Running a program/script from QMake
makefile, nmake, qmake, qt
Solution
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
Problem
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?