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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T14:34:34+00:00

We have a fairly large code-base. The vast majority of the code is compiled

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We have a fairly large code-base. The vast majority of the code is compiled using qmake to produce the makefiles. However, there are some sub-projects that get produced by running batch files or running other programs.

I’d like to be able to have everything compiled using qmake, but I can’t figure out how to get qmake to simply run a script.

One thing that I’ve tried is using QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS in my pro file, like so:

TEMPLATE = lib
SOURCES = placeholder.cpp
CONFIG += no_link staticlib
batch_runner.target   = placeholder.cpp
batch_runner.commands = my_batch_file.bat
QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS   = batch_runner

I then have to have the batch file produce placeholder.cpp like so:

# do the real work here
# ...
# create placeholder.cpp so qmake and nmake are happy
echo // dummy >> placeholder.cpp

This seems to work fine. The trouble is that it is somewhat hokey. If I don’t specify batch_runner.target (i.e. I leave it blank) or don’t put placeholder.cpp in SOURCES then the batch file never gets run. This is because qmake isn’t making batch_runner.commands the action for any other dependency in the Makefile.

Is there any better way to get QMake to construct a Makefile such that a script is run when the Makefile executes?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It looks like QMAKE_POST_LINK works well for this sort of thing.

    This seems to get the job done. my_batch_file.bat runs when nmake runs (rather than when qmake runs) and I don’t need to do anything funny with placeholder targets or files.

    It’s quite likely that I don’t need all of the items listed in ‘CONFIG’.

    TEMPLATE = lib
TARGET   = 
CONFIG  += no_link target_predeps staticlib

QMAKE_POST_LINK  = my_batch_file.bat
QMAKE_CLEAN     += batch_output.obj
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