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Qt 5.0.0 for MSVC out of the box has HEAVY dependencies
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In making the simplest app, I'm finding that the dependency list for the app is very large as compared to the same done with 4.8.4. The list of dependencies are:
Qt5Widgets.dll
Qt5Gui.dll
Qt5Core.dll
libGLESv2.dll
D3DCompiler_43.dll
icuuc49.dll
icudt49.dll
icuin49.dll
icuuc49.dllI am not understanding why there are such shared libraries required - especially when not using direct 3d! It seems I'm not the only one with this problem. In trying to make portable an application by copying all it's dependencies, it seems that Qt 5.0 has become a pig.
I haven't recompiled the build. I simple used it as posted from the downloads page.
UPDATE:
When all dependencies are included with the app, and the MSVC runtime is installed, the app still does not execute.
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Maybe this thread will answer your question: http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/23210
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You even missed a few, like EGL and the VS runtime, if for some reason not present :)
You are not using D3D, but ANGLE which is the default openGL ES implementation that is being used by QtGui is using it.. for now, in the future the windows version will be build to use desktop OpenGL instead. You can rebuild Qt without the webkit and OpenGL to remove the GL, D3D and ICU dependencies.
The dependencies are indeed absurd, you end up shipping like 30 MB of DLLs with your application, your other option is a static build, which will either require you to open your source or get a commercial license worth thousands of euro, which sounds like an evil Digial plot to use heavy dependencies to lure developers into going commercial :P :P
Little do they know we can't really afford it ;)
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after read http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/23210, I myself give it a try deploy my Qt5 based win32 application in virtual-box'd windows xp like a virgin.
I failed at first, but using dependencywalker's profiling feature, I found the reason why we cannot run qt5 application with thouse dlls already copied there.
Qt5-app requires us to deploy plugins(like qwindows.dll which is located under qtbase\plugin\platforms)According to Qt Doc("Deploying Qt Applications" and "Using qt.conf"), we should deploy two kinds of files other than early loaded dll.
qt.conf
plugin dlls
first one is a simple text file located in the same dir where app.exe file is. I wrote like this
@
[Paths]
Prefix = .
Plugins = plugins
@Thas is for Qt5 to know the where the plugins are located.
'Prefix' is relative path from your app.exe dir which can be retrived QApplication::applicationDirPath().
and 'Plugins' is a directory name under 'Prefix'Second type of files is plugin dlls themselves. You just can copy all {qt5dir}\qtbase\plugins to your
{application.exe dir}\plugins though *.exp, .pdb, .manifest. files are not necessary.I've tested using good old qt4 demo "undo" applications and my directories/files are like this(I removed non-necessary files. but might be wrong here. anyhow it works).
@
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\D3DCompiler_43.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\icudt49.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\icuin49.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\icuuc49.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\libEGL.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\libGLESv2.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qgif.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qico.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qjpeg.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qmng.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qsvg.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qtga.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qtgad.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qtiff.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\imageformats\qwbmp.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\platforms\qminimal.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\plugins\platforms\qwindows.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\qt.conf
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\Qt5Core.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\Qt5Gui.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\Qt5Widgets.dll
g:\VirtualBox.VM\vbox-share\qt5-undo-cleaned\undo.exe
@May I could clean more and less. Btw, I still cannot make it work without installing vcredist_x86.exe.
If you guys succeeded even on this, please share your knowledge.Hope this helps.
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Deployment size has unfortunately increased quite a bit on Windows, mostly due to the use of ICU for globalization support (which is mandatory for WebKit, not necessarily Qt) and DirectX for native hardware acceleration support on Windows.
The 'good' thing is that this only affects the builds of Qt released by the QtProject (which are targetted at the largest possible audience and therefore include ICU, DirectX and WebKit support by default), and you are free to deploy a <code>-opengl desktop</code> and <code>-no-icu</code> Qt with your application, which has no dependency on icu*.dll, D3D*.dll and lib*.dll.
You do not need a commerical license or a static build for that and building Qt is actually quite easy. Just "download the sources":http://qt-project.org/downloads, and run <code>configure -opengl desktop -no-icu</code> and <code>nmake</code> and grab a coffee.
Worth mentioning that the QtProject will provide <code>-opengl desktop</code> builds with (most probably) Qt 5.0.2.
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[quote author="joonhwan" date="1358477255"]May I could clean more and less. Btw, I still cannot make it work without installing vcredist_x86.exe. If you guys succeeded even on this, please share your knowledge.[/quote]What you need is:
- the Qt libraries of the modules used (like Qt5Core.dll, Qt5Gui.dll, or Qt5Widgets.dll)
- the ICU libraries when used (icudt*.dll, icuin*.dll, icuuc*.dll)
- the ANGLE libraries (DirectX support) when used (libEGL.dll, libGLESv2.dll)
- at least one platform plugin (like platforms/qwindows.dll)
- other plugins used (like imageformats/qjpeg.dll, sqldrivers/sqlite.dll)
The ICU and ANGLE dependencies can be eliminated using the <code>-no-icu</code> and <code>-opengl desktop</code> / <code>-opengl none</code> configure switch.
