Paths & enviroment settings

[SteveH]

Hi all,

I develop on 4 different computers and my work files start at different paths on each box but follow the same sub directory structure from then on. Due to the piles of programs I keep adding I need some sort of variable that can be set once that points to my work directories.

This is what I have tried at the moment

(at a command prompt)

qmake -set MY_DIR C:\Documents and Settings\User3\My Documents\Qt\Components

(where the path is different for each machine, but only has to be done once on each)

I can then use $$[MY_DIR] in any .pro files to substitute the path for that machine
(note, due to the spaces in the path I have to use another reference in the .pro files like this: MYDIR = "$$[MY_DIR]" and then use $$MYDIR instead)

This still leaves a problem in the program .cpp and .h files since the path is not recognised by the #include <program.h> lines and causes the syntax checker and code completer to fail (setting INCLUDEPATH += $$MYDIR does not help)

Programs will compile with the above setup but I really want the syntax checker and code completer to work.

Can anybody point out the setting I need to do this ?

SteveH

[Lykurg]

It sounds to me that [WIKI]Current working directory[/WIKI] could be of interest (then you have to put the exe "relative" to the working documents). Or simple hard code some paths or routine on where to look for and if they fail to locate the documents provide a settings dialog where one can define the path (QSettings).

[Timoteo]

Why not setup the environment and launch Creator from a batch file? Take a look at LIB and INCLUDE (if you use the visual studio compiler). In Creator goto Projects->Build Settings->Build Environment->Details to see what I mean.

[SteveH]

Thanks Lykurg and Timoteo for your replies.

The problem is not so much as a run time problem as a compile problem. I tend to copy a program directory directly from one machine to another as I move around and would prefere not to use absolute paths to all my personal classes/widgets/components that need to be compiled into a particular project as I would have to change large number of paths in various places after each move. Having a MY_DIR variable on each machine pointing to the root of my work directories solves that.

There is obviously a set of environment variables on each build of Qt that allow #include <foo.h> to work by supplying the root path for that installation. I thought that setting a persistent variable in qmake would supply mine. I know that I can use $$PWD in the .pro file and qgetenv() in the program file to supply run time variables.

My setup is Windows with latest version Qt and Creator recompiled for mingw so I can get my designer plugins to work.

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Added after 46 minutes:

Update.

Further attempts seems to point to the spaces in the root pathname being the problem with INCLUDEPATH (but not with SOURCES and HEADERS which work ok).

If I use the actual pathname in quotes, ie "c:\my\path\to\work\files", then everything works ok but using "$$[MY_DIR]" fails (but shows exactly the same pathname using message($$INCLUDEPATH) ) . I've tried $$quote($$[MY_DIR]) but that does not work either.

[SteveH]

Further update

Ok - after further research and experimenting I conclude that the problem is well known and due to the INCLUDEPATH statement - it will only accept spaces in quoted ("" or $$quote()) text that is directly inputted on that line after the command word. NO type of indirection through variables seems to work even though they display the same path text using 'message()'. All other command settings in qmake seem to accept indirection of paths with spaces.

DAMM & BUGGERIT MICROSOFT - do you hate us that much ! (I'll reserve judgment on qmake as that at least has the power to change)

Simple solution is to move my work files to a path from the root with no spaces (c:\Qt\MyWork) but it needs two extra clicks in explorer each time I look there !

SteveH