Qt 5.13 | Build with CMake | Get started with CMake

Qt 5.13.2 Reference Documentation

Build with CMake ◦ CMake Variable Reference

# Get started with CMake

Start with `find_package` to locate the libraries and header files shipped with Qt. Then, you can use these libraries and header files with the `target_link_libraries` command to build Qt-based libraries and applications. This command automatically adds the appropriate include directories, compile definitions, the position-independent-code flag, and links to the `qtmain.lib` library on Windows, for example.

### Build a GUI executable

To build a helloworld GUI executable, you need the following:

      cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.1.0)

      project(helloworld)

      set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)
      set(CMAKE_AUTORCC ON)
      set(CMAKE_AUTOUIC ON)

      if(CMAKE_VERSION VERSION_LESS "3.7.0")
          set(CMAKE_INCLUDE_CURRENT_DIR ON)
      endif()

      find_package(Qt5 COMPONENTS Widgets REQUIRED)

      add_executable(helloworld
          mainwindow.ui
          mainwindow.cpp
          main.cpp
          resources.qrc
      )

      target_link_libraries(helloworld Qt5::Widgets)

For `find_package` to be successful, `CMake` must find the Qt installation in one of the following ways:

1. Set your `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` environment variable to the Qt 5 installation prefix. This is the recommended way.
2. Set the `Qt5_DIR` in the `CMake` cache to the location of the `Qt5Config.cmake` file.

The `CMAKE_AUTOMOC` setting runs moc automatically when required. For more details, see CMake AUTOMOC documentation.

### Imported targets

Imported targets are created for each Qt module. In `CMake`, commands such as `target_link_libraries` use imported target names instead of variables like `Qt5<Module>_LIBRARIES`. The actual path to the library can be obtained using the LOCATION property, as follows:

      find_package(Qt5 COMPONENTS Core REQUIRED)

      get_target_property(QtCore_location Qt5::Core LOCATION)

However, you rarely need the full location to the library as most `CMake` APIs can locate imported targets and use them automatically, instead of the full path. For this purpose, each module in Qt 5 has a library target with the Qt5::<Module> naming convention.

Imported targets are created with the same configurations as when Qt was configured. That is:

- If Qt was configured with the `-debug` switch, an imported target with the DEBUG configuration is created.
- If Qt was configured with the `-release` switch, an imported target with the RELEASE configuration is created.
- If Qt was configured with the `-debug-and-release` switch, which is the default on Windows, then imported targets are created with both RELEASE and DEBUG configurations.

If your project has custom `CMake` build configurations, you have to map your custom configuration to either the debug or the release Qt configuration.

      find_package(Qt5 COMPONENTS Core REQUIRED)

      set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE} -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage")

      # set up a mapping so that the Release configuration for the Qt imported target is
      # used in the COVERAGE CMake configuration.
      set_target_properties(Qt5::Core PROPERTIES MAP_IMPORTED_CONFIG_COVERAGE "RELEASE")

In `CMake`, plugins are also available as `IMPORTED` targets. The Qt Network, Qt SQL, Qt GUI, and Qt Widgets modules have plugins associated. They provide a list of plugins in the `Qt5`<Module>`_PLUGINS` variable.

      foreach(plugin ${Qt5Network_PLUGINS})
        get_target_property(_loc ${plugin} LOCATION)
        message("Plugin ${plugin} is at location ${_loc}")
      endforeach()