Portability of Dynamic / Static version of my own application

[Selven]

Hello,

I'm trying to make my application portable.

So i want 4 versions :
- 1 static 64 bits
- 1 dynamic 64 bits
And both in 32 bits too.

First, i will do the first group, in 64 bits.


===== DYNAMIC VERSION =====

My program is by default, compiled in dynamic i guess. So, i put the binary file on another computer and trying to run it :

error while loading shared libraries: libQtGui.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

So i tried to copy the file libQtGui.so.4 from the lib directory, into the folder which contains the binary file. It's the same issue. So I think i forgot something but dunno what.


===== STATIC VERSION =====
I download the library source, and I do these commands :

./configure -static -release -prefix /usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.8.1_static
gmake
gmake install

I add manually the static qmake on Qt Creator, i delete the .pro.user and i restart Qt Creator. Now i select the static version of compiler and i compile my application.
In dynamic version, its size is 640ko and in static : 18 mo. I think the static linking worked successfully.

There is a graphical issue when i starts the program.
When it starts, it ask you to select a folder.
2 screens, one in dynamic and the other, in static :
1334353392-Capturedu2012-04-13234137.jpg 1334353396-Capturedu2012-04-13234111.png

After that, the program in static version is very ugly... A slider is missing on the IHM. It is strange..

Note : I read somewhere that if I use Thread, it's not useful to make static version because I have to keep one library file, but i don't remember its name.

I tried to start the static version on another computer, and i had an error :

./Tairona-visue: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.14' not found (required by ./Tairona-visue)

But the libc6 is installed in this system, and the distribution is fully up to date...

Thanks in advance for your help, and sorry for my bad english !

[shahid.pk]

i can give you a hint on the first problem.the dynamic build that you have will need a compiler dll file too if mingGw compiler you will need something like mingdll-4 and for visual studio its something like ms something.so a compiler dll file and the Qt module dll that you have used in your application.

[wysota]

So i tried to copy the file libQtGui.so.4 from the lib directory, into the folder which contains the binary file. It's the same issue. So I think i forgot something but dunno what.

You forgot that you're on Linux and not Windows. Linux doesn't search for libraries in the current directory.

There is a graphical issue when i starts the program.
When it starts, it ask you to select a folder.
2 screens, one in dynamic and the other, in static :
1334353392-Capturedu2012-04-13234137.jpg 1334353396-Capturedu2012-04-13234111.png

After that, the program in static version is very ugly...

It is because you didn't link widget style plugins against your static app. Even if you do there is a good chance someone uses a custom widget style you won't be able to load into your static app anyway.

Note : I read somewhere that if I use Thread, it's not useful to make static version because I have to keep one library file, but i don't remember its name.

That's not true, threads have nothing to do with how your application needs to be compliled. Qt is multithreaded regardless if you use threads or not.

[Selven]

So, what is the directive to add to the $PATH, in order that linux searches in the current directory ?
I don't find it on the documentation and on the internet, when i searches my error return, i have only some terminal commands for install Qt libraries... That's not what I want..

For graphical issue:
If i understand, you recommend to compile only in dynamic ? Because if someone uses a custom widget style, there can be a problem...

About threads :
Okay, so i heards something wrong... Thanks for your correction !

Thanks for your responses,

[wysota]

So, what is the directive to add to the $PATH, in order that linux searches in the current directory ?

You can't fix that with $PATH, it's not Windows. You can use $LD_LIBRARY_PATH instead or just make your app LSB compliant so that it can run on any LSB system (like most Linux distros today).

For graphical issue:
If i understand, you recommend to compile only in dynamic ?

No, that's not what I meant. I meant that when you build your app statically, you need to do some extra steps to make things work. However nowadays it's hard to find a Linux system without Qt installed so it might be easiest to just build dynamically and ask your users to install Qt using their distro's package manager.