You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
278 lines
13 KiB
278 lines
13 KiB
Qt for Debian README
|
|
--------------------
|
|
|
|
1. Preface
|
|
|
|
This README is intended to give developers and users exact information
|
|
about how the qt-x11-free package provided by TrollTech AS has been packaged
|
|
for Debian in case you either want to faciliate it for development
|
|
of applications and libraries or plugins using the Qt class library. With
|
|
qt-x11-3.1.1, the Debian packages have been massively restructured to get
|
|
the most out of theoriginal Qt package and spit the contents up into
|
|
several packages so that they make the most sensefor several groups of
|
|
users; developers, application users, translators of Qt-based
|
|
applications and Debian packagers who are packaging applications developed
|
|
with Qt.2.
|
|
|
|
2. General Overview
|
|
|
|
As Qt is a huge package that contains a complete environment for
|
|
developers, it needs to be split up into several packages that make it
|
|
easier for everyone else to handle it and not to require
|
|
unnecessary disk space for end-users. Additionally, Qt can be configured
|
|
in several ways - and therefore also used in several ways. Qt development
|
|
usually requires the environment variable QTDIR. As Debian is placing
|
|
libraries and header files in a quite specific filesystem order, this
|
|
usually breaks setting a single environment variable to meet the
|
|
requirements of packages. Therefore, symlinks are used to set up the system
|
|
to meet both, the Debian filesystem standard and the QTDIR variable. All of
|
|
Qt (so the QTDIR path) is available in /usr/share/qt3. If you need to set
|
|
QTDIR, do export QTDIR=/usr/share/qt3
|
|
|
|
As far as the common build configuration goes, we note explicitely that the
|
|
Debian package of Qt will in very rare cases break the compilation (most
|
|
likely the linking) of applications on Debian which use Qt, in particular
|
|
utilizing styles in an incorrect way by deriving from one of the styles
|
|
that ship with Qt. In case you are a Debian packager and encounter
|
|
problems, contact Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers (debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org).
|
|
We will tell you why things don't work and what you should communicate on
|
|
with the programmers of your application that you are packaging. The build
|
|
configuration generally is intended to provide a Qt version that is as
|
|
small as possible in terms of the memory size it requires. Therefore,
|
|
everything inside Qt that can be compiled as plugins has been compiled that
|
|
way. This includes:
|
|
|
|
- imageformats: jpeg and mng - codecs (for languages like arab, japanese
|
|
etc provided with Qt)
|
|
- sql drivers for databases (MySQL, ODBC and PostgreSQL)
|
|
|
|
The only exception is the imageformat png which has been compiled built-in
|
|
due to the fact that there is literally no program that uses no icons at
|
|
all and icons are to be used preferrably in png format. The plugins are all
|
|
located under /usr/lib/qt3/plugins. This is also the install location you
|
|
should choose as a package maintainer for
|
|
qt-plugins so the user doesn't have to customize his library path for
|
|
loading Qt plugins. The only exception is that KDE delivers a set of Qt
|
|
plugins as well (mainly styles and designer plugins); those are placed in
|
|
/usr/lib/kde3/plugins.
|
|
|
|
QMotif Extension: As this code is only available in commercial environments
|
|
(and produces a static library libqmotif.a anyway that those commercial
|
|
applications have to be linked against in addition to Qt), we left out all
|
|
header files of the libqt3-headers package that are belonging to this
|
|
QMotif extension.
|
|
|
|
Oracle Database driver, Sybase & Microsoft SQL Server driver: Those drivers
|
|
are only available in a commercial version of Qt due to license
|
|
incompatibilities with the GPL. If you need to faciliate those drivers,
|
|
please visit http://www.trolltech.com and have a read at
|
|
http://doc.trolltech.com/3.0/sql-driver.html.
|
|
|
|
3. Packages (End-User)
|
|
|
|
The Qt built has been split up into several packages that allow for easy
|
|
installation for all types of users. The End-user usually only requires to
|
|
have the following packages installed to run an application that links
|
|
against Qt:
|
|
|
|
Threaded version:libqt3-mt (the library libqt-mt.so.* and libqui.so.* for
|
|
loading designer-made user interfaces at runtime).
|
|
|
|
Optionally depending on the program's requirements:
|
|
|
|
libqt3-mt-odbc
|
|
libqt3-mt-mysql
|
|
libqt3-mt-psql
|
|
|
|
In addition to the libraries, it may make sense to install the program
|
|
qtconfig to customize the look and behaviorof Qt programs. If you have KDE
|
|
installed, the KDE control center will take this task automatically in most
|
|
cases. qtconfig is available in the package qt3-qtconfig.
