Qt Addon

This addon allows you to generate a projects / solutions with Qt support by automatically adding the correct custom build command to handle the Qt specific stuff (such as invoking the moc command, the uic one, etc.)

Beware though that those custom rules are only created when the solutions / projects are built using Premake ! You need to re-run Premake when adding new Qt classes, UIs, etc. or when you add Q_OBJECT or Q_GADGET to one of your existing classes.

It should support any action which has support for custom build commands, but I only tested this addon with the Visual Studio actions, so I'm not sure of its behavior when using gmake, or any other action.

Please feel free to drop a comment, issue or whatever if you notice a bug. Also, if you take the time to do so, please also take the time to create a small reproductible scenario that you can attach to the issue :)

How to use

Clone this repository some place where Premake will be able to find it. Then in your project's Premake script, include the main file like this :

require( "premake-qt/qt.lua" )

-- this line is optional, but it avoids writting premake.extensions.qt to
-- call the plugin's methods.
local qt = premake.extensions.qt

Then in the projects that you want to enable to Qt, just add this :

-- be carefull, this function enables Qt only for the current configuration.
-- So if you want to enable it on all configuration, be sure that no filter
-- is active when calling this (or reset the filter using `filter {}`
qt.enable()

API

The following API commands will allow you to customize Qt: what version are you building against, what custom options do you want to send to the Qt build tools, etc. They only have an effect if the project has been enabled to Qt.

Most of the API commands of this addon are scoped to the current configuration, so unless specified otherwise, assume that the documented command only applies to the current configuration block.

qtpath "path"

Setup the path where Qt include and lib folders are found. If this is not used, the addon will try to get the path from the QTDIR or QT_DIR environment variable.

When setting this, the addon will automatically try to locate the binaries, include and libraries in the include, lib and bin subfolders of the specified path.

If your includes, libraries and binaries are in separate folders (for instance on Unix they might be in /usr/include, /usr/lib or whatever) you can use the qtincludepath, qtlibpath and qtbinpath API commands instead.

qtincludepath "path"

Set the path for the Qt headers. If this is not used, the addon will set the includepath to the include child folder of the one set by qtpath, or one of the environment variable.

qtuseexternalinclude ( boolean )

By default, Qt modules' include directories are added as regular include directories, meaning they might issue warnings. You can use this option so that the include directories are instead added as "external" ones so that compilers supporting this won't ever issue any warnings on those includes.

qtlibpath "path"

Set the path for the Qt libraries. If this is not used, the addon will set the includepath to the lib child folder of the one set by qtpath, or one of the environment variable.

qtbinpath "path"

Set the path for the Qt binaries. If this is not used, the addon will set the includepath to the bin child folder of the one set by qtpath, or one of the environment variable.

qtprefix "prefix"

Specify a prefix used by the libs. For instance, when using the default Qt5 installation, for the widgets module, the lib is named Qt5Widgets.lib, so you must set Qt5 as the prefix.

qtsuffix "suffix"

This one is only used when linking against debug or custom versions of Qt. For instance, in debug, the libs are suffixed with a d. And when building your own version of Qt, you might want to suffix the x64 and x86 versions differently.

qtmain true

Windows only. If this is used, the qtmain library will be linked to the current project on the current config.

qtmodules { "module", "module", ...}

Specify which module you want to use. The available modules are (for the moment)

• core
• gui
• multimedia
• network
• opengl
• positioning
• printsupport
• qml
• quick
• sensors
• sql
• svg
• testlib
• websockets
• widgets
• xml

Using a module will add its include folder, and link the correct librar(y/ies) The list of module can be customized. See the Examples section for more information.

qtgenerateddir "path"

The optional path where Qt generated file are created. If omitted, those files are generated in the objdir.

qtmocargs { "arg", "arg", ... }

An optional list of arguments that will be sent to the Qt moc tool. Each argument will be encased in double quotes, e.g. qtmocargs { "foo", "bar" } will appear as "foo" "bar" in the command line.

qtuicargs { "arg", "arg", ... }

An optional list of arguments that will be sent to the Qt uic tool. Each argument will be encased in double quotes, e.g. qtuicargs { "foo", "bar" } will appear as "foo" "bar" in the command line.

