How to remote compile in QtCreator

Question

I am developing an application using QtCreator in Mac OS X and it must be cross-platform.

I have a Mac OS X as host. Also I have a MS Windows installed on virtual machine and a Ubuntu installed on another virtual machine:

• Mac OS X: Qt 5.4.0 - 64bit - clang - Xcode 6.0
• MS Windows: Qt 5.3.0 - 32bit - VC++ 2013
• Ubuntu: Qt 5.3.0 - 64bit - GCC

How can I develop my application in Mac OS and build it in another platforms (Mac/Windows/Ubuntu) all at once?

Is there any remote compiler option in QtCreator?

Answer 1

I use remote compilation from Windows. I created custom build step using plink, which lest me execute remote command using key authorization, which starts the build. Qt creator can even parse errors returned :)

Short instruction how to configure it:

1. Create public key authentication for your user in putty and configure connection to your server: https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-configure-ssh-keys-authentication-with-putty-and-linux-server-in-5-quick-steps

2. Download plink: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

3. In your QtCreator project configure "Custom Process Step" to connect to your server and start compilation. Assuming you have:

   • putty session to your build server configured and named CentOS7_local
   • user usename
   • project located in user home directory called projectname You can use something like (if you need some more sophisticated build start you can create a bash script on server and invoke it):

Answer 2

I don't think you can remote compile in Qt Creator but you can use a continuous build system like Jenkins to setup a distributed build environment. Build slaves in all your VMs would compile on commit in your SCM like git or Subversion.

Advantages of this approach:

• works on all major platforms like Linux, MacOS, Windows
• .. and for all major compilers
• you can build on any number of platforms regardless of Qt Creator support
• you can get help easily because this is done in many professional systems
• you can distribute your development
• you can use any IDE
• you have great flexibility and tons of plugins which make life easy

Note: There are many more CI systems out there, see here.