How to configure CMakeLists.txt files of projects for have separated projects in Qt Creator instead one project

Alexander Symonenko

I have 2 executable projects each of which depends from 2 libraries in one solution (root CMakeLists.txt). Build is ok and as result I have 2 libraries and 2 executable. But when I try to open root CMakeLists.txt in Qt creator instead 4 projects (src1, src2, subproject1, subproject2) & CMakeLists.txt in the root as result I have only 1 project with name "Project" which includes my 4 projects in "Project" container like this is include folders.

Also I cannot select project for run (Set project "Project" as Active Project) since this is only one project. After run from Qt the MainProject1 was run.

StackOverflow and google propoused to use add_subdirectory for this but this does not work. In my CMakeLists's for make depends and several projects I already had used add_subdirectory.

Qt version: 5.7.0.
Qt Creator version: 4.0.2.
Ubuntu

Please help me for fix this. Thanks in advance.

Project structure & manual build & results: Succeed

Project structure:

root
    src1                    (executable which depends from subproject1 and subproject2)
        CMakeLists.txt
        main.cpp
    src2                    (executable which depends from subproject1 and subproject2)
        CMakeLists.txt
        main.cpp
    subproject1             (library)
        CMakeLists.txt
        hellow.cpp
        hellow.h
    subproject2             (library)
        CMakeLists.txt
        hellow.cpp
        hellow.h
    CMakeLists.txt          (the root CMakeLists)

Build & show results:

mkdir -p build && cd build && cmake .. && make &&
ll src1/MainProject1 && ll src2/MainProject2 && ll subproject1/libsubproject1.a && ll subproject2/libsubproject2.a

Results:

-rwxrwxr-x 1 qqq qqq 13570 Jun  1 10:45 src1/MainProject1*
-rwxrwxr-x 1 qqq qqq 13570 Jun  1 10:45 src2/MainProject2*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 qqq qqq 2820 Jun  1 10:45 subproject1/libsubproject1.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 qqq qqq 2828 Jun  1 10:45 subproject2/libsubproject2.a

All is ok

CMakeLists.txt

Root CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
add_subdirectory( src1 )
add_subdirectory( src2 )

subproject1/CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(subproject1)

set (sources
        ./hellow.cpp
        ./hellow.h
    )
add_library(subproject1 STATIC ${sources})

subproject2/CMakeLists.txt

Is the same but instead subproject1: subproject2

src1/CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
project(MainProject1)

set (sources
        ./main.cpp
    )

if (NOT TARGET subproject1)
     add_subdirectory( ./../subproject1 "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../subproject1" )
     add_subdirectory( ./../subproject2 "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/../subproject2" )
endif() 

add_executable(MainProject1 ${sources})
target_link_libraries (MainProject1 subproject1)
target_link_libraries (MainProject1 subproject2)
add_dependencies( MainProject1 subproject1 )
add_dependencies( MainProject1 subproject2 )

src2/CMakeLists.txt

Is the same but instead MainProject1: MainProject2

Open in Qt Creator: Failed

Open root CMakeLists.txt & configure for build in build folder.

Result of project structure (only 1 project):

root
    Project
        CMakeLists.txt
        src1
        src2
        subproject1
        subproject2

Expect (4 projects):

root
    src1
    src2
    subproject1
    subproject2
    CMakeLists.txt

Result of build:

cd build && ll src1/MainProject1 && ll src2/MainProject2 && ll subproject1/libsubproject1.a && ll subproject2/libsubproject2.a

-rwxrwxr-x 1 qqq qqq 38670 Jun  1 11:10 src1/MainProject1*
-rwxrwxr-x 1 qqq qqq 38670 Jun  1 11:10 src2/MainProject2*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 qqq qqq 21900 Jun  1 11:10 subproject1/libsubproject1.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 qqq qqq 21908 Jun  1 11:10 subproject2/libsubproject2.a

Build is ok.

Run project

MainProject1 was run. Cannot select project for run since Qt Creator perceives root CMakeLists as if it's only one project.

Note

Correspound link to question in StackOverflow

SGaist

Hi and welcome to devnet,

First thing you should do is to update Qt Creator. 4.3 just got released with a revamped and improved support for cmake.

Alexander Symonenko

Thank you. After discovering I see that Qt Creator cannot have several projects using cmake like in Visual Studio solutions ;-( It can have only one root project from root CMakeLists.txt. But Qt Creator allow to select which executiable should be run after build of root project:

You should add multiple projects to the root cmake file with help of "add_subdirectory()". Then in Qt Creator you should open the root cmake file. After that you could choose which project to run in the select a kit for running (3) or debugging (4) application pane (check the link).
It sad that you can't (or I don't know how) build only one project. You have to build all projects are added to the root cmake file and then choose which one of them you want to run.
I use Qt Creator 4.0.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19466141/how-to-load-cmake-script-with-more-than-one-project-with-qt-creator

As result of restrict support of multiple projects you cannot select which subproject to compile but can select executiable for run.

SGaist

Thanks for the feedback, you should take a look at the bug report system to see if there's something related and maybe consider a feature request about that matter if nothing already exists.