Qt Build Configure Options



I usually need to select a variety of options for building Qt depending on what I need and what I don’t need and strangely enough it is not easy to find the list of available options in the documentations so here it is.

Below is the list of all configure options for building Qt. It is taken from Qt 5.5 configure file which can be found under qtbase.

Configure options:

The defaults (*) are usually acceptable. A plus (+) denotes a default value
that needs to be evaluated. If the evaluation succeeds, the feature is
included. Here is a short explanation of each option:

* -release ........... Compile and link Qt with debugging turned off.
-debug ............. Compile and link Qt with debugging turned on.
-debug-and-release . Compile and link two versions of Qt, with and without
debugging turned on (Mac only).

-force-debug-info .. Create symbol files for release builds.

-developer-build ... Compile and link Qt with Qt developer options (including auto-tests exporting)

-opensource ........ Compile and link the Open-Source Edition of Qt.
-commercial ........ Compile and link the Commercial Edition of Qt.

-confirm-license ... Automatically acknowledge the license (use with
either -opensource or -commercial)

-no-c++11 .......... Do not compile Qt with C++11 support enabled.
+ -c++11 ............. Compile Qt with C++11 support enabled.

* -shared ............ Create and use shared Qt libraries.
-static ............ Create and use static Qt libraries.

-no-largefile ...... Disables large file support.
+ -largefile ......... Enables Qt to access files larger than 4 GB.

-no-accessibility .. Do not compile Accessibility support.
Disabling accessibility is not recommended, as it will break QStyle
and may break other internal parts of Qt.
With this switch you create a source incompatible version of Qt,
which is unsupported.
+ -accessibility ..... Compile Accessibility support.

-no-sql- ... Disable SQL entirely.
-qt-sql- ... Enable a SQL in the Qt SQL module, by default
none are turned on.
-plugin-sql- Enable SQL as a plugin to be linked to
at run time.

Possible values for :
[$CFG_SQL_AVAILABLE ]

-system-sqlite ..... Use sqlite from the operating system.

-no-qml-debug ...... Do not build the in-process QML debugging support.
+ -qml-debug ......... Build the QML debugging support.

-platform target ... The operating system and compiler you are building
on (default detected from host system).

See the README file for a list of supported
operating systems and compilers.

-no-sse2 ........... Do not compile with use of SSE2 instructions.
-no-sse3 ........... Do not compile with use of SSE3 instructions.
-no-ssse3 .......... Do not compile with use of SSSE3 instructions.
-no-sse4.1 ......... Do not compile with use of SSE4.1 instructions.
-no-sse4.2 ......... Do not compile with use of SSE4.2 instructions.
-no-avx ............ Do not compile with use of AVX instructions.
-no-avx2 ........... Do not compile with use of AVX2 instructions.
-no-mips_dsp ....... Do not compile with use of MIPS DSP instructions.
-no-mips_dspr2 ..... Do not compile with use of MIPS DSP rev2 instructions.

-qtnamespace Wraps all Qt library code in 'namespace {...}'.
-qtlibinfix Renames all libQt*.so to libQt*.so.

-testcocoon ........ Instrument Qt with the TestCocoon code coverage tool.
-gcov .............. Instrument Qt with the GCov code coverage tool.

-D ........ Add an explicit define to the preprocessor.
-I ........ Add an explicit include path.
-L ........ Add an explicit library path.

+ -pkg-config ........ Use pkg-config to detect include and library paths. By default,
configure determines whether to use pkg-config or not with
some heuristics such as checking the environment variables.
-no-pkg-config ..... Disable use of pkg-config.
-force-pkg-config .. Force usage of pkg-config (skips pkg-config usability
detection heuristic).

-help, -h .......... Display this information.

Third Party Libraries:

-qt-zlib ............ Use the zlib bundled with Qt.
+ -system-zlib ........ Use zlib from the operating system.
See http://www.gzip.org/zlib

-no-mtdev ........... Do not compile mtdev support.
+ -mtdev .............. Enable mtdev support.

+ -no-journald ........ Do not send logging output to journald.
-journald ........... Send logging output to journald.

-no-gif ............. Do not compile GIF reading support.

-no-libpng .......... Do not compile PNG support.
-qt-libpng .......... Use the libpng bundled with Qt.
+ -system-libpng ...... Use libpng from the operating system.
See http://www.libpng.org/pub/png

-no-libjpeg ......... Do not compile JPEG support.
-qt-libjpeg ......... Use the libjpeg bundled with Qt.
+ -system-libjpeg ..... Use libjpeg from the operating system.
See http://www.ijg.org

-no-freetype ........ Do not compile in Freetype2 support.
-qt-freetype ........ Use the libfreetype bundled with Qt.
+ -system-freetype..... Use the libfreetype provided by the system (enabled if -fontconfig is active).
See http://www.freetype.org

-no-harfbuzz ........ Do not compile HarfBuzz-NG support.
* -qt-harfbuzz ........ Use HarfBuzz-NG bundled with Qt to do text shaping.
It can still be disabled by setting
the QT_HARFBUZZ environment variable to "old".
-system-harfbuzz .... Use HarfBuzz-NG from the operating system
to do text shaping. It can still be disabled
by setting the QT_HARFBUZZ environment variable to "old".
See http://www.harfbuzz.org

-no-openssl ......... Do not compile support for OpenSSL.
+ -openssl ............ Enable run-time OpenSSL support.
-openssl-linked ..... Enabled linked OpenSSL support.

