Question about deploying QT applications
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Hi people, if I develop a complete application and then want to deploy and distribute it, do I have to put all the DLLs in the same folder as the application? How can I find what exactly DLLs the application needs (Dependency Walker doesn't work for me)? Plus, if I try to put the DLLs into a "bin" folder the application doesn't start, and I have to put the DLLs in the exact same folder. How can I put the DLLs into a separate folder and make the application work anyway? Plus, how can I make an installation wizard that puts all the stuff in the program files folder and puts a desktop shortcut of my application? And if I develop and deploy my application on Windows (as I'm doing) is it portable? Will it work on Mac OS X and Linux? If not, will it work on other Windows systems without problems? I mean, I put the folder in a usb storage, then pass it to a friend of mine, he opens it and the application will just run fine? I know it's a lot of questions, but answer me please. Thanks to everyone who will answer
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Hi and welcome to DevNet.
Pretty much all your questions are covered by the documentation, I highly recommend checking it out. To deploy apps on windows, see "this":http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/windows-deployment.html. Other platforms have similar guides available.
Qt is portable, yes, but you need to compile it separately on every platform (which means that the code is portable, but the binaries are not). Platforms supported by Qt are (among others): Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Sailfish.
As for portability between various OS versions: in most cases it should work. The same way you can run Windows XP apps on Windows 8, you can also run Qt-created apps on any Windows version. Same goes for other platforms. Granted, you will run into exceptions occasionally, but those are usually minor.
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Hi and welcome to devnet,
For Windows deployment information please look at JKSH's excellent wiki "wiki":http://qt-project.org/wiki/Deploy_an_Application_on_Windows
For more internal details there's the "Windows deployment guide":http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5.0/qtdoc/deployment-windows.html
For special things like desktop shortcut, you'll have to go through the doc of the installer builder you'll use e.g. the "Qt Installer Framework":http://qt-project.org/wiki/Qt-Installer-Framework or Inno Script Setup etc.
No you can't install a windows built application on OS X nor Linux. You might make it run through some project line Wine but it's not the goal here. Compile your project for each platform you want to deploy on. Each one has a guide in Qt's documentation.
Hope it helps