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278 lines
13 KiB
278 lines
13 KiB
14 years ago
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Qt for Debian README
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1. Preface
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This README is intended to give developers and users exact information
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about how the qt-x11-free package provided by TrollTech AS has been packaged
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for Debian in case you either want to faciliate it for development
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of applications and libraries or plugins using the Qt class library. With
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qt-x11-3.1.1, the Debian packages have been massively restructured to get
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the most out of theoriginal Qt package and spit the contents up into
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several packages so that they make the most sensefor several groups of
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users; developers, application users, translators of Qt-based
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applications and Debian packagers who are packaging applications developed
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with Qt.2.
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2. General Overview
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As Qt is a huge package that contains a complete environment for
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developers, it needs to be split up into several packages that make it
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easier for everyone else to handle it and not to require
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unnecessary disk space for end-users. Additionally, Qt can be configured
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in several ways - and therefore also used in several ways. Qt development
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usually requires the environment variable QTDIR. As Debian is placing
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libraries and header files in a quite specific filesystem order, this
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usually breaks setting a single environment variable to meet the
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requirements of packages. Therefore, symlinks are used to set up the system
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to meet both, the Debian filesystem standard and the QTDIR variable. All of
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Qt (so the QTDIR path) is available in /usr/share/qt3. If you need to set
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QTDIR, do export QTDIR=/usr/share/qt3
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As far as the common build configuration goes, we note explicitely that the
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Debian package of Qt will in very rare cases break the compilation (most
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likely the linking) of applications on Debian which use Qt, in particular
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utilizing styles in an incorrect way by deriving from one of the styles
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that ship with Qt. In case you are a Debian packager and encounter
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problems, contact Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers (debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org).
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We will tell you why things don't work and what you should communicate on
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with the programmers of your application that you are packaging. The build
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configuration generally is intended to provide a Qt version that is as
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small as possible in terms of the memory size it requires. Therefore,
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everything inside Qt that can be compiled as plugins has been compiled that
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way. This includes:
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- imageformats: jpeg and mng - codecs (for languages like arab, japanese
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etc provided with Qt)
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- sql drivers for databases (MySQL, ODBC and PostgreSQL)
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The only exception is the imageformat png which has been compiled built-in
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due to the fact that there is literally no program that uses no icons at
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all and icons are to be used preferrably in png format. The plugins are all
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located under /usr/lib/qt3/plugins. This is also the install location you
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should choose as a package maintainer for
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qt-plugins so the user doesn't have to customize his library path for
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loading Qt plugins. The only exception is that KDE delivers a set of Qt
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plugins as well (mainly styles and designer plugins); those are placed in
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/usr/lib/kde3/plugins.
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QMotif Extension: As this code is only available in commercial environments
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(and produces a static library libqmotif.a anyway that those commercial
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applications have to be linked against in addition to Qt), we left out all
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header files of the libqt3-headers package that are belonging to this
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QMotif extension.
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Oracle Database driver, Sybase & Microsoft SQL Server driver: Those drivers
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are only available in a commercial version of Qt due to license
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incompatibilities with the GPL. If you need to faciliate those drivers,
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please visit http://www.trolltech.com and have a read at
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http://doc.trolltech.com/3.0/sql-driver.html.
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3. Packages (End-User)
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The Qt built has been split up into several packages that allow for easy
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installation for all types of users. The End-user usually only requires to
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have the following packages installed to run an application that links
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against Qt:
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Threaded version:libqt3-mt (the library libqt-mt.so.* and libqui.so.* for
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loading designer-made user interfaces at runtime).
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Optionally depending on the program's requirements:
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libqt3-mt-odbc
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libqt3-mt-mysql
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libqt3-mt-psql
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In addition to the libraries, it may make sense to install the program
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qtconfig to customize the look and behaviorof Qt programs. If you have KDE
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installed, the KDE control center will take this task automatically in most
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cases. qtconfig is available in the package qt3-qtconfig.