qtrccargs { "arg", "arg", ... }

An optional list of arguments that will be sent to the Qt rcc tool. Each argument will be encased in double quotes, e.g. qtrccargs { "foo", "bar" } will appear as "foo" "bar" in the command line.

qtlreleaseargs { "arg", "arg", ... }

An optional list of arguments that will be sent to the Qt lrelease tool. Each argument will be encased in double quotes, e.g. qtlreleaseargs { "foo", "bar" } will appear as "foo" "bar" in the command line.

qtqmgenerateddir "path"

The optional path, relative to the current script, where the qm files generated by Qt will be created. If omitted, the default behavior is to generate those files in the target directory.

qtcommandlinesizelimit ( integer )

This option can be used to tell Qt tools to store their command line arguments into files, if the size of that command line exceed the given limit.

This is used to go around a limitation of Windows. On older Windows operating system, command lines can't exceed a fixed size (see this Microsoft support page)

If this command is not used, the addon will use a limit of 2047 character on Windows only. If you're on more recent Windows, use this command to raise the limit. Also, if this command is used, it will apply the limit to the current configuration, so you can force this behavior on all operating systems if needed.

Examples

Basic Use

Here is a small example of how to use the addon :

--
-- Include the Qt functionalities and create a shortcut
--
require( "premake-qt/qt.lua" )
local qt = premake.extensions.qt

-- main solution
solution "TestQt"

	--
	-- setup your solution's configuration here ...
	--

	-- main project
	project "TestQt"

		--
		-- setup your project's configuration here ...
		--

		-- add the files
		files { "**.h", "**.cpp", "**.ts", "**.ui", "**.qrc" }


		--
		-- Enable Qt for this project.
		--
		qt.enable()

		--
		-- Include Qt module directories as external to avoid possible warnings.
		--
		qtuseexternalinclude ( true )

		--
		-- Setup the Qt path. This apply to the current configuration, so
		-- if you handle x32 and x64, you can specify a different path
		-- for both configurations.
		--
		-- Note that if this is ommited, the addon will try to look for the
		-- QTDIR environment variable. If it's not found, then the script
		-- will return an error since it won't be able to find the path
		-- to your Qt installation.
		--
		qtpath "C:/Qt/5.1"

		--
		-- Setup which Qt modules will be used. This also apply to the
		-- current configuration, so can you choose to deactivate a module
		-- for a specific configuration.
		--
		qtmodules { "core", "gui", "widgets", "opengl" }

		--
		-- Setup the prefix of the Qt libraries. Usually it's Qt4 for Qt 4.x
		-- versions and Qt5 for Qt 5.x ones. Again, this apply to the current
		-- configuration. So if you want to have a configuration which uses
		-- Qt4 and one that uses Qt5, you can do it.
		--
		qtprefix "Qt5"

		--
		-- Setup the suffix for the Qt libraries. The debug versions of the
		-- Qt libraries usually have a "d" suffix. If you compiled your own
		-- version, you could also have suffixes for x64 libraries, etc.
		--
		configuration { "Debug" }
			qtsuffix "d"
		configuration { }

Adding modules

You can add modules to the addon like this :

--
-- Include the Qt functionalities and create a shortcut
--
require( "premake-qt/qt.lua" )
local qt = premake.extensions.qt

--
-- modules is a table where the key is a string identifying the module (the
-- strings that you use with the `qtmodules` command)
-- the value is an object containing the following members :
--    * name    : The name of the module. It's the part which appears
--                in the lib and dll names without the suffixes and prefixes.
--                For instance for core, it's "Core".
--    * include : This is the include folder for the module, relative to the base
--                Qt include path. For instance for core, it's "QtCore"
--    * links   : This an optional list of links to add. For instance for the opengl
--                module, we need to link against OpenGL lib, so it's { "OpenGL32" }
--    * defines : Specify one or more defines to add when using the module. It can
--                be a string or a list of string. For instance { "QT_GUI_LIB" } for gui module.
--
-- Here, we add support for xml (well, it's already supported, but it's for the example's sake :)
--
qt.modules["xml"] = {
	name = "Xml",
	include = "QtXml",
	defines = "QT_XML_LIB"
}

--
-- then you can just use the newly added module like the other ones, the addon
-- will take care of linking the library, adding the suffixes, etc.
--
qdtmodules { "core", "xml" }