need to offer the new Qt source to any of the downloaders - otherwise just a note pointing them at qt.nokia.com would be enough.
Related
I have written windows gui application using qt and i want to deploy it.Now when i place .exe to other PC it shows error which says that qt5core.dll and etc required.I can install this dll,but is it possible to run exe app with qt without qt's dll as one file?So i can for example give .exe to my friend and he can instantly run it without installing .dll?
Basically, if you want a single exe file, you probably mean static linking.
The legal commercial version makes it possible or if I am not wrong, you will have to build a static qt version.
In the latter case, you will have to provide the source code of your application.
I do this sometimes, but you'll have to be careful with the license requirements: if you go with GPL, it should be OK, if you choose LGPL, it may be a bit less simple. No idea about the commercial version.
What you must do is building Qt statically, and then use that Qt build to build your application. I had a good experience with mxe. MXE builds an entire crossbuild environment and allows you to build your big Qt exe statically. I used it on Mac OS and Linux to build static executables for Windows, but you can probably run it on WSL. It takes a bit to compile, but it is simple to use. Please note that it cannot be used if your app needs QtWebEngine as it won't build with mingw.
Another simpler option is to create an installer. The Qt installer framework is simple to use. If you include the VS runtime, you end up with a single exe to distribute (the installer).
You always need to include the libraries you use (including your compilers runtime libraries in fact) when you deploy your executable - otherwise how would your application be able to use the code in those libraries? You may be able to statically link some/most things, but rarely everything. Look into how to create an installer / package for your application, so you can bundle up everything as one convenient file.
You can buid you app using QT Static (a large .exe file, no external dependencies)
If you are using LGPL Qt, you must read this:
https://www.qt.io/faq/3.7.-what-are-my-obligations-when-using-qt-under-the-lgpl
Yo can use Qt and static linking, but "The user of your application has to be able to re-link your application against a different or modified version of the Qt library"
You can use an application template like this, very useful for LGPL Qt:
https://marketplace.qt.io/products/qt-lgpl-app-template
So I've finished my Qt application, and I need to implement testing using the Squish testing application (first time using). Apparently I require a working exe file, but I can't get the executable to run. I added all the .dll files to the same directory, only to get the error:
Prior to that I was getting errors saying that XXXX.dll is missing, but like I said, I've added them to the directory. I've tried using both debug and release builds of my project with the same results. I've also tried building a stand-alone executable, but that has it's own problems (one thing at a time). The program runs great in Qt Creator and VS2013...just not on its own.
Any solutions to this?
EDIT:
From Dependency Walker...
0x7B is the error code for invalid image format.
You're either trying to run a 64-bit application on a 32-bit system, or linking to a 64-bit library (ie you copied the wrong DLLs).
Or your binaries are just corrupted.
If you run the application standalone (i.e. not from Qt Creator) you also need the Qt library DLLs. which one you need, depends on the components you are using.
Dependency Walker is also a useful tool to find missing DLLs under Windows.
As for me it seems that something is missing. Qt on windows has the script windeployqt, it will provide all needed dependencies. See documentation http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/windows-deployment.html about use of this. On Windows you will be able to run cmd with loaded qt environment variables ( on Windows 7 see under windows applications menu - it will be available if qt is installed ). As Simon stated Dependency Walker is good tool.
I am running in situation where I have two different versions of Qt installed, the compiled with mingw one, and the other with visual studio.
Now, When I compile my program with Qt MinGW version and run it, I got a message have scrambled text, saying that one of essential Qt modules not loaded.
My question is, how I can set the path to Qt essential modules for my application with C++. I looked at documentation and found addLibraryPath method but it seems like for Qt plugins only.
Edit
It seems I misunderstood the question, as SIFE comment that he needs to load Qt modules (like QtGui4.dll), not plugins. The answer for plugins is left here, in case it might help someone.
Plugins
Qt loads plugins that are in the SDK/plugins by default. The problem is, it finds the wrong SDK first...
If I remember right, Qt first search in the directory .. So you can copy the 'plugins' directory near your *.exe : plugins for msvc copied near the msvc-compiled exe, and plugins for gcc near gcc-compiled exe.
If you do not want to copy the plugins directory, you can use setLibraryPaths (not tested, but might work)
Last but not least, you can also use the qt.conf approach.
Modules
Modules are not dynamically loaded, in the sense that they're part of the dependencies of the application, so they are loaded at exe startup, and not via LoadLibrary. So, the solution is simple: just copy the dlls in the same folder than the one containing the *.exe
Concerning compiler, the proper library/include settings should be done by QMake.
QMake creates your makefile/VS-Project using the libraries found in the same Version Qmake belongs to.
Try calling QMake using the complete path explicitely for each Qt-Version
e.g.
c:/myQtMinGwProject>c:/Qt4_mingw/bin/qmake
c:/myQtVSProject>c:/Qt4_VS2008/bin/qmake -t vcapp
Concerning run-time, make sure the dlls for corresponding version are in PATH
I hope it helps
I've got a Qt project I've built in Visual Studio 2010 Professional. However, when I run it (in either Debug or Release mode) it asks for a few Qt dll's. It works if I supply the dll's and throw them into System32, but my question is, how do I make it so that all libraries are included in the .exe? I have all of the static libraries I need, I just don't know how to make it so that the app doesn't ask the end user for them.
The correct way is to create a setup program that installs the Qt libraries along with your application. Visual Studio comes with a setup project template that you can use to create your own customized installer easily. Static linking is rarely a good option, for numerous reasons.
However, if you insist on static linking, you'll need to recompile the Qt sources with the -static flag.
A walkthrough is available here for Qt 4.
And if you're using the LGPL version of Qt, make sure you've read the answers to this question and appropriate addressed all legal concerns with your deployment.
When I run the program from IDE (VS2008) it works perfectly. When I want to launch it from Windows Commander it doesn't work because it needs DLL that wasn't found.
Used both debug and release builds.
Make sure the Qt DLL's are in your PATH. Two simple solutions are:
Copy Qt's DLL's to your EXE's directory.
Copy Qt's DLL's to %WINDOWS%\System32 (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\System32) (possibly unsafe, especially if you install another versions of Qt system-wide. Also, requires administrative privilages).
You should make sure that the DLLs needed by the executable (probably QT Dlls) are in the PATH or in the same directory as the executable. You can find which dlls are needed by using depends.exe
another solution would be to place path to qt bin subdir in VS tools->options->projects and solutions->VC++ directories.
You could link it statically with all the libraries it needs. Saves messing around with DLLs and stuff. On the down side, you can't update DLLs on your installed PCs to get updated/improved/fixed functionality, and will need to rebuild and redeploy.
So whether or not this is viable depends on what your installation targets are - a few PCs controlled by you, or every man+dog who decides to download your program?
Statically compiling in a library bug (security hole for example) and shipping that to your clients would be very poor form. Doing the same on a secure corporate intranet may make it worth doing just so that you know that each install is running exactly the same.