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Also, Qt programs can make use of the online-help tool that ships with Qt,
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the Qt Assistant. The Assistant can be installed with the package
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qt3-assistant.
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Qt Configuration files
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----------------------
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Qt programs most often use QSettings to store their information in configuration
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files. With Qt 3.2, the new option --sysconfdir has been introduced that allows
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us to use /etc/qt3 as the system-wide location where qt-program specific global
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configuration files can go. If you're a programmer that wants to get familiar with
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that, please look at the examples, documentation and the code in designer or
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assistant as well as qtconfig.
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4. Packages (Package maintainers)
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In addition to the library, a package maintainer will require an additional
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set of packages to compile a package that requires Qt. Depending on the
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version of the qt library, you will require a different set of packages;
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the most common option should be to make your application link against the
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multi-threaded version (-mt).Packages necessary for compiling Qt
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applications from source:
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libqt3-mt-dev (use libqt3-dev for linking against -lqt, this package only
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contains the .so files and the header file for libqui.so)
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libqt3-headers (header files for libqt and libqt-mt)
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qt3-dev-tools (this package contains the tools uic and moc as well as
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qmake, required for building Qt applications)
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If, however, you encounter an older program not to compile with this set
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read the FAQ at the end of this document.
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5. Packages (Developers)
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In addition to the packages that packagers require, a developer usually
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will require the Qt API documentationas well as tools like the assistant,
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linguist or designer. However, you should be fine with installing the API
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documentation that you can browse with a webbrowser, optionally with the
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assistant. They are available in /usr/share/doc/qt3-doc/html.
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For a regular development environment, install qt3-designer and qt3-doc.
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For faciliating Qt's extended environment to write plugins for the Qt
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Designer or extend the Designer as well as utilizing the Qt Assistant by
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calling it from within your program, install qt3-apps-dev, which contains
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the static libraries and header files required for this functionality.
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For Embedded Developers, the program qvfb (Qt Virtual Frambuffer) and
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makeqpf (embedded fonts tool)have been packaged into
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qt3-dev-tools-embedded. For developers that work on migrating their program
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from any Qt version prior to Qt 3.x to the Qt 3.x platform you will find
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additional tools in the qt3-dev-tools-compat.
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For using the QTranslator class and where to find the qm-file for qt as
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well as where to place your translations,see the next section.
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If your program doesn't compile with those settings in case you have
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started your project with Qt 1.x or 2.x, please read the FAQ section at the
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end of this document.
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5. Packages (Translators)
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In order to translate a Qt program into any other language, the Qt 3 way to
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do this is to let the developer create a ts-file containing the strings
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that the program exposes on the user interface. The tools to create the
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ts-file and to create the final qm (Q-message binary) file, lupdate and
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lrelease, are included in qt3-dev-tools.The single translator that only
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gets provided the ts file and has to return a translated ts file, it
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is absolutely enough to install qt3-linguist; the package qt3-assistant can
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be installed to access the online-help for the Qt Linguist itself.
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In case you're converting an application using Qt prior to Qt 3, you may
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want to uitilize the qt3-dev-tools-compat which include the necessary tools
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to convert older qm files to the new ts file standard.
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Locations of message translations:
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Qt ships with a set of translations for the strings used inside Qt. Those
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translations will be installed into /usr/share/qt3/translations (qm files
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only), which equals $QTDIR/translations respectively
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qInstallPath() + QString( "/translations" ).
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The configure option --translationdir has been set to /usr/share/qt3/translations
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accordingly since it was introduced in Qt 3.2.
