How do I get QMAKE_CLEAN to delete a directory?

Is there a trick to getting QMAKE_CLEAN, or actually QMAKE_DISTCLEAN, to remove a directory? The generated Makefile has a DEL_DIR command, but everything in QMAKE_CLEAN gets tagged with DEL_FILE.

I would actually expect qmake to remove directories declared with, for example OBJECTS_DIR, when running "make distclean". But I would settle for a workaround.

make distclean should remove any directory that is created by running qmake, including OBJECTS_DIR. At least that's the case on Linux/gcc. Make clean won't do that as it only cleans temporary files.

Oops, forgot to mention this under Windows. I havn't had a chance to check it on Linux yet.

There are a fair number of generated files that do not get deleted with "make distclean". I've added them to QMAKE_DISTCLEAN, it's just the directories that are left behind now. In Unix, rm will remove directories. In Windows, del will not remove directories. The generated Makefile has

Code:

---

DEL_FILE      = del
DEL_DIR       = rmdir

---

But the make clean section only uses DEL_FILE. I've used the line below to take care of emptying the directories without a prompt, but it still leaves the empty directory behind.

Code:

---

win32:QMAKE_DEL_FILE	 = del /q

---

I guess I'll go look for rm.exe and put that in there.

I got it working, with a small patch to qmake. I've submitted it as a bug, since the option QMAKE_DEL_DIR exists but is never used.

For windows, it's in the file {QTDIR}\qmake\generators\win32\winmakefile.cpp

For version 4.3.1 it's at line 490, replace the distclean block with this one :

Code:

---

t << "distclean: clean";
    {
        const char *clean_targets[] = { "QMAKE_DISTCLEAN", 0 };
        for(int i = 0; clean_targets[i]; ++i) {
            const QStringList &list = project->values(clean_targets[i]);
            const QString del_statement("-$(DEL_FILE)");
			const QString del_dir_statement("-$(DEL_DIR)");
 
            if(project->isActiveConfig("no_delete_multiple_files")) {
                for(QStringList::ConstIterator it = list.begin(); it != list.end(); ++it)
					t << "\n\t" << del_statement << " " << escapeFilePath((*it));
			} else {
				QString	files, file;
				QStringList	dirs;
 
				const int commandlineLimit = 2047; // NT limit,	expanded
				for(QStringList::ConstIterator it =	list.begin(); it !=	list.end();	++it) {
					if ( (*it).endsWith("/") )
					{
						QString	s =	(*it);
						dirs +=	escapeFilePath(s.remove(s.size()-1,	1));
					}
					else
					{
						file = " " + escapeFilePath((*it));
						if(del_statement.length() +	files.length() +
						   qMax(fixEnvVariables(file).length(),	file.length()) > commandlineLimit) {
							t << "\n\t"	<< del_statement <<	files;
							files.clear();
						}
						files += file;
					}
				}
				if(!files.isEmpty())
					t << "\n\t"	<< del_statement <<	files;
				if(!dirs.isEmpty())
					foreach(QString	dir, dirs)
						t << "\n\t"	<< del_dir_statement <<	" "	<< dir;
			}
        }
    }

---

This allows the following to work in a .pro file (as I expect it to) :

Code:

---

QMAKE_DISTCLEAN += object_script.* bin/ build/
win32:QMAKE_DEL_FILE = del /q
win32:QMAKE_DEL_DIR  = rmdir /s /q

---

Any file listed in QMAKE_DISTCLEAN that ends with a "/" will be get the QMAKE_DEL_DIR command, while anything without a "/" at the end gets the QMAKE_DEL_FILE command as it previously did.

Hi..

In Qt 4.7 the QMAKE_DEL_DIR can delete my temp created files ?

Got around this problem with a :

unix:QMAKE_DISTCLEAN += -r dir1 dir2
win32:QMAKE_DISTCLEAN += /s /f /q dir1 dir2 && rd /s /q dir1 dir2

Not very pretty, but does the job.