Hi~ This is Weekly Qt, dedicated to sharing valuable Qt knowledge.This section demonstrates how to deploy a Qt Widgets application through a simple C++ Qt project example. It provides a detailed introduction to using the deployment features of Qt’s extended CMake.01 Project StructureThe basic structure of the project is as follows:
BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy/├── CMakeLists.txt├── main.cpp├── mainwindow.cpp├── mainwindow.h└── mainwindow.ui02 CMake Deployment ConfigurationPreviously, we introduced the basic structure of a QWidget project, and here we focus on the CMake configuration related to deployment. In the past, using qmake required manually using tools like windeployqt for packaging, but now the CMake interface can automate these tasks.
First, add the deployment-related configuration in CMakeLists.txt:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)project(BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy VERSION 1.0 LANGUAGES CXX)set(CMAKE_INCLUDE_CURRENT_DIR ON)set(CMAKE_AUTOUIC ON)set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)set(CMAKE_AUTORCC ON)find_package(Qt6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Widgets)# Set the installation directory, modify as neededif(WIN32) set(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/install")else() set(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX "/usr/local")endif()# Add executableqt_add_executable(BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy main.cpp mainwindow.cpp mainwindow.h mainwindow.ui)# Link Qt librariestarget_link_libraries(BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy PRIVATE Qt6::Widgets)# Generate deployment scriptqt_generate_deploy_app_script( TARGET BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy OUTPUT_SCRIPT deploy_script NO_UNSUPPORTED_PLATFORM_ERROR # Allow script generation on all platforms)# Configure installation rulesinstall(TARGETS BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy BUNDLE DESTINATION . RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/bin)install(SCRIPT ${deploy_script})03 Explanation of Deployment Command
The main parameters of the qt_generate_deploy_app_script() command are as follows:
– TARGET: Specifies the target application to be deployed
– OUTPUT_SCRIPT: The variable name for the generated deployment script
– NO_UNSUPPORTED_PLATFORM_ERROR: Allows script generation on all platforms, even if some platforms may not be fully supported
04 Deployment Steps
1. Build the project:
# In the project root directorymkdir build && cd buildcmake ..cmake --build .2. Install and deploy:
# Windows/Linuxcmake --install . --prefix "./install"# Specify installation directory as build/install# macOScmake --install . --prefix "./BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy.app"You can also select the deployment target install on the project page in Qt Creator, and running it again will automatically deploy.
05 Structure of the Deployed Target
Refer to the effect on the Windows platform
install/├── bin/│ ├── BuildWidgetAppAndDeploy.exe│ ├── Qt6Core.dll│ ├── Qt6Gui.dll│ ├── Qt6Widgets.dll│ └── platforms/└── plugins/06 Handling Third-Party Dependencies
If the project uses third-party libraries outside of Qt, you can implement this in CMake by manually configuring the deployment of these libraries:
# Example Windows third-party libraryif(WIN32) install(FILES "${THIRD_PARTY_LIB_DIR}/example.dll" DESTINATION bin )endif()References
[1]https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/cmake-deployment.html
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