Qmake

Last updated
qmake
Developer(s) Qt Project
Stable release
3.0
Written in C++
Operating system Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Windows
Type Build Automation
License LGPL [1]

qmake is a software build automation tool that generates makefiles for building a codebase. As it generates configuration files for other build tools, it is classified as a meta-build tool.

Contents

The makefiles that qmake produces are tailored to the particular platform where it is run from based on qmake project files. This way one set of build instructions can be used to create build instructions on different operating systems. qmake supports code generation for the following operating systems: Linux (including Android), Apple macOS, Apple iOS, FreeBSD, Haiku, Symbian, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows CE.

qmake was created by Trolltech (now The Qt Company). It is distributed and integrated with the Qt application framework, and automates the creation of moc (meta object compiler) and rcc (resource compiler) sources, which are used in Qt's meta-object system and in the integration of binary resources (e.g., pictures).

The qmake tool helps simplify the build process for development projects across different platforms. It automates the generation of Makefiles so that only a few lines of information are needed to create each Makefile. You can use qmake for any software project, whether it is written with Qt or not.

See also

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References

  1. "Qt Licensing - Qt Developer Network". qt-project.org.