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Building for Windows

Requirements

For compiling:

  1. Microsoft Visual Studio (tested on 2017 Community)
  2. Qt Framework version equal to or greater than 5.12.
  3. Python 3 (must be in PATH environment variable)

For pushing changes to the repo:

  1. Clang format. Part of the LLVM collection.
  • note use version 9.0.1/9.0.0 of LLVM

Additionally, for fully building portable and installer release versions:

  1. 7zip

  2. Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS)

Locations and Environment Variables

The following environmental variables are relevant for building the project.

Environment Variable Purpose
QT_LOC Path to your Qt \bin\ folder.
VS_LOC Path to your Visual Studio vcvarsall.bat file.
JOM_LOC Path to an .exe of jom.exe. Usually installed with Qt. jom is a wrapper around nmake allowing more threads to be used. It is not required, but using nmakeis slower. If JOM_LOC isn't defined, or the .exe can't be found nmake will be used by default. To force using nmake, set JOM_LOC to a non-valid path like 1.
ZIP_LOC Path to your 7zip .exe. Both portable and installer will work.
NSIS_LOC Path to your installation of NSIS containing the makensis file. Both portable and installer will work.
LLVM_LOC Path to your LLVM bin directory containing clang-format.exe. Not necessary for building with the MSVC compiler, but necessary for pushing changes to the repo. Leave as empty string if your clang-format.exe and clang-cl.exe are in the path.
PYTHON_LOC A non-error-checked way of referring to a specific python installation. Must end on a backslash or be undefined. If undefined python must be in the path.

If an environment variable isn't set a default value will be provided. The default values are shown in the table below.

Environment Variable Default Value
QT_LOC No default value. Will traverse the filesystem looking for "DRIVE_LETTER:\Qt\VERSION\msvc2017\bin". Will use the highest value found unless this variable is set.
VS_LOC "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat"
JOM_LOC "C:\Qt\Tools\QtCreator\bin\jom.exe"
ZIP_LOC "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
NSIS_LOC "C:\Program Files (x86)\NSIS\"
LLVM_LOC "C:\Program Files\LLVM\bin\"
PYTHON_LOC NONE SUPPLIED. It is expected that python is in the path if PYTHON_LOC is defined.

Additionally, these optional environment variables are supported.

Environment Variable Purpose
BUILD_DEBUG If set, a debug version will be built. The packaging script will not run with this var set.
BUILD_VSPROJ If set, Visual Studio project files will be built.
BUILD_PACKAGE If set, the script will create a zipped portable version and installer .exe. Unset by default since only the build server really needs to create zips and installer versions.

Remember that there's a difference between an unset variable and a variable set to an empty string. SET BUILD_DEBUG="" does not unset the variable. You need to write SET BUILD_DEBUG=.

The .dll files necessary for a release build differ from those needed by a debug build. Therefore you need to make sure you run all scripts with BUILD_DEBUG either defined or undefined, depending on your needs.

Building

With the programs above installed and environment variables set, go into the root folder of the repository and run build_windows.cmd. Compiled binaries along with everything needed to run portable will output to .\bin\win64\AdvancedSettings\.

Contributing

For full details, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Using with QtCreator

Run build_windows.cmd once and fully build (packaging not necessary) the application. Open the .pro file in Qt Creator. A build and toolchain option should be marked in Qt Creator, with all others unmarked. If it isn't, set the directory to be the root repo directory. You should now be able to compile and run in Qt Creator without issues.

Notice that you may need to redeploy library files if you make large changes (run build_scripts\win\deploy.cmd).

Additionally, you can set Qt Creator to run build_scripts\win\deploy.cmd on compilation in order to ensure that the correct libraries are present. Remember to set or unset BUILD_DEBUG depending on your needs.

Using with Visual Studio

Run build_windows.cmd once and fully build (packaging not necessary) the application with the BUILD_VSPROJ environment variable set. Open the newly created project file. If you compiled a release build (BUILD_DEBUG not set) change the build type to release in Visual Studio. You should be able to compile and run with Visual Studio without issues.

Notice that any new files you add or compiler settings you change will not be backported to the .pro file. Hence it is necessary to manually change the .pro file.

Notice that you may need to redeploy library files if you make large changes (run build_scripts\win\deploy.cmd).

Additionally, you can set Visual Studio to run build_scripts\win\deploy.cmd on compilation in order to ensure that the correct libraries are present. Remember to set or unset BUILD_DEBUG depending on your needs.