|
|
|
|
Also, Qt programs can make use of the online-help tool that ships with Qt,
|
|
the Qt Assistant. The Assistant can be installed with the package
|
|
qt3-assistant.
|
|
|
|
Qt Configuration files
|
|
----------------------
|
|
Qt programs most often use QSettings to store their information in configuration
|
|
files. With Qt 3.2, the new option --sysconfdir has been introduced that allows
|
|
us to use /etc/qt3 as the system-wide location where qt-program specific global
|
|
configuration files can go. If you're a programmer that wants to get familiar with
|
|
that, please look at the examples, documentation and the code in designer or
|
|
assistant as well as qtconfig.
|
|
|
|
4. Packages (Package maintainers)
|
|
|
|
In addition to the library, a package maintainer will require an additional
|
|
set of packages to compile a package that requires Qt. Depending on the
|
|
version of the qt library, you will require a different set of packages;
|
|
the most common option should be to make your application link against the
|
|
multi-threaded version (-mt).Packages necessary for compiling Qt
|
|
applications from source:
|
|
|
|
libqt3-mt-dev (use libqt3-dev for linking against -lqt, this package only
|
|
contains the .so files and the header file for libqui.so)
|
|
|
|
libqt3-headers (header files for libqt and libqt-mt)
|
|
|
|
qt3-dev-tools (this package contains the tools uic and moc as well as
|
|
qmake, required for building Qt applications)
|
|
|
|
If, however, you encounter an older program not to compile with this set
|
|
read the FAQ at the end of this document.
|
|
|
|
5. Packages (Developers)
|
|
|
|
In addition to the packages that packagers require, a developer usually
|
|
will require the Qt API documentationas well as tools like the assistant,
|
|
linguist or designer. However, you should be fine with installing the API
|
|
documentation that you can browse with a webbrowser, optionally with the
|
|
assistant. They are available in /usr/share/doc/qt3-doc/html.
|
|
For a regular development environment, install qt3-designer and qt3-doc.
|
|
|
|
For faciliating Qt's extended environment to write plugins for the Qt
|
|
Designer or extend the Designer as well as utilizing the Qt Assistant by
|
|
calling it from within your program, install qt3-apps-dev, which contains
|
|
the static libraries and header files required for this functionality.
|
|
|
|
For Embedded Developers, the program qvfb (Qt Virtual Frambuffer) and
|
|
makeqpf (embedded fonts tool)have been packaged into
|
|
qt3-dev-tools-embedded. For developers that work on migrating their program
|
|
from any Qt version prior to Qt 3.x to the Qt 3.x platform you will find
|
|
additional tools in the qt3-dev-tools-compat.
|
|
|
|
For using the QTranslator class and where to find the qm-file for qt as
|
|
well as where to place your translations,see the next section.
|
|
|
|
If your program doesn't compile with those settings in case you have
|
|
started your project with Qt 1.x or 2.x, please read the FAQ section at the
|
|
end of this document.
|
|
|
|
5. Packages (Translators)
|
|
|
|
In order to translate a Qt program into any other language, the Qt 3 way to
|
|
do this is to let the developer create a ts-file containing the strings
|
|
that the program exposes on the user interface. The tools to create the
|
|
ts-file and to create the final qm (Q-message binary) file, lupdate and
|
|
lrelease, are included in qt3-dev-tools.The single translator that only
|
|
gets provided the ts file and has to return a translated ts file, it
|
|
is absolutely enough to install qt3-linguist; the package qt3-assistant can
|
|
be installed to access the online-help for the Qt Linguist itself.
|
|
In case you're converting an application using Qt prior to Qt 3, you may
|
|
want to uitilize the qt3-dev-tools-compat which include the necessary tools
|
|
to convert older qm files to the new ts file standard.
|
|
|
|
Locations of message translations:
|
|
|
|
Qt ships with a set of translations for the strings used inside Qt. Those
|
|
translations will be installed into /usr/share/qt3/translations (qm files
|
|
only), which equals $QTDIR/translations respectively
|
|
qInstallPath() + QString( "/translations" ).
|
|
|
|
The configure option --translationdir has been set to /usr/share/qt3/translations
|
|
accordingly since it was introduced in Qt 3.2.