You will always have to distribute and install the VisualC++ Redistributale Package (vcredist_x86.exe) for any application built with MSVC.
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[quote author="codenode" date="1358464293"]Maybe this thread will answer your question: http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/23210[/quote]
Not really. Looked like it was getting personal - especially near the bottom of the thread.
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Which questions are still open?
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[quote author="Lukas Geyer" date="1358543359"]Which questions are still open?[/quote]
It seems (as stated in my thread update at the top) that even when dependencies are included, the build app WILL NOT execute outside of the build environment. No as much of a question, but the issue persists.
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It does execute, you probably didn't put the platform plugin in a /platforms sub folder relative to the executable, I see it is missing in your initial post.
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[quote author="utcenter" date="1358546780"]It does execute, you probably didn't put the platform plugin in a /platforms sub folder relative to the executable, I see it is missing in your initial post.[/quote]
No it doesn't!
On my install, I located in the folder C:\Qt\Qt5.0.0\5.0.0\msvc2010\plugins\platforms the file qwindows.dll and added it to the folder which holds the app.exe The app doesn't even complain about any other missing dependency. No exception, no error dialog, nothing.
Steps to replicate:
1: Create a new Qt GUI Application
2: Build and run within Qt creator
3: Using the utility depends.exe (for Windows), determine each dependency and locally copy each DLL from where it is located on the build machine.
4: Add as suggested the DLL qwindows.dll
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I've been able to run Qt5 GUI applications on another machine, even without walking the dependencies, all I needed were:
D3DCompiler_46.dll
libEGL.dll
libGLESv2.dll
msvcp110.dll
msvcr110.dll
Qt5Core.dll
Qt5Gui.dll
Qt5Widgets.dll
platforms\qwindows.dllI didn't need ICU because I build Qt without the webkit. This might not be the case for the particular build you are using, but I can assure you, my executable run on other machines, tested a few just to make sure.
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[quote author="astodolski" date="1358555667"]I located in the folder C:\Qt\Qt5.0.0\5.0.0\msvc2010\plugins\platforms the file qwindows.dll and added it to the folder which holds the app.exe[/quote]It needs to be in a SUB-folder:
C:\MyApp\app.exe
C:\MyApp\platforms\qwindows.dll[quote]The app doesn't even complain about any other missing dependency. No exception, no error dialog, nothing.
....
3: Using the utility depends.exe (for Windows), determine each dependency and locally copy each DLL from where it is located on the build machine.[/quote]Note: Dependency Walker can't identify all DLLs. Specifically, if a DLL is loaded AFTER the app has started running (instead of getting loaded when the app is launched), Dependency Walker won't report it. In such a case, your app probably won't give an error message either.
libEGL.dll is one dependency that isn't reported; try including that too.
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[quote author="JKSH" date="1358611592"][quote author="astodolski" date="1358555667"]I located in the folder C:\Qt\Qt5.0.0\5.0.0\msvc2010\plugins\platforms the file qwindows.dll and added it to the folder which holds the app.exe[/quote]It needs to be in a SUB-folder:
C:\MyApp\app.exe
C:\MyApp\platforms\qwindows.dll[quote]The app doesn't even complain about any other missing dependency. No exception, no error dialog, nothing.
....
3: Using the utility depends.exe (for Windows), determine each dependency and locally copy each DLL from where it is located on the build machine.[/quote]Note: Dependency Walker can't identify all DLLs. Specifically, if a DLL is loaded AFTER the app has started running (instead of getting loaded when the app is launched), Dependency Walker won't report it. In such a case, your app probably won't give an error message either.
libEGL.dll is one dependency that isn't reported; try including that too.[/quote]
Works as instructed. Why the added libraries and folder requirement?
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D3DCompiler_46.dll, libEGL.dll and libGLESv2.dll are requirements of ANGLE, which was chosen to address the fact Microsoft no longer provides OpenGL in "metro" mode in Windows 8. You can lose those dependencies by building Qt for desktop OpenGL or without OpenGL support.
Building without the webkit will get rid of the ICU* dependencies.
So in the end, you can limit your dependencies to Qt5Widgets.dll, Qt5Gui.dll, Qt5Core.dll which cannot really be classified as dependencies, since they are essential parts of Qt. Also the MSVC runtimes, if not present on the machine already.
The decision to use a dynamically loading platoform plugin was to make it easier to use different plugins and to make porting to new platforms easier. As of why the decision to put the platform plugin in a separate folder - I cannot tell.
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[quote author="utcenter" date="1358618851"]D3DCompiler_46.dll, libEGL.dll and libGLESv2.dll are requirements of ANGLE, which was chosen to address the fact Microsoft no longer provides OpenGL in "metro" mode in Windows 8. You can lose those dependencies by building Qt for desktop OpenGL or without OpenGL support.
