<h2align="center">The 10 minute guide to using qmake</h2>
<h3><aname="1"></a>Creating a project file</h3>
<p><em>qmake</em> uses information stored in project (.pro) files to determine what should go in the makefiles it generates.</p>
<p>A basic project file contains information about the application, for example, which files are needed to compile the application, and which configuration settings to use.</p>
<p>Here's a simple example project file:</p>
<pre>
SOURCES = hello.cpp
HEADERS = hello.h
CONFIG += qt warn_on release
</pre>
<p>We'll provide a brief line-by-line explanation, deferring the detail until later on in the manual.</p>
<p>This line specifies the source files that implement the application. In this case there is just one file, <em>hello.cpp</em>. Most applications require multiple files; this situation is dealt with by listing all the files on the same line space separated, like this:</p>
<p>Alternatively, each file can be listed on a separate line, by escaping the newlines, like this:</p>
<pre>
SOURCES = hello.cpp \
main.cpp
</pre>
<p>A more verbose approach is to list each file separately, like this:</p>
<pre>
SOURCES += hello.cpp
SOURCES += main.cpp
</pre>
<p>This approach uses "+=" rather than "=" which is safer, because it always adds a new file to the existing list rather than replacing the list.</p>
<p>The HEADERS line is used to specify the header files created for use by the application, e.g.</p>
<pre>
HEADERS += hello.h
</pre>
<p>Any of the approaches used to list source files may be used for header files.</p>
<p>The CONFIG line is used to give <em>qmake</em> information about the application's configuration.</p>
<pre>
CONFIG += qt warn_on release
</pre>
<p>The "+=" is used here, because we add our configuration options to any that are already present. This is safer than using "=" which replaces all options with just those specified.</p>
<p>The <em>qt</em> part of the CONFIG line tells <em>qmake</em> that the application is built using TQt. This means that <em>qmake</em> will link against the TQt libraries when linking and add in the neccesary include paths for compiling.</p>
<p>The <em>warn_on</em> part of the CONFIG line tells <em>qmake</em> that it should set the compiler flags so that warnings are output.</p>
<p>The <em>release</em> part of the CONFIG line tells <em>qmake</em> that the application must be built as a release application. During development, programmers may prefer to replace <em>release</em> with <em>debug</em>, which is discussed later.</p>
<p>Project files are plain text (i.e. use an editor like notepad, vim or xemacs) and must be saved with a '.pro' extension. The name of the application's executable will be the same as the project file's name, but with an extension appropriate to the platform. For example, a project file called 'hello.pro' will produce 'hello.exe' on Windows and 'hello' on Unix.</p>
<h3><aname="2"></a>Generating a makefile</h3>
<p>When you have created your project file it is very easy to generate a makefile, all you need to do is go to where you have created your project file and type:</p>
<p>Makefiles are generated from the '.pro' files like this:</p>
<pre>
qmake -o Makefile hello.pro
</pre>
<p>For Visual Studio users, <em>qmake</em> can also generate '.dsp' files, for example:</p>
