How to copy Qt runtime DLLs to project output

Question

I have a simple project created in Qt Creator (installed using Qt SDK 1.1.4). It runs just fine from within Qt Creator, but if I then browse to the output directory in Windows

Answer 1

I ran into the same problem and jwernerny's solution helped me a lot. However, I was using Shadow Build on Window 7 and it needed a bit more tweeking.

I also needed to set the DESTDIR according to the current configuration.

In my case I wanted to copy *.qml files, that's how I achieved it:

CONFIG(release, debug|release): DESTDIR = $$OUT_PWD/release
CONFIG(debug, debug|release): DESTDIR = $$OUT_PWD/debug

QmlFiles.path = $$DESTDIR/Qml
QmlFiles.files += $$files(Qml/*.qml)

INSTALLS += QmlFiles

EDIT :

Since I use Shadow Build I need to use $$OUT_PWD to get the output folder.

Answer 2

OK, here's an ugly hack:

# Copy required DLLs to output directory
CONFIG(debug, debug|release) {
    QtCored4.commands = copy /Y %QTDIR%\\bin\\QtCored4.dll debug
    QtCored4.target = debug/QtCored4.dll
    QtGuid4.commands = copy /Y %QTDIR%\\bin\\QtGuid4.dll debug
    QtGuid4.target = debug/QtGuid4.dll

    QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS += QtCored4 QtGuid4
    PRE_TARGETDEPS += debug/QtCored4.dll debug/QtGuid4.dll
} else:CONFIG(release, debug|release) {
    QtCore4.commands = copy /Y %QTDIR%\\bin\\QtCore4.dll release
    QtCore4.target = release/QtCore4.dll
    QtGui4.commands = copy /Y %QTDIR%\\bin\\QtGui4.dll release
    QtGui4.target = release/QtGui4.dll

    QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS += QtCore4 QtGui4
    PRE_TARGETDEPS += release/QtCore4.dll release/QtGui4.dll
} else {
    error(Unknown set of dependencies.)
}

Here's some of what I don't like about it:

• Uses %QTDIR% environment variable; this variable isn't evaluated until the copy command is actually run. Seems like something along the lines of QMAKE_LIBS_QT_DLL would be more appropriate, but I couldn't get that working for some reason.
• Hard-coded "debug" and "release" names; seems like there ought to be some kind of variable to use for that.
• Calling out to the environment by using the "copy" command.

I'll accept another answer if somebody can clean this up a good bit, for example by shortening it and/or addressing some of my concerns, or just finding a better way in general.

Answer 3

A bit cleaner method, but it will require doing a make install after a make. It will work on Windows, but would need tweaking for other platforms.

debug { DESTDIR = debug }
release { DESTDIR = release }
debug_and_release { DESTDIR = bin }

myqtlibs.path = $$DESTDIR
myqtlibs.files = $$QMAKE_LIBDIR_QT/*.dll junk.txt fred.out
myqtlibs.CONFIG = no_check_exist

INSTALLS += myqtlibs

If qmake is run just for debug, all output will go into ./debug . If it is just for release, all output goes in ./release . If both, then into ./bin .

I did notice that enabling shadow building in QtCreator caused the executable not to end up in the DESTDIR. I'm not quite sure why.

Answer 4

Copy Dependencies with windeployqt

# Deployment - Automatically Detect and Copy Dependencies to Build Folder

TARGET_CUSTOM_EXT = .exe
DEPLOY_COMMAND = windeployqt

DEPLOY_OPTIONS = "--no-svg --no-system-d3d-compiler --no-opengl --no-angle --no-opengl-sw"

CONFIG( debug, debug|release ) {
    # debug
    DEPLOY_TARGET = $$shell_quote($$shell_path($${OUT_PWD}/debug/$${TARGET}$${TARGET_CUSTOM_EXT}))
    DEPLOY_OPTIONS += "--debug"
} else {
    # release
    DEPLOY_TARGET = $$shell_quote($$shell_path($${OUT_PWD}/release/$${TARGET}$${TARGET_CUSTOM_EXT}))
    DEPLOY_OPTIONS += "--release"
}

# Uncomment the following line to help debug the deploy command when running qmake
#message($${DEPLOY_COMMAND} $${DEPLOY_OPTIONS} $${DEPLOY_TARGET})

QMAKE_POST_LINK = $${DEPLOY_COMMAND} $${DEPLOY_OPTIONS} $${DEPLOY_TARGET}

or Copy dependencies manually

# Deployment - Copy Dependencies to Build Folder

dlls.path  =  $${DESTDIR}
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/icudt51.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/icuin51.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/icuuc51.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/libstdc++-6.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/libwinpthread-1.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/Qt5Core.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/Qt5Network.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/Qt5Gui.dll
dlls.files += $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]/Qt5Widgets.dll
dllA.path   += $${DESTDIR}/platforms
dllA.files  += $$[QT_INSTALL_PLUGINS]/platforms/qwindows.dll
dllB.path   += $${DESTDIR}/plugins/imageformats/
dllB.files  += $$[QT_INSTALL_PLUGINS]/imageformats/qico.dll
dllB.files  += $$[QT_INSTALL_PLUGINS]/imageformats/qwbmp.dll
INSTALLS   += dlls dllA dllB

Referencing: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qmake-variable-reference.html#deployment

---

In case you need to identify prerequisites / dependencies cross-platform, please take a look at CMake's getPrerequisites(). It uses dumpbin, objbin, ldd, otool for the identification of dependencies.

Referencing: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.0/module/GetPrerequisites.html