Force QtCreator to run “qmake” when building

Question

In some of my projects I use some pre-build step(s) configured in the .pro file. So qmake will execute this step whenever it is activated.

Now in QtCreator,

Answer 1

Another dirty hack but a little more flexible: On Linux/Mac add "touch yourprojectfile.pro" as a build step or assign an external tool call to sth. like touch "*.pro" run in your current projects working directory. When the pro file is altered (which is mimicked by touch) qmake is executed. Not much cleaner but the external tool plus hotkey solution is more flexible than adding qmake into the buildsteps of each an every project.

Update: I finally found a completely satisfactory solution for this. In the pro file add:

  qmakeforce.target = dummy
  qmakeforce.commands = rm -f Makefile ##to force rerun of qmake
  qmakeforce.depends = FORCE
  PRE_TARGETDEPS += $$qmakeforce.target
  QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS += qmakeforce

This deletes the generated Makefile an thus forces qmake to rerun for every build.