Qbs Manual | Appendix A: Building Qbs

Qbs 1.9.0

Reference ◦ Appendix B: Code Attributions

# Appendix A: Building Qbs

## System Requirements

To build Qbs from the source, you need Qt 5.6.0, or later

## Building

To build Qbs, enter the following command:

      qmake -r qbs.pro && make

## Configure Options

Qbs recognizes the following qmake CONFIG options to customize the build:

Option | Notes
--- | ---
qbs_enable_unit_tests | Enable additional autotests.
qbs_disable_rpath | Disable the use of rpath. This can be used when packaging Qbs for distributions which do not permit the use of rpath, such as Fedora.
qbs_no_dev_install | Exclude header files from installation, that is, perform a non-developer build.
qbs_enable_project_file_updates | Enable API for updating project files. This implies a dependency to the Qt GUI module.

## Docker

A set of Docker images for developing Qbs (which are maintained by the Qbs team) is available on Docker Hub. Both Windows Server Core and Debian Linux container types are available.

Note: The source code for the Qbs development Docker images is located in the `docker/` directory of the Qbs source tree, if you wish to build them yourself.

### Linux Containers

The easiest way to get started is to build Qbs using a Linux container. These types of containers are supported out of the box on all the supported host platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux. Run the following to download the Qbs development image based on Debian 9 Stretch:

      docker pull qbsbuild/qbsdev:stretch

You can then create a new container with the Qbs source directory mounted from your host machine's file system, by running:

      docker run -it -v $PWD:/qbs -w /qbs qbsbuild/qbsdev:stretch

Or with a slightly different syntax for Windows:

      docker run -it -v %CD%:/qbs -w /qbs qbsbuild/qbsdev:stretch

You will now be in an interactive Linux shell where you can develop and build Qbs.

### Windows Containers

To build Qbs for Windows using Windows containers, your host OS must be running Windows 10 Pro and have Hyper-V enabled. Switch your Docker environment to use Windows containers, then run the following command to download the Windows 10 Qbs development image:

      docker pull qbsbuild/qbsdev:windowsservercore

You can then create a new container with the Qbs source directory mounted from your host machine's file system, by running:

      docker run -it -v %CD%:C:\qbs -w C:\qbs qbsbuild/qbsdev:windowsservercore

If you want to use Windows containers on a macOS or Linux host, you will have to create a virtual machine running Windows 10 and register it with `docker-machine`. There is at least one Open Source project that helps to facilitate this by using using Packer, Vagrant, and VirtualBox.

The `docker run` command to spawn a Windows container on a Unix host will look slightly different (assuming `windows` is the name of the Docker machine associated with the Windows container hosting VM):

      eval $(docker-machine env windows)
      docker run -it -v C:$PWD:C:\\qbs -w C:\\qbs qbsbuild/qbsdev:windowsservercore

### Building Release Packages

Release packages for Qbs for Windows can be built using the following command on Windows:

      docker run --rm -v %CD%:C:\qbs -w C:\qbs qbsbuild/qbsdev:windowsservercore cmd /c scripts\make-release-archives

For building release packages for Windows on macOS or Linux:

      eval $(docker-machine env windows)
      docker run --rm -v C:$PWD:C:\\qbs -w C:\\qbs qbsbuild/qbsdev:windowsservercore cmd /c scripts\\make-release-archives

Reference ◦ Appendix B: Code Attributions