-no-libproxy ....... Do not compile support for libproxy
+ -libproxy .......... Use libproxy from the operating system.

-qt-pcre ............ Use the PCRE library bundled with Qt.
+ -system-pcre ........ Use the PCRE library from the operating system.

-qt-xcb ............. Use xcb- libraries bundled with Qt.
(libxcb.so will still be used from operating system).
+ -system-xcb ......... Use xcb- libraries from the operating system.

-xkb-config-root .... Set default XKB config root. This option is used only together with -qt-xkbcommon-x11.
-qt-xkbcommon-x11 ... Use the xkbcommon library bundled with Qt in combination with xcb.
+ -system-xkbcommon-x11 Use the xkbcommon library from the operating system in combination with xcb.

-no-xkbcommon-evdev . Do not use X-less xkbcommon when compiling libinput support.
* -xkbcommon-evdev .... Use X-less xkbcommon when compiling libinput support.

-no-xinput2 ......... Do not compile XInput2 support.
* -xinput2 ............ Compile XInput2 support.

-no-xcb-xlib......... Do not compile Xcb-Xlib support.
* -xcb-xlib............ Compile Xcb-Xlib support.

-no-glib ............ Do not compile Glib support.
+ -glib ............... Compile Glib support.

-no-pulseaudio ...... Do not compile PulseAudio support.
+ -pulseaudio ......... Compile PulseAudio support.

-no-alsa ............ Do not compile ALSA support.
+ -alsa ............... Compile ALSA support.

-no-gtkstyle ........ Do not compile GTK theme support.
+ -gtkstyle ........... Compile GTK theme support.

Additional options:

-make ....... Add part to the list of parts to be built at make time.
(defaults to: $QT_DEFAULT_BUILD_PARTS)
-nomake ..... Exclude part from the list of parts to be built.

-skip ..... Exclude an entire module from the build.

-no-compile-examples ... Install only the sources of examples.

-no-gui ............ Don't build the Qt GUI module and dependencies.
+ -gui ............... Build the Qt GUI module and dependencies.

-no-widgets ........ Don't build the Qt Widgets module and dependencies.
+ -widgets ........... Build the Qt Widgets module and dependencies.

-R ........ Add an explicit runtime library path to the Qt
libraries.
-l ........ Add an explicit library.

-no-rpath .......... Do not use the library install path as a runtime
library path.
+ -rpath ............. Link Qt libraries and executables using the library
install path as a runtime library path. Equivalent
to -R install_libpath

-continue .......... Continue as far as possible if an error occurs.

-verbose, -v ....... Print verbose information about each step of the
configure process.

-silent ............ Reduce the build output so that warnings and errors
can be seen more easily.

* -no-optimized-qmake ... Do not build qmake optimized.
-optimized-qmake ...... Build qmake optimized.

-no-nis ............ Do not compile NIS support.
* -nis ............... Compile NIS support.

-no-cups ........... Do not compile CUPS support.
* -cups .............. Compile CUPS support.
Requires cups/cups.h and libcups.so.2.

-no-iconv .......... Do not compile support for iconv(3).
* -iconv ............. Compile support for iconv(3).

-no-evdev .......... Do not compile support for evdev.
* -evdev ............. Compile support for evdev.

-no-tslib .......... Do not compile support for tslib.
* -tslib ............. Compile support for tslib.

-no-icu ............ Do not compile support for ICU libraries.
+ -icu ............... Compile support for ICU libraries.

-no-fontconfig ..... Do not compile FontConfig support.
+ -fontconfig ........ Compile FontConfig support.

-no-strip .......... Do not strip binaries and libraries of unneeded symbols.
* -strip ............. Strip binaries and libraries of unneeded symbols when installing.

* -no-pch ............ Do not use precompiled header support.
-pch ............... Use precompiled header support.

-no-dbus ........... Do not compile the Qt D-Bus module.
+ -dbus .............. Compile the Qt D-Bus module and dynamically load libdbus-1.
-dbus-linked ....... Compile the Qt D-Bus module and link to libdbus-1.

-reduce-relocations ..... Reduce relocations in the libraries through extra
linker optimizations (Qt/X11 and Qt for Embedded Linux only;
experimental; needs GNU ld >= 2.18).

-no-use-gold-linker ..... Do not link using the GNU gold linker.
+ -use-gold-linker ........ Link using the GNU gold linker if available.

