qbs

The target platform's processor architecture.

undefined indicates that the target platform is architecture-independent (for example the CLR or JVM).

This property is typically set in a profile.

Commonly used values are: "x86", "x86_64", and "arm".

Supported Processor Architectures

This table describes the possible values of the architecture property:

Default: