QT minimum build to start developing

Hello,
I just started playing with QT but have an uncertainty about building it under VS2008.

I used the following configuration command
configure -debug-and-release -opensource -static -platform win32-msvc2008

followed by the suitable "nmake" command, but after several hours of compiling I noticed that also tutorials, demos, examples and a lot of other stuff were compiled, so that the "qt" folder was over 8GB in size (I then stopped building).

Is there a way (configuration parameter? makefile editing?) to build only the parts needed to start developing projects? (I think just .lib files for static building and .lib + .dll for dynamic, correct?)

Thanks a lot.

Its a subdirs project so it will compile everything inside.
As quick work around, rename examples and demos folder before config and build.;)

Thank you.
So if I want to carry around my "minimum build" which folders are necessary?
Should I need only "include", "bin" and "lib" folders?

Try configure -help and see if Windows release contains options to disable building examples, demos, etc. It should be called something like "-no-make-examples" and similar.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

Try configure -help and see if Windows release contains options to disable building examples, demos, etc. It should be called something like "-no-make-examples" and similar.

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that was the first think I looked for and unfortunately there is not such an options
I also tried the '-fast' switch and then used 'nmake' from inside the 'src' folder but this ended up with a 'missing something' error

Missing what exactly?

I don't remember if the error was related to a missing file or to an unresolved reference during linking, anyway I found that my installation of the QT SDK may have been damaged after all my trials so I'm going to install it again.

Theoretically, using configure with -fast switch and then nmake from inside the src folder has a sense?

I'm starting to think that my only possibilty is to manually edit the Makefile (after configure without -fast) or the projects.pro (before configure) in the %QTDIR%, what do you think about?

It couldn't have been damaged unless you started changing the source code of Qt which I assume you didn't. Don't touch the makefiles. Configure Qt as usual, cd into src and call nmake.

I'm sure everybody understands "minimum build" in his own way. Here is how i do my minimum build (e.g. Qt 4.5.2).

Code:

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./configure -prefix /usr/local/qt-4.5.2 -nomake demos -nomake examples -no-qt3support 
-no-accessibility -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit

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But it may differ from your needs, because i don't know what kind of application you want to develop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

It couldn't have been damaged unless you started changing the source code of Qt which I assume you didn't. Don't touch the makefiles. Configure Qt as usual, cd into src and call nmake.

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Update.
Of course I did NOT changed the libraries code but just played with makefiles. But for safety reasons I reinstalled the SDK. Then I started a new building (full, including demos, tutorials, examples) and got an "unresolved reference" while building WebKit. I finally restarted a new building with -WebKit switch and it was successful (or so it looks...).
The final size of the Qt folder is a bit more than 3GB, which is acceptable compared to the 8Gb and more of my first trial.

Now, how can I just build WebKit?

Thanks to all the ones who may help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lyuts

I'm sure everybody understands "minimum build" in his own way. Here is how i do my minimum build (e.g. Qt 4.5.2).

Code:

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./configure -prefix /usr/local/qt-4.5.2 -nomake demos -nomake examples -no-qt3support 
-no-accessibility -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-webkit

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But it may differ from your needs, because i don't know what kind of application you want to develop.

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I'm building in Windows targetting to VS2005, and -prefix is not listed in configure help: what is it for?

Anyway my meaning for "minimum" is the smallest set of files needed to develop an application (with all the possible libraries) using the VS2005 integration.
So I think I would:
- need folders 'include', 'lib', 'plugins' and 'bin'
- not need folders 'src', 'examples', 'tutorials', 'demos'
- don't know about remaining files and folders

Am I correct?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lurky

Of course I did NOT changed the libraries code but just played with makefiles.

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Makefiiles get regenerated when you run configure.

Quote:

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But for safety reasons I reinstalled the SDK.

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Pure waste of time, especially that the SDK is built for MinGW.

Quote:

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Now, how can I just build WebKit?

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Giving information that you encountered some error isn't really helpful. I could only reply you needed to do something to make them go away.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lurky

I'm building in Windows targetting to VS2005, and -prefix is not listed in configure help: what is it for?

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It's for installing the binaries outside the source tree. But it's unavailable on Windows.

Quote:

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Anyway my meaning for "minimum" is the smallest set of files needed to develop an application (with all the possible libraries) using the VS2005 integration.

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You need to build the sub-src, sub-tools and possibly the plugins targets then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

Pure waste of time, especially that the SDK is built for MinGW.

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But I need all the SDK to have designer, linguist and other tools. Correct?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

Giving information that you encountered some error isn't really helpful. I could only reply you needed to do something to make them go away.

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You're absolutely right, unfortunately I did not take a note of the exact error but if there's a way to build just WebKit I can make a fast try.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

You need to build the sub-src, sub-tools and possibly the plugins targets then.

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How can I achieve this?
What about my assumption about minimum set of required files/folders?

Thank you for you answers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lurky

But I need all the SDK to have designer, linguist and other tools. Correct?

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Incorrect.

Quote:

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You're absolutely right, unfortunately I did not take a note of the exact error but if there's a way to build just WebKit I can make a fast try.

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Configure with WebKit, cd into appropriate directory and run nmake. Note that Qt libraries need to be compiled first.

Quote:

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How can I achieve this?

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Call nmake with appropriate target names (such as sub-src).

Quote:

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What about my assumption about minimum set of required files/folders?

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What about it?

Update.
Uninstalled the SDK, downloaded the
qt-win-opensource-src-4.5.2.zip
package, made configure and then nmake.
Building was completed with no errors.
Finally I got a fully working installation of QT with VS2005 integration on the machine I used to build...

but

...I then took the whole 'qt' folder to a different machine (let's say %BUILD_PATH% is were libraries were built and %NEW_PATH% is were they are located on the other machine), configured there the %QTDIR% = %NEW_PATH%, added %QTDIR%\bin to the %path%, and I'm able to open/create QT projects with the suitable 'qt designer'; the only problem is that if I try to open the help I got the error
"The binary '%BUILD_PATH%\bin\assistant.exe' does not exist."

How can I fix this?

The question in my previous post would mean: once I got the full built libraries which are the files needed to develop QT applications? (I think I should not need folders 'src', 'examples', 'tutorials', 'demos'.....)

Thanks.

You can't move an existing installation to a different path without recompilation (or patching the binaries).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

You can't move an existing installation to a different path without recompilation (or patching the binaries).

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You can, just need create qt.conf file with new path.

As far as I know qt.conf doesn't apply to qmake. Or does it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wysota

As far as I know qt.conf doesn't apply to qmake. Or does it?

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Does it. Try for yourself. Rename %QTDIR% root directory to other name, next go to new %QTDIR%/bin and create inside - file qt.conf with this content:

Code:

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[Paths]
Prefix=full_path_name_to_new_root_Qt_directory

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Then open terminal, compiling any Qt project.

It doesn't work. It still points to the original path.

Code:

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export QTDIR=/tmp
mkdir /tmp/bin
echo "[Paths]" > /tmp/bin/qt.conf
echo "Prefix=/opt/" >> /tmp/bin/qt.conf
mkdir /tmp/testbed
cd /tmp/testbed
touch main.cpp
qmake -project
qmake
make

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Result:

Quote:

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g++ -c -pipe -O2 -g -pipe -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=i586 -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables -Wall -W -D_REENTRANT -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_GUI_LIB -DQT_CORE_LIB -DQT_SHARED -I/usr/lib/qt4/mkspecs/linux-g++ -I. -I/usr/lib/qt4/include/QtCore -I/usr/lib/qt4/include/QtGui -I/usr/lib/qt4/include -I. -I. -o main.o main.cpp
g++ -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,--no-undefined -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-O1 -o testbed main.o -L/usr/lib -lQtGui -L/usr/lib -pthread -lpng -lfreetype -lgobject-2.0 -lSM -lICE -pthread -pthread -lXrender -lfontconfig -lXext -lX11 -lQtCore -lz -lm -pthread -lgthread-2.0 -lrt -lglib-2.0 -ldl -lpthread

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As for me if it worked, it should have complained about missing specs but it's still seeing my installation at /usr/lib/qt4.

Even after linking qmake to /tmp/bin/qmake:
$ ./qmake -v
QMake version 2.01a
Using Qt version 4.5.2 in /usr/lib

and:
$ env|grep QTDIR
QTDIR=/tmp

Am I doing something wrong?

I think that if it was that simple, Qt installation script wouldn't be patching qmake binaries.