Building Static Packages

In this section we describe how to build static versions of the various packages that might be part of a deployment. As this covers cross-compiling (specifically to support mobile platforms) we refer to host and target installations. All compiling is performed on the host system and generates code that will eventually run on the target system. A native build is where the host and target systems are the same.

You must have a host Python installation that is the same version as the target version you will be building. Other than that there is nothing special about the host Python installation. The notes refer to the host Python interpreter as python although the actual name you use will depend on your version of Python and the host platform.

You must also have an appropriate target Qt installation. This can be a regular native Qt installation, a static native Qt installation or a cross-compiling Qt installation. For most target platforms it is not necessary to build a static version of Qt. The main advantage of a static version is that it removes an external dependency and so eases deployment. The main disadvantage is that it increases the size of the final executable. The notes refer to the qmake command of your Qt installation as qmake. You must make sure that you run the correct copy of qmake if you have multiple versions of Qt installed. When cross-compiling for mobile devices it is recommended that you use one of the binary installers provided by The Qt Company.

You must also have a host SIP installation that is the same version as the target version you will be building.

The notes refer to the make command as make. If you are using Microsoft Visual C++ then use nmake instead.

All packages are built in a target-specific system root directory identified by the SYSROOT environment variable (see Choosing a Directory Structure). Only those command line options related to static and cross-compiled builds are specifed - you will probably want to specify other options to fully configure each package.

The package configuration files created by the configure action of pyqtdeploycli assume a default Qt installation, i.e. with features that would only be enabled by default on the particular platform. For example, SSL support is disabled for Windows and Android targets. If you have configured your Qt installation differently then you may need to modify the configuration files appropriately.

Qt

To build a static, native version of Qt, change to the Qt source directory and run:

./configure -prefix $SYSROOT/qt-X.Y.Z -static -release -nomake examples
make
make install

X.Y.Z is the version number of Qt you are building.

When cross-compiling for mobile devices it is recommended that you use one of the binary installers provided by The Qt Company.

If your Qt installation is affected by QTBUG-41204 then you should not remove your Qt source directory after installing.

Statically Linking the Windows C Runtime Library

If you wish to statically link the Windows C Library then you need to modify the qmake configuration for your compiler before running configure.

Assuming your compiler is MSVC then you need to edit the file qtbase\mkspecs\common\msvc-desktop.conf in the Qt source directory as follows:

• remove embed_manifest_dll and embed_manifest_exe from the CONFIG entry
• change all occurrences of -MD and -MDd with -MT and -MTd respectively.

If that file does not exist (i.e. for older versions of Qt) then (assuming your compiler is MSVC 2015) then you need to edit the file qtbase\\mkspecs\win32-msvc2015\qmake.conf instead.

Python

Windows Targets

On Windows it is strongly recommended that you do not use a static version of Python (see Windows and Dynamic Loading of Extension Modules). Instead you should install the appropriate version of Python using the installer from python.org. You should then use pyqtdeploycli as follows to copy the relevant parts of the installation to the system root directory:

pyqtdeploycli --sysroot $SYSROOT --package python --system-python X.Y install

X.Y is the version number of Python you are using. There is no need to specify the maintenance number.

Other Targets

When targeting Android the default API level is 21. In order to use a different API level (e.g. 18) then first set the ANDROID_NDK_PLATFORM environment variable to android-18.

It may also be necessary to set the ANDROID_NDK_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION if Qt and the Android NDK disagree on which version of the toolchain to use.

To build a static version of Python for non-Windows targets, change to the Python source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package python --target TARGET configure

This will configure Python for a minimal sub-set of standard extension modules.

To complete the build run:

qmake SYSROOT=$SYSROOT
make
make install

See notes [1], [3] and [6].

sip

To build a static version of sip, change to the sip source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package sip --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-tools --use-qmake --configuration=sip-TARGET.cfg
qmake
make
make install

See notes [1] and [6].

PyQt5

To build a static version of PyQt5, change to the PyQt5 source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package pyqt5 --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-tools --no-qsci-api --no-designer-plugin --no-qml-plugin --configuration=pyqt5-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4] and [6].

PyQt4

To build a static version of PyQt4, change to the PyQt4 source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package pyqt4 --target TARGET configure
python configure-ng.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-tools --no-qsci-api --no-designer-plugin --configuration=pyqt4-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4] and [6].

QScintilla

To build a static version of the QScintilla library, change to the QScintilla source directory and run:

cd Qt4Qt5
qmake CONFIG+=staticlib
make
make install

To build a static version of the Python bindings, change to the QScintilla source directory and run:

cd Python
pyqtdeploycli --package qscintilla --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-sip-files --no-qsci-api --pyqt=PyQt5 --configuration=qscintilla-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4] and [6].

Qt3D

To build a static version of the Python bindings, change to the PyQt3D source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package pyqt3d --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-sip-files --no-qsci-api --configuration=pyqt3d-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

Qt Charts

To build a static version of the Python bindings, change to the PyQtChart source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package pyqtchart --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-sip-files --no-qsci-api --configuration=pyqtchart-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

Qt Data Visualization

To build a static version of the Python bindings, change to the PyQtDataVisualization source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package pyqtdatavisualization --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-sip-files --no-qsci-api --configuration=pyqtdatavisualization-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

Qt Purchasing

To build a static version of the Python bindings, change to the PyQtPurchasing source directory and run:

pyqtdeploycli --package pyqtpurchasing --target TARGET configure
python configure.py --static --sysroot=$SYSROOT --no-sip-files --no-qsci-api --configuration=pyqtpurchasing-TARGET.cfg
make
make install

See notes [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].

Notes

[1]	(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) If you are building a native version of the package then you may omit the --target option.

[2]	(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) You may also wish to disable the automatic generation of docstrings using the --no-docstrings option.

[3]	(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) On Windows make sure that the directory containing qmake is on your PATH. On other platforms you may need to specify the qmake executable using the --qmake option.

[4]	(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) You may also need to specify the sip executable using the --sip option.

[5]	(1, 2, 3, 4) If your Qt installation is affected by QTBUG-39300 then you will also need to add "CONFIG-=android_install" to the qmake command line.

[6]

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) qmake generates Makefiles that support iOS devices and the simulator. The default is to build and install for a device. To build and install for the simulator, run the following commands: make iphonesimulator make iphonesimulator-install However, if your Qt installation is affected by QTBUG-40353 then the support for the subdirs template in .pro files is broken in that qmake does not generate the iphonesimulator-install target in the top-level Makefile. It is, therefore, necessary to explictly install from each of the sub-directories. For example, for sip you would run: make -C siplib iphonesimulator-install For PyQt you would run (for the QtCore module): make -C QtCore iphonesimulator-install make install_init_py install_uic_package