-force-asserts ........ Force Q_ASSERT to be enabled even in release builds.

-sanitize [address|thread|memory|undefined] Enables the specified compiler sanitizer.

-device ............... Cross-compile for device (experimental)
-device-option ... Add device specific options for the device mkspec
(experimental)

* -no-separate-debug-info . Do not store debug information in a separate file.
-separate-debug-info .... Strip debug information into a separate file.

-no-xcb ............ Do not compile Xcb (X protocol C-language Binding) support.
* -xcb ............... Compile Xcb support.

-no-eglfs .......... Do not compile EGLFS (EGL Full Screen/Single Surface) support.
* -eglfs ............. Compile EGLFS support.

-no-directfb ....... Do not compile DirectFB support.
* -directfb .......... Compile DirectFB support.

-no-linuxfb ........ Do not compile Linux Framebuffer support.
* -linuxfb ........... Compile Linux Framebuffer support.

-no-kms ............ Do not compile KMS support.
* -kms ............... Compile KMS support (Requires EGL).

-qpa ......... Sets the default QPA platform (e.g xcb, cocoa, windows).

-xplatform target ... The target platform when cross-compiling.

-sysroot ...... Sets as the target compiler's and qmake's sysroot and also sets pkg-config paths.
-no-gcc-sysroot ..... When using -sysroot, it disables the passing of --sysroot to the compiler

-no-feature- Do not compile in .
-feature- .. Compile in . The available features
are described in src/corelib/global/qfeatures.txt

-qconfig local ...... Use src/corelib/global/qconfig-local.h rather than the
default ($CFG_QCONFIG).

-qreal [double|float] typedef qreal to the specified type. The default is double.
Note that changing this flag affects binary compatibility.

-no-opengl .......... Do not support OpenGL.
-opengl ....... Enable OpenGL support
With no parameter, this will attempt to auto-detect
OpenGL ES 2.0 and higher, or regular desktop OpenGL.
Use es2 for to override auto-detection.

-no-libinput ........ Do not support libinput.
* -libinput ........... Enable libinput support.

-no-gstreamer ....... Do not support GStreamer.
+ -gstreamer Enable GStreamer support
With no parameter, this will attempt to auto-detect GStreamer 0.10 and
1.0. GStreamer 0.10 is used by default when available.
Use 0.10 or 1.0 for to override auto-detection.

* -no-system-proxies .. Do not use system network proxies by default.
-system-proxies ..... Use system network proxies by default.

-no-warnings-are-errors Make warnings be treated normally
-warnings-are-errors Make warnings be treated as errors
(enabled if -developer-build is active)

QNX/Blackberry options:

-no-slog2 .......... Do not compile with slog2 support.
-slog2 ............. Compile with slog2 support.

-no-pps ............ Do not compile with pps support.
-pps ............... Compile with pps support.

-no-imf ............ Do not compile with imf support.
-imf ............... Compile with imf support.

-no-lgmon .......... Do not compile with lgmon support.
-lgmon ............. Compile with lgmon support.

MacOS/iOS options:

-Fstring ........... Add an explicit framework path.
-fw string ......... Add an explicit framework.

* -framework ......... Build Qt as a series of frameworks and
link tools against those frameworks.
-no-framework ...... Do not build Qt as a series of frameworks.

-secure-transport .. Use SecureTransport instead of OpenSSL (requires -no-openssl)

-sdk ......... Build Qt using Apple provided SDK . The argument should be
one of the available SDKs as listed by 'xcodebuild -showsdks'.
Note that the argument applies only to Qt libraries and applications built
using the target mkspec - not host tools such as qmake, moc, rcc, etc.

Android options:

-android-sdk path .............. The Android SDK root path.
(default $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT)

-android-ndk path .............. The Android NDK root path.
(default $ANDROID_NDK_ROOT)

-android-ndk-platform .......... Sets the android platform
(default $CFG_DEFAULT_ANDROID_PLATFORM)

-android-ndk-host .............. Sets the android NDK host (linux-x86, linux-x86_64, etc.)
(default $ANDROID_NDK_HOST)

-android-arch .................. Sets the android architecture (armeabi, armeabi-v7a, x86, mips,
arm64-v8a, x86_64, mips64)
(default $CFG_DEFAULT_ANDROID_TARGET_ARCH)

-android-toolchain-version ..... Sets the android toolchain version
(default $CFG_DEFAULT_ANDROID_NDK_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION)

-no-android-style-assets ....... Do not compile in the code which automatically extracts
style assets from the run-time device. Setting this will
make the Android style behave incorrectly, but will enable
compatibility with the LGPL2.1 license.
* -android-style-assets .......... Compile the code which automatically extracts style assets
from the run-time device. This option will make the
Android platform plugin incompatible with the LGPL2.1.


One Reply to “Qt Build Configure Options”

  1. Please note that even some of the options here may not work. Like -silent for example. You may come across some other options too.

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