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<td ><a href="index.html">Qt 5.9</a></td><td >Qt for Windows - Building from Source</td></tr></table><table class="buildversion"><tr>
<td id="buildversion" width="100%" align="right">Qt 5.9.4 Reference Documentation</td>
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<h3><a name="toc">Contents</a></h3>
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<li class="level1"><a href="#step-1-install-the-license-file-commercially-licensed-qt-only">Step 1: Install the License File (Commercially Licensed Qt Only)</a></li>
<li class="level1"><a href="#step-2-unpack-the-archive">Step 2: Unpack the Archive</a></li>
<li class="level1"><a href="#step-3-set-the-environment-variables">Step 3: Set the Environment Variables</a></li>
<li class="level1"><a href="#step-4-build-the-qt-library">Step 4: Build the Qt Library</a></li>
<li class="level1"><a href="#parallel-builds">Parallel Builds</a></li>
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<h1 class="title">Qt for Windows - Building from Source</h1>
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<p>This page describes the process of configuring and building <a href="windows-support.html">Qt for Windows</a>. Before building, there are some requirements that are given in more detail in the <a href="windows-requirements.html">Qt for Windows - Requirements</a> document.</p>
<p>You can download the Qt 5 sources from the <a href="http://qt.io/download">Downloads</a> page. For more information, visit the <a href="gettingstarted.html">Getting Started with Qt</a> page.</p>
<a name="step-1-install-the-license-file-commercially-licensed-qt-only"></a>
<h2 id="step-1-install-the-license-file-commercially-licensed-qt-only">Step 1: Install the License File (Commercially Licensed Qt Only)</h2>
<p>If you use Qt with a commercial license, the Qt tools look for a local license file. If you are using a binary installer or the commercial Qt Creator, your licenses are automatically fetched and stored in your local user profile (<code>%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Qt\qtlicenses.ini</code> file).</p>
<p>If you do not use any binary installer or Qt Creator, you can download the respective license file from your <a href="https://account.qt.io/">Qt Account</a> Web portal and save it to your user profile as <code>%USERPROFILE%\.qt-license</code>. If you prefer a different location or file name, you need to set the <code>QT_LICENSE_FILE</code> environment variable to the respective file path.</p>
<a name="step-2-unpack-the-archive"></a>
<h2 id="step-2-unpack-the-archive">Step 2: Unpack the Archive</h2>
<p>Uncompress the files into the directory you want Qt installed; e.g. <code>C:\Qt\%VERSION%</code>.</p>
<p><b>Note: </b>The install path must not contain any spaces or Windows specific file system characters.</p><a name="step-3-set-the-environment-variables"></a>
<h2 id="step-3-set-the-environment-variables">Step 3: Set the Environment Variables</h2>
<p>We recommend creating a desktop link that opens a command prompt with the environment set up similar to the <b>Command Prompt</b> menu entries provided by the Windows SDKs. This is done by creating an application link passing a <code>.cmd</code> file setting up the environment and the command line option <code>/k</code> (remain open) to <code>cmd.exe</code>.</p>
<p>Assuming the file is called <code>qt5vars.cmd</code> and the Qt folder is called <code>qt-5</code> and located under <code>C:\qt</code>:</p>
<pre class="cpp">
REM Set up \Microsoft Visual Studio <span class="number">2013</span><span class="operator">,</span> where <span class="operator"><</span>arch<span class="operator">></span> is \c amd64<span class="operator">,</span> \c x86<span class="operator">,</span> etc<span class="operator">.</span>
CALL <span class="string">"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"</span> <span class="operator"><</span>arch<span class="operator">></span>
SET _ROOT<span class="operator">=</span>C:\qt\qt<span class="operator">-</span><span class="number">5</span>
SET PATH<span class="operator">=</span><span class="operator">%</span>_ROOT<span class="operator">%</span>\qtbase\bin;<span class="operator">%</span>_ROOT<span class="operator">%</span>\gnuwin32\bin;<span class="operator">%</span>PATH<span class="operator">%</span>
REM Uncomment the below line when <span class="keyword">using</span> a git checkout of the source repository
REM SET PATH<span class="operator">=</span><span class="operator">%</span>_ROOT<span class="operator">%</span>\qtrepotools\bin;<span class="operator">%</span>PATH<span class="operator">%</span>
SET _ROOT<span class="operator">=</span>
</pre>
<p>A desktop link can then be created by specifying the command <code>%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /E:ON /V:ON /k c:\qt\qt5vars.cmd</code> as application and <code>c:\qt\qt-5</code> as working directory.</p>
<p><b>Note: </b>Setups for <a href="https://mingw-w64.org/">MinGW</a> are similar; they differ only in that the <code>bin</code> folder of the installation should be added to the path instead of calling the Windows SDK setup script. For <a href="https://mingw-w64.org/">MinGW</a>, please make sure that no <code>sh.exe</code> can be found in the path, as it affects <code>mingw32-make</code>.</p><p>Settings required by the additional libraries (see <a href="windows-requirements.html">Qt for Windows Requirements</a>) should also go this file below the call to the Windows SDK setup script.</p>
<a name="step-4-build-the-qt-library"></a>
<h2 id="step-4-build-the-qt-library">Step 4: Build the Qt Library</h2>
<p>The default behavior of configure is to create an in-source build of Qt 5. If you want to install Qt 5 to a separate location, you need to specify the command line option <code>-prefix <location></code>. Alternatively, the command line option <code>-developer-build</code> creates an in-source build for developer usage.</p>
<p>To configure the Qt library for a debug build for your machine, type the following command in the command prompt:</p>
<pre class="cpp">
configure <span class="operator">-</span>debug <span class="operator">-</span>nomake examples <span class="operator">-</span>opensource
</pre>
<p>The <a href="configure-options.html">Configure Options</a> page contains more information about the configure options.</p>
<p>To build Qt using <a href="http://wiki.qt.io/jom">jom</a>, type:</p>
<pre class="cpp">
jom
</pre>
<p>If you do not have <a href="http://wiki.qt.io/jom">jom</a> installed, type:</p>
<pre class="cpp">
nmake
</pre>
<p>For <a href="https://mingw-w64.org/">MinGW</a>, type:</p>
<pre class="cpp">
mingw32<span class="operator">-</span>make
</pre>
<p>If an installation prefix was given, type <code>jom install</code>, <code>nmake install</code> or <code>mingw32-make install</code>.</p>
<p><b>Note: </b>If you later need to reconfigure and rebuild Qt from the same location, ensure that all traces of the previous configuration are removed by entering the build directory and typing <code>nmake distclean</code> before running <code>configure</code> again.</p><a name="parallel-builds"></a>
<h2 id="parallel-builds">Parallel Builds</h2>
<p><a href="http://wiki.qt.io/jom">jom</a> is a replacement for <code>nmake</code> which makes use of all CPU cores and thus speeds up building.</p>
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