Building without the webkit will get rid of the ICU* dependencies.
So in the end, you can limit your dependencies to Qt5Widgets.dll, Qt5Gui.dll, Qt5Core.dll which cannot really be classified as dependencies, since they are essential parts of Qt. Also the MSVC runtimes, if not present on the machine already.
The decision to use a dynamically loading platoform plugin was to make it easier to use different plugins and to make porting to new platforms easier. As of why the decision to put the platform plugin in a separate folder - I cannot tell.[/quote]
Very helpful!
I (and I think most) can live with 3 - 4 core libraries. The choice then is to have at least two builds - one without webkit and OpenGL and one with them included? It seems that if there is a need for OpenGL then a rebuild of the core libraries is required?
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[quote author="Lukas Geyer" date="1358500494"]Deployment size has unfortunately increased quite a bit on Windows, mostly due to the use of ICU for globalization support (which is mandatory for WebKit, not necessarily Qt) and DirectX for native hardware acceleration support on Windows.
The 'good' thing is that this only affects the builds of Qt released by the QtProject (which are targetted at the largest possible audience and therefore include ICU, DirectX and WebKit support by default), and you are free to deploy a <code>-opengl desktop</code> and <code>-no-icu</code> Qt with your application, which has no dependency on icu*.dll, D3D*.dll and lib*.dll.
You do not need a commerical license or a static build for that and building Qt is actually quite easy. Just "download the sources":http://qt-project.org/downloads, and run <code>configure -opengl desktop -no-icu</code> and <code>nmake</code> and grab a coffee.[/quote]
Easy in theory.
Rebuilding from source yields a different folder structure that what is represented by the SDK.
There is no platforms folder.
If opengl is to be removed, why are you suggesting -opengl desktop? Shouldn't it be -no-opengl?
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utcenter wrote:
bq. As of why the decision to put the platform plugin in a separate folder – I cannot tell.
That is the way all the standard plugin groups are: each group has a sub folder (imageformats, sqldrivers etc.). Handling platform plugins differently would just be adding an exception to the established pattern.
astodolski wrote:
bq. If opengl is to be removed, why are you suggesting -opengl desktop? Shouldn’t it be -no-opengl?
Maybe. If you want OpenGL support without ANGLE then use the desktop OpenGL option and understand you will have to revisit the decision for Windows 8 later on when some sort of whatever-we-are-supposed-call-Metro-now support is added and you want to use it. If you want no OpenGL support at all then build it out.
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[quote author="astodolski" date="1358803926"]Rebuilding from source yields a different folder structure that what is represented by the SDK.[/quote]qtbase resembles Qt5.0.0/5.0.0/msvc2010.
[quote author="astodolski" date="1358803926"]There is no platforms folder.[/quote]Take a look at qtbase/plugins.
[quote author="astodolski" date="1358803926"]If opengl is to be removed, why are you suggesting -opengl desktop? Shouldn't it be -no-opengl?[/quote]<code>-no-opengl</code> will remove all OpenGL support in Qt, <code>-opengl desktop</code> will just remove DirectX support and the dependency on D3D*.dll and lib*.dll. You can pick whichever you prefer.
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[quote author="Lukas Geyer" date="1358500494"]Just "download the sources":http://qt-project.org/downloads, and run <code>configure -opengl desktop -no-icu</code> and <code>nmake</code> and grab a coffee.[/quote]
Near the end of the configure step, I get an error as shown in the console output:
copy qmake.exe C:\Qt\qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.0.0\qtbase\bin\qmake.exe 1 file(s) copied.ASSERT: "fileName.isEmpty() || isAbsolutePath(fileName)" in file C:\Qt\qt-everywhere-opens
ource-src-5.0.0\qtbase\qmake\library\ioutils.cpp, line 61
QMake failed!
*** qtbase/configure exited with non-zero status.C:\Qt\qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.0.0>
Starting to be quite the rabbit hole
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hello,
if you have download Qt pre-built with webkit and icu support, here is something you can do to reduce the size of you package by 20MB:
https://github.com/neolit123/dummy_icuit basically populates dummy ICU shared libraries with NOP entry points, which may not be called at all depending on your app.
i explain in the readme that i'm not exactly sure how legal in terms of licensing or volatile in terms of stability this is, so use at your own risk.
if you have built Qt yourself you certainly won't be needing this.--
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[quote author="lubomir.ivanov" date="1360348617"]hello,
if you have download Qt pre-built with webkit and icu support, here is something you can do to reduce the size of you package by 20MB:
https://github.com/neolit123/dummy_icuit basically populates dummy ICU shared libraries with NOP entry points, which may not be called at all depending on your app.
i explain in the readme that i'm not exactly sure how legal in terms of licensing or volatile in terms of stability this is, so use at your own risk.
if you have built Qt yourself you certainly won't be needing this.[/quote]
I appreciate the suggestion. However, it is the second part of your comment where I am experiencing the problem. I can't get a successful build with the following configure line options:
-opengl desktop -no-icu
