Convert Unix path to windows in QMake Script

Question

Is there anyway to get the windows style path to the directory containing the .pro or convert what is stored in _PRO_FILE_PWD_ to a Windows style path ?

---

I have an issue with the _PRO_FILE_PWD_ variable in Qmake where it returns a unix style path on windows.

e.g c:/foo/bar instead of c:\foo\bar

This is proving a problem where the path is being used as part of a post link step.

QMAKE_POST_LINK += copy /y $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]\\QtCore4.dll  $${_PRO_FILE_PWD_}/bin/;

I use the .pro file to create a Visual Studio project and I can see that if I manually change the forward slashes to back slashes in VS that everything is copied fine without any errors.

I get the following error in Visual Studio if I don't correct the path.

PostBuildEvent:
1>  Description: copy /y C:\Qt\4.8.3\bin\QtCore4.dll E:/foo/build/win32//bin//;
1>  The syntax of the command is incorrect.
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(113,5): error MSB3073: The command "copy /y C:\Qt\4.8.3\bin\QtCore4.dll E:/foo/build/win32/bin/;
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(113,5): error MSB3073: :VCEnd" exited with code 1.

---

Solution

Very simple solution thanks to Roku by adding escaped double quotes around the path using / characters.

MAKE_POST_LINK += 
    copy /y $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]\\QtCore4.dll \"$${_PRO_FILE_PWD_}/bin/\";  

Note for addingi multiple copy commands you must seperate them with the ampersand the semicolon doesn't work.

e.g.

 MAKE_POST_LINK += 
        copy /y $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]\\QtCore4.dll \"$${_PRO_FILE_PWD_}/bin/\" &
    MAKE_POST_LINK += 
        copy /y $$[QT_INSTALL_BINS]\\QtGui4.dll \"$${_PRO_FILE_PWD_}/bin/\";  

Answer 1

$$shell_path() will convert the slashes to local system format, so:

QMAKE_POST_LINK += copy /y "$$shell_path($$QT_INSTALL_BINS/QtCore4.dll)" "$$shell_path($$_PROD_FILE_PWD_/bin)"

Answer 2

Oddly enough, escaping the double quotes works for the destination file but not the source.

i.e. this works:

copy C:\dev\playground\qt\SampleProject\debug_qt.conf "C:/dev/playground/qt/build-SampleProject-Qt_8_4_6_Desktop-Debug/qt.conf"

but this doesn't:

copy "C:/dev/playground/qt/SampleProject/debug_qt.conf" "C:/dev/playground/qt/build-SampleProject-Qt_8_4_6_Desktop-Debug/qt.conf"

As already noted, $$shell_path(path) works under Qt5.

On Qt4, $$replace(string, old_string, new_string) can be used instead.

Example:

MY_PATH = $$PWD
message($$replace(MY_PATH, /, \\))