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To correctly enable your program to display the translations to the Qt
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library and to load the translation of the program itself, we currently
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suggest to either install your translations along with any other data files
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into/usr/share/<appname>/, translation files into the subdirectory
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translations (that is /usr/share/<appname>/translations) The code that your
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application should use to load the Qt translation will have to look like
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the following:
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int main( int argc, char **argv )
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{
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QApplication app( argc, argv );
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// translation file for Qt
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QTranslator qt( 0 );
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qt.load( QString( "qt_" ) + QTextCodec::locale(), qInstallPath() +
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QString( "/translations" );
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app.installTranslator( &qt );
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// translation file for application strings
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QTranslator myapp( 0 );
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myapp.load( QString( "myapp_" ) + QTextCodec::locale(), "." );
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// use a substitue for $prefix/share/appname/translations here
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app.installTranslator( &myapp );
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6. Frequently Asked Questions
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Using Qt for Debian as a developer or packager
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----------------------------------------------
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Q: I want to compile a source package that utilizes qmake to build the
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Makefiles. What do I need to do to makeit work ?
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A: qmake requires two environment variables to be set, QTDIR and QMAKESPEC.
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To make it work, do
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export QTDIR=/usr/share/qt3
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export QMAKESPEC=linux-g++
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Then run qmake -o Makefile <projectfile>.pro
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After that, the Makefile is correctly created to build your application on
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Debian. As a packager, export thosetwo variables in the rules file before
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calling qmake.
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Q: I have an application that when linking gives me symbol referencing
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errors to Q*Style. Why does my applicationnot link correctly ?
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A: The author of the program is using the styles that ship with Qt directly
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instead of using the QStylePlugin interface.If you are the author of the
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program, change your program to use QStylePlugin. If you are a packager,
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write to theauthor of the program that he is assuming that the styles
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shipped with Qt are built-in to the library which is not the case on Debian
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and that he please should fix this and use QStylePlugin.
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Q: Where are all the examples and tutorials ? And how do I build them ?
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A: Qt ships with examples and tutorials; so does the Linguist and Designer.
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The tutorials and examples are compressed tarballs which you can unpack with
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tar -zxvf into your home directory. Change into the qt3-examples directory
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and run the provided ./build-examples script. All Qt examples and tutorials,
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including those for designer and the linguist, will be compiled. You will
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notice however, that those examples that inherit from style classes which
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are not built-in into Qt but configured as a plugin will not compile due
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to the fact that they can't link to the Qt library.
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Q: I'm writing a pure Qt application and I want to ship it with a default
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configuration file. Where does that global configuration file go if I make
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use of the QSettings class ?
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A: With qt-3.2.0, Trolltech has introduced a configure option to Qt called
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--sysconfdir which we intentionally set to /etc/qt3 similar to /etc/kde3 for
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KDE programs. Install your application's system wide configuration file
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to /etc/qt3.
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Q: I'm compiling a program and I have a compile error due to a missing
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include. Why isn't that include not present in the Debian packages anymore
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? It compiled with older versions of Debian packages of Qt !
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A: This may be due to two reasons: either the package still uses the old
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includes from Qt 1.x or 2.x that got basically renamed by Trolltech due to
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the naming convention. The filenames are now all following the scheme
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ClassName -> classname.h.
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Therefore, if you are the developer of the affected program, change your
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sources according to this scheme. Qt ships with two tools, qt20fix and
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qtrename140, to help developers migrate their API to the Qt 3 version,
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which can help you in the transition upgrade to Qt 3.
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If you are affected by this as a packager, notify upstream to fix those
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problems and in the meanwhile use libqt3-compat-headers as a build
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dependency which includes the compatibility headers that just include the
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right files from the new API again.
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Q: I have a question not covered by this FAQ and README file. Who should I
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turn to ?
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A: Please turn to Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers (debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org)
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for any questions regarding Qt on Debian.
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-- Ralf Nolden <nolden@kde.org> Sun, 26 Jan 2003 20:39:19 +0100
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-- Ralf Nolden <nolden@kde.org> Mon, 1 Sep 2003 19:24:16 +0200
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-- Modestas Vainius <modestas@vainius.eu> Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:40:06 +0200
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