conan.tools.qbs

QbsToolchain

Warning

This is an experimental feature subject to breaking changes in future releases.

The QbsToolchain can be used in the generate() method:

from conans import ConanFile
from conan.tools.qbs import QbsToolchain

class App(ConanFile):
    settings = "os", "arch", "compiler", "build_type"
    requires = "hello/0.1"
    options = {"shared": [True, False]}
    default_options = {"shared": False}

    def generate(self):
        tc = QbsToolchain(self)
        tc.generate()

The QbsToolchain will generate the following file during conan install command (or before calling the build() method when the package is being built in the cache): conan_toolchain.qbs. This file will contain a qbs profile named conan_toolchain_profile.

conan_toolchain.qbs will contain the definitions of all the Qbs properties related to the Conan options and settings for the current package, platform, etc. This includes the following:

Detection of compiler.

Based on the compiler set in environment variable CC.

Uses detected system compiler based on Conan setting compiler if environment variable CC is not set.

Detection of compiler flags from environment (as defined at https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Implicit-Variables.html):
- ASFLAGS
- CFLAGS
- CPPFLAGS
- CXXFLAGS
- LDFLAGS
Detection of sysroot from environment.
Detection of build_type from Conan settings.
Detection of arch from Conan settings.
Detection of compiler.cxxstd from Conan settings.
Detection of fPIC based on the existence of such option in the recipe.

Qbs

If you are using Qbs as your build system, you can use the Qbs build helper.

from conans import ConanFile
from conan.tools.qbs import Qbs

class ConanFileToolsTest(ConanFile):
    ...

    def build(self):
        qbs = Qbs(self)
        qbs.build()

Constructor

class Qbs(object):

    def __init__(self, conanfile, project_file=None)

Parameters:

conanfile (Required): Use self inside a conanfile.py.
project_file (Optional, Defaulted to None): Path to the root project file.

Attributes

use_toolchain_profile

Defaulted to: conan_toolchain_profile

Specifies the qbs profile to build the project for.

Methods

add_configuration()

def add_configuration(self, name, values)

Add a build configuration to use.

Parameters:

name (Required): Specifies build configuration name.
values (Required): A dict of properties set for this build configuration.

build()

def build(self, products=None)

Build Qbs project.

Parameters:

products (Optional, Defaulted to None): Specifies a list of products to build. If None build all products which have the qbs property buildByDefault set to true.

build_all()

def build_all(self)

Build all products of Qbs project, even products which set the qbs property buildByDefault set to false

install()

def install(self)

Install products.

Example

A typical usage of the Qbs build helper, if you want to be able to both execute conan create and also build your package for a library locally (in your user folder, not in the local cache), could be:

from conans import ConanFile
from conan.tools.qbs import Qbs


class HelloConan(ConanFile):
    name = "hello"
    version = "0.1"
    settings = "os", "compiler", "build_type", "arch"
    generators = "qbs"
    exports_sources = "src/*", "*.qbs"
    no_copy_source = True
    requires = "zlib/1.2.11"

    def build(self):
        qbs = Qbs(self)
        qbs.add_configuration("default", {
            "project.conanBuildInfo", self.build_folder + "/conanbuildinfo.qbs"
        })
        qbs.build()

    def package(self):
        self.copy("*.h", dst="include", src="src")
        self.copy("*.lib", dst="lib", keep_path=False)
        self.copy("*.dll", dst="bin", keep_path=False)
        self.copy("*.dylib*", dst="lib", keep_path=False)
        self.copy("*.so", dst="lib", keep_path=False)
        self.copy("*.a", dst="lib", keep_path=False)

    def package_info(self):
        self.cpp_info.libs = ["hello"]

Note the qbs generator, which generates the conanbuildinfo.qbs file, to process dependencies information. Setting no_copy_source = True helps qbs to pick the right project file and not get confused by the generated files.

The hello.qbs could be as simple as:

Project {
    readonly property path conanBuildInfo

    references: conanBuildInfo

    DynamicLibrary {
        name: "hello"
        version: "0.1.0"
        files: "src/hello.cpp"
        cpp.cxxLanguageVersion: "c++11"

        Depends { name: "cpp" }
        Depends { name: "zlib" }
    }
}