Building-Qt-Creator-Packages

General Building of Qt Creator

1. It is recommended to build in a shadow build directory

2. qmake "$SOURCES/qtcreator.pro" CONFIG+=release "DEFINES+=IDE_REVISION=$GIT_COMMIT" "QTC_PREFIX=/qt-creator-x.y.z"
   

where $GIT_COMMIT should be the sha1 of the commit that you build, and where the QTC_PREFIX is the directory prefix used for the 7zips that are created by the bindist target (see below).

1. set the following environment variables:
   1. INSTALL_ROOT: changes the location for the install dir when doing make install, e.g. $BUILDDIR/install/qtcreator (not used on Mac)
   2. INSTALL_EDITION: can be set to e.g. -opensource, used for 7z and dmg file names, $${PLATFORM}$(INSTALL_EDITION)-$${QTCREATOR_VERSION}$(INSTALL_POSTFIX)
   3. INSTALL_POSTFIX: used for 7z and dmg file names, $${PLATFORM}$(INSTALL_EDITION)-$${QTCREATOR_VERSION}$(INSTALL_POSTFIX)
2. make
3. make docs
4. make install (don't use on Mac)
5. make install_docs (don't use on Mac)
6. make deployqt

After these calls the INSTALL_ROOT (Windows/Linux) or $BUILDDIR/bin/Qt Creator.app (Mac) contains a distributable binary build.

To add "external" executables (jom, qtcreatorcdbext64) that we deploy for Windows builds to your install, call make deployartifacts

To create a 7zip with the binary build, call make bindist

That packages the files with a directory starting with the QTC_PREFIX you set in the qmake call.

To create a 7zip that can be used for installers, that directly contains the files without additional directory prefix (i.e. directly bin/, lib/, and so on), call make bindist_installer

To create a disk image (dmg) with the Qt Creator.app on Mac, call make dmg

Things affecting the build/install

Environment Variables

INSTALL_ROOT	Changes the location for the install dir when doing make install, e.g. $BUILDDIR/install/qtcreator (not used on Mac), installation is done into $(INSTALL_ROOT)$$QTC_PREFIX
INSTALL_BASENAME	Sets the base name used for the files created by make bindist, bindist_installer, dmg and dmg_installer. Defaults to qt-creator-$${PLATFORM}$(INSTALL_EDITION)-$${QTCREATOR_VERSION}$(INSTALL_POSTFIX)
INSTALL_EDITION	Can be set to e.g. -opensource, used for default INSTALL_BASENAME
INSTALL_POSTFIX	Used for default INSTALL_BASENAME
IFW_PATH	Location where make installer looks for the installer framework binaries (i.e. its bin/ and lib/ directories)
INSTALLER_ARCHIVE	This overwrites the default value of the 7z filename which is used by the bindist_installer step, including file extension.

Qmake Variables

QTC_PREFIX	directory prefix for the install directory make install and for what is packaged with make bindist, must start with a /, e.g. /qt-creator-x.y.z, installation is done into $(INSTALL_ROOT)$$QTC_PREFIX
IDE_PACKAGE_MODE	Disables building the HellWorld and UpdateInfo plugins (which are built but marked experimental otherwise)
UPDATEINFO_ENABLE	Enables the UpdateInfo plugin and enables it for the build (usually it is marked as experimental)
QT_PRIVATE_HEADERS	Set to QTDIR/include where private headers are installed, if your Qt version doesn't have them in its standard include directory
QTC_SKIP_CDBEXT	Disables building the cdb extension. Only has an affect on windows.

C Defines

IDE_VERSION_DESCRIPTION	Text description for the Qt Creator version, shown in parenthesis after the version number in the About dialog. For example used to show "Qt Creator 2.4.82 (2.5.0-beta)" (IDE_VERSION_DESCRIPTION="2.5.0-beta" in that case)
IDE_REVISION	String to show as revision in About dialog. Should be set to the git sha that the Qt Creator was built from.
IDE_SETTINGSVARIANT	Changes the directory where Qt Creator looks for user settings and resources. E.g. ~/.config/IDE_SETTINGSVARIANT/qtcreator.ini on Linux. Defaults to "QtProject".

Install Settings

Qt Creator reads the QtCreator.ini, qtversion.xml and toolchains.xml from its installation directory as "install settings". (The directory is share/qtcreator/IDE_SETTINGSVARIANT/ on Windows and Linux, Qt Creator.app/Contents/Resources/IDE_SETTINGSVARIANT/ on Mac.)

The qt versions from the qtversion.xml and tool chains from toolchains.xml are added as "autodetected" to Qt Creator. The settings file (.ini) is used for QSettings::SystemScope. An installer can give any Qt Creator setting a default value by writing into this .ini file.

The following special settings (or specially notable settings) are also read by Qt Creator:

ExampleManifests	Array of strings. Paths to manifest xml files that describe examples to show in Qt Creator's example browser.
Plugins/Ignored	QStringList (i.e. string containing of comma-separated values). Names of plugins that should not be loaded by default (even though they are installed and not marked experimental).
Plugins/ForceEnabled	QStringList (i.e. string containing of comma-separated values). Names of plugins that should be loaded even though they would not be loaded by default (e.g. because they are marked as experimental).
Help/InstalledDocumentation	QStringList (i.e. string containing of comma-separated values). Paths to qch (documentation) files and directories containing qch files that should be registered with Qt Creator
Settings/InstallSettings	Path (with '/' path separator) to actual install settings path to use, instead of the default one. Similar to -settingspath command line option, but for install settings. Can be a relative path (to application binary).