- The QT SDK does NOT include by default the 64 bit libraries in Mac OS X (I think it is strange but it is that way). For compiling my apps in x8664 I just download the standalone libraries with Cocoa (32/64 bits) and I install them after the SDK is installed.
- Qt can be built for either x86 or x8664. 64-bit is used by default. To select a 32-bit build, use the macx-clang-32 or macx-g32 mkspec. This is selectable at configure time./ configure - platform macx - clang.
Downloading and Installing Qt
There are two ways to install Qt:
- through the Qt Installers - downloads and installs Qt
- through the Qt sources.
You can download the Qt 5 installers and sources from the Downloads page. For more information, visit the Getting Started with Qt page.
Building Qt 5 from Source
Below, you will find more information about building Qt from source.
- Qt for macOS - Building from Source - building and installing from source
Qt Build For Mac Os 10.10
Note: Qt 5 uses Cocoa, therefore, building for Carbon is not possible.
macOS Versions
See Supported Platforms for the list of macOS versions supported by Qt.
The following instructions have been tested on Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Always build on latest Mac OS version. The resulting DMG should also work on Mac OS X version n-1 & n-2 Set QMAKEMACOSXDEPLOYMENTTARGET=10.X in buildspecs/configmac.pri We recommend setting X to (macOS current version - 2).
Qt can be built for either x86 or x86_64. 64-bit is used by default. To select a 32-bit build, use the macx-clang-32 or macx-g++32 mkspec. This is selectable at configure time:
The Qt build system does not support building unversal binaries directly. Instead, use the lipo tool to glue two Qt builds together.
Qt Build For Mac Os 10.12
Note: Qt 5 does not support OS X on PowerPC.
Note: Static builds are not tested.
Additional Command-Line Options
On the command-line, applications can be built using qmake and make. Optionally, qmake can generate project files for Xcode with -spec macx-xcode. If you are using the binary package, qmake generates Xcode projects by default; use -spec macx-gcc to generate makefiles. For example:
Qt Build For Mac Os 10.13
Configuring with -spec macx-xcode generates an Xcode project file from project.pro. With qmake you do not have to worry about rules for Qt's preprocessors (moc and uic) since qmake automatically handles them and ensures that everything necessary is linked into your application.
Qt does not entirely interact with the development environment (for example plugins to set a file to 'mocable' from within the Xcode user interface).
The result of the build process is an application bundle, which is a directory structure that contains the actual application executable. The application can be launched by double-clicking it in Finder, or by referring directly to its executable from the command line, for example, myApp.app/Contents/MacOS/myApp.
If you wish to have a command-line tool that does not use the GUI for example, moc, uic or ls, you can tell qmake to disable bundle creation from the CONFIG variable in the project file:
Deploying Applications on macOS
Qt Build For Mac Os High Sierra
In general, Qt supports building on one macOS version and deploying to earlier or later macOS versions. The recommended way is to build on the latest version and deploy to an earlier macOS version.
Qt Build For Mac Osx
macOS applications are typically deployed as self-contained application bundles. The application bundle contains the application executable as well as dependencies such as the Qt libraries, plugins, translations and other resources you may need. Third party libraries like Qt are normally not installed system-wide; each application provides its own copy.
A common way to distribute applications is to provide a compressed disk image (.dmg file) that the user can mount in Finder. The deployment tool, macdeployqt (available from the macOS installers), can be used to create the self-contained bundles, and optionally also create a .dmg archive. Applications can also be distributed through the Mac App Store. Qt 5 aims to stay within the app store sandbox rules. macdeployqt (bin/macdeployqt) can be used as a starting point for app store deployment.
macOS Issues
The page below covers specific issues and recommendations for creating macOS applications.
Where to Go from Here
We invite you to explore the rest of Qt. We prepared overviews to help you decide which APIs to use and our examples demonstrate how to use our API.
- Qt Overviews - list of topics about application development
- Examples and Tutorials - code samples and tutorials
- Qt Reference Pages - a listing of C++ and QML APIs
Qt's vibrant and active community site, http://qt.io houses a wiki, a forum, and additional learning guides and presentations.