|
|
|
|
To correctly enable your program to display the translations to the Qt
|
|
library and to load the translation of the program itself, we currently
|
|
suggest to either install your translations along with any other data files
|
|
into/usr/share/<appname>/, translation files into the subdirectory
|
|
translations (that is /usr/share/<appname>/translations) The code that your
|
|
application should use to load the Qt translation will have to look like
|
|
the following:
|
|
|
|
int main( int argc, char **argv )
|
|
{
|
|
QApplication app( argc, argv );
|
|
|
|
// translation file for Qt
|
|
QTranslator qt( 0 );
|
|
qt.load( QString( "qt_" ) + QTextCodec::locale(), qInstallPath() +
|
|
QString( "/translations" );
|
|
app.installTranslator( &qt );
|
|
|
|
// translation file for application strings
|
|
QTranslator myapp( 0 );
|
|
myapp.load( QString( "myapp_" ) + QTextCodec::locale(), "." );
|
|
// use a substitue for $prefix/share/appname/translations here
|
|
app.installTranslator( &myapp );
|
|
|
|
6. Frequently Asked Questions
|
|
|
|
Using Qt for Debian as a developer or packager
|
|
----------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Q: I want to compile a source package that utilizes qmake to build the
|
|
Makefiles. What do I need to do to makeit work ?
|
|
|
|
A: qmake requires two environment variables to be set, QTDIR and QMAKESPEC.
|
|
To make it work, do
|
|
export QTDIR=/usr/share/qt3
|
|
export QMAKESPEC=linux-g++
|
|
|
|
Then run qmake -o Makefile <projectfile>.pro
|
|
|
|
After that, the Makefile is correctly created to build your application on
|
|
Debian. As a packager, export thosetwo variables in the rules file before
|
|
calling qmake.
|
|
|
|
Q: I have an application that when linking gives me symbol referencing
|
|
errors to Q*Style. Why does my applicationnot link correctly ?
|
|
|
|
A: The author of the program is using the styles that ship with Qt directly
|
|
instead of using the QStylePlugin interface.If you are the author of the
|
|
program, change your program to use QStylePlugin. If you are a packager,
|
|
write to theauthor of the program that he is assuming that the styles
|
|
shipped with Qt are built-in to the library which is not the case on Debian
|
|
and that he please should fix this and use QStylePlugin.
|
|
|
|
Q: Where are all the examples and tutorials ? And how do I build them ?
|
|
|
|
A: Qt ships with examples and tutorials; so does the Linguist and Designer.
|
|
The tutorials and examples are compressed tarballs which you can unpack with
|
|
tar -zxvf into your home directory. Change into the qt3-examples directory
|
|
and run the provided ./build-examples script. All Qt examples and tutorials,
|
|
including those for designer and the linguist, will be compiled. You will
|
|
notice however, that those examples that inherit from style classes which
|
|
are not built-in into Qt but configured as a plugin will not compile due
|
|
to the fact that they can't link to the Qt library.
|
|
|
|
Q: I'm writing a pure Qt application and I want to ship it with a default
|
|
configuration file. Where does that global configuration file go if I make
|
|
use of the QSettings class ?
|
|
|
|
A: With qt-3.2.0, Trolltech has introduced a configure option to Qt called
|
|
--sysconfdir which we intentionally set to /etc/qt3 similar to /etc/kde3 for
|
|
KDE programs. Install your application's system wide configuration file
|
|
to /etc/qt3.
|
|
|
|
Q: I'm compiling a program and I have a compile error due to a missing
|
|
include. Why isn't that include not present in the Debian packages anymore
|
|
? It compiled with older versions of Debian packages of Qt !
|
|
|
|
A: This may be due to two reasons: either the package still uses the old
|
|
includes from Qt 1.x or 2.x that got basically renamed by Trolltech due to
|
|
the naming convention. The filenames are now all following the scheme
|
|
|
|
ClassName -> classname.h.
|
|
|
|
Therefore, if you are the developer of the affected program, change your
|
|
sources according to this scheme. Qt ships with two tools, qt20fix and
|
|
qtrename140, to help developers migrate their API to the Qt 3 version,
|
|
which can help you in the transition upgrade to Qt 3.
|
|
|
|
If you are affected by this as a packager, notify upstream to fix those
|
|
problems and in the meanwhile use libqt3-compat-headers as a build
|
|
dependency which includes the compatibility headers that just include the
|
|
right files from the new API again.
|
|
|
|
Q: I have a question not covered by this FAQ and README file. Who should I
|
|
turn to ?
|
|
|
|
A: Please turn to Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers (debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org)
|
|
for any questions regarding Qt on Debian.
|
|
|
|
-- Ralf Nolden <nolden@kde.org> Sun, 26 Jan 2003 20:39:19 +0100
|
|
-- Ralf Nolden <nolden@kde.org> Mon, 1 Sep 2003 19:24:16 +0200
|
|
-- Modestas Vainius <modestas@vainius.eu> Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:40:06 +0200
|