qmake creates build artifacts in source directory even when building in out-of-source build directory

[Mrts]

Hi!

Can someone explain why qmake creates build artifacts in source directory even when building in out-of-source build directory?

Given the following directory tree:

.
├── build
├── src
│   ├── app
│   ├── controller
│   └── ui
├── tests
│   ├── mock-ui
│   └── tests
└── tests-build
    ├── mock-ui
    └── tests

where build is the directory for building source files in src and tests-build is the directory for building sources in tests, and the following tests.pro project file in tests:

TEMPLATE = subdirs
CONFIG += ordered

SUBDIRS = \
    mock-ui \
    ../src/controller \
    tests

tests.depends = controller mock-ui

when I run

cd tests-build
qmake ../tests
make check

then controller project build artifacts appear in src/controller instead of tests-build where they should appear.

Is this because the controller project is outside of the test subdirs project root? How can I fix this?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

[SGaist]

Hi and welcome to devnet,

Why is contoller outside of the subdir project ?

Note that qmake is not cmake, you usually do out of source builds, not "in a folder inside the sources". IIRC, there was an issue with how the paths were generated when inside a subfolder but I'm not 100% sure.

[Mrts]

@SGaist thanks for the welcome!

Note that both build directories are outside the sources, so they are already out of source builds:

.
├── build <-- build directory for sources in src
├── src
├── tests
└── tests-build <-- build directory for sources in tests

The tests subdirs project is a QTest project for testing controller . controller is a separate static library module that should be unaware of tests, hence it lies outside of tests in src.

Note that mock-ui and tests build artifacts end up in tests-build as expected, only controller misbehaves.

[SGaist]

Can you show the complete structure of your project ?

[Mrts]

@SGaist sure, here it goes:

.
├── build
├── src
│   ├── app
│   │   ├── app.pro
│   │   ├── main.cpp
│   │   └── parseargs.hpp
│   ├── common.pri
│   ├── controller
│   │   ├── controller.cpp
│   │   ├── controller.hpp
│   │   ├── controller.pro
│   │   └── monitorthread.hpp
│   ├── ui
│   │   ├── ui.cpp
│   │   ├── ui.hpp
│   │   └── ui.pro
│   └── foo.pro
├── tests
│   ├── mock-ui
│   │   ├── mock-ui.cpp
│   │   ├── mock-ui.hpp
│   │   └── mock-ui.pro
│   ├── tests
│   │   ├── main.cpp
│   │   └── tests.pro
│   └── foo-tests.pro
└── tests-build

Thanks for looking into this!

[SGaist]

Are they all separated projects ?

[aha_1980]

Hi @Mrts,

usually the SUBDIRS pro file is top-level, i.e. all referenced pro files are below it.

That gives you one build directory with the same hierarchy as your source folders.

And please: Don't use CONFIG+=ORDERED!

Regards

https://blog.rburchell.com/2013/10/every-time-you-configordered-kitten-dies.html

[Mrts]

@aha_1980, thanks, I removed CONFIG += ORDERED.

I prefer to keep tests separate from source, so I guess I have to live with this limitation.