@KH-219Design and @SGaist : Thank you very much! This is fantastic information. I assume that the syntax of the .qmake.conf file is the same as that of any .pro file?
I think my main problem is still not quite solved. I have a project where the directory structure looks like this:
Project_Dir
|__app <== (under source-code management)
|__src
|__app.pro <== has "TEMPLATE=app"
MyApp.pro <== has "TEMPLATE=subdirs", but is this OK??
|__3rd_party <== (also under SCM, but in a different repository)
|__A_lib
|__src
A_lib.pro
|__B_lib
|__src
B_lib.pro
|__C_lib
|__src
C_lib.pro
|__build <== (not under SCM)
|__<QtVersion>
|__Debug <== build folders for "MyApp"
|__Release <== ""
|__libs <== (build folder for "A_lib + B_lib + C_lib"
Each of the 3rd party projects is built as a static library. Presently, I have the default build folder in Qt Creator defined so that up to now, everything in 'MyApp' is built in the correct folder under 'Project_Dir/build'. I can change the build folder for each of the libraries to get what I want, but I have to do that manually in Qt Creator for each library (only the Release configuration is built for the libraries).
How can I prevent qmake from creating a "build" folder for the libraries under the "3rd_party" folder which is under SCM and direct it to build under "Project_Dir/build/<QtVersion>/libs" instead, without requiring a manual edit of the shadow build folder in Qt Creator? Even with a .qmake.conf file in each folder next to the lib's .pro file, how would that work? I can use OBJECT_DIR etc. to keep out the artifacts of the build, but the directory itself will be created to contain the Makefile.
Maybe SUBDIRS is not the right way to do this?