Qmake does not support build directories below the source directory

Question

I have created an application that compiles and runs like a charm on OS-X. I would now like to start getting it to work on Windows. To start, I copied the project to a windows machine and just tried to compile, but got this error:

:: warning: Qmake does not support build directories below the source directory.

Any ideas?

In qt creator I do "Compile all." Also, attempting to run qmake respons with the same error. — Jay, Oct 31 '10 at 00:18

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 31 '10 at 01:28

Set the shadow build directory to some folder on the same level of your project directory:

folder/
  project/
  project-shadow-build-release/
  project-shadow-build-debug/

You can do this in the "Projects" view, via the toolbar on the left. To me, this warning was just an annoyance, a project never failed to build because of it.

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '11 at 17:49

13

Don't copy your project.pro.user file when you are copying a project from one machine to another, or from one directory to another. When you open the project, Qt Creator will offer to create a new build directory in the proper place.

answered Apr 01 '11 at 17:49

TJM

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For me the problem was solved by going to 'Projects' in Qt Creator and alter the Build-Path (My Project was first hat %PATH/project/project -> I moved It to %PATH/project but my Build-Path was still %PATH/project/build-project-Desktop[...] --> %PATH/build-project-Desktop[...]) now qmake works and compiling is also no problem. Hope that helps – Martin Sep 03 '13 at 08:23

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 00:40

Andref gave the correct answer to resolve this warning, but you may want to understand why this requirement exists.

In fact, the build directory must be at the same folder level as the project (i.e. it can't be above or below). The reason why is that the linker is called from the build directory. Hence, any relative paths to library files will be different than what you entered in your project file.

It kinda sucks. I like to put all intermediate files in their own folder. But you simply can't with qmake.

Has anyone tried symbolic links? I'd like to put the build directory on a SSD or RAM-disk. — RoundSparrow hilltx, Aug 11 '17 at 12:47

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 17 '11 at 15:37

2

.pro.user are generated files by Qt Creator. They are unrelated to qmake and should not be touched (and not put into a VCS for that matter)

edited Jun 17 '11 at 15:37

axel22

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answered Mar 17 '11 at 08:45

gre

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 17 '11 at 15:37

1

Just remove the files with the pro.user extension , worked for me

edited Jun 17 '11 at 15:37

axel22

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answered Jun 16 '11 at 19:18

Gabriel Regalado

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 13 '10 at 18:26

0

I also got this, trying to compile a project created on linux.

Another way to solve it is to change the paths in the .pro.user file (in the directory of your project)

answered Nov 13 '10 at 18:26

Giova

1

It's generally a bad idea to edit an application's internal database. If you *have* to, the application doesn't recover very well from user error (or you really messed up bad, if allowing for your abuse would be cruel and unusual punishment). Just let the IDE make a new copy of the file. – Grault Feb 09 '12 at 06:39

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 08 '17 at 21:50

Right Click on a project: Set As Active Project
Click on the Projects button (The one with the spanner image)
Edit build configuration : Debug / Profile / Release / and change the default directories, OR just uncheck the Shadow build check box.
- The Build directory path should now change to black, from red

Qmake does not support build directories below the source directory

7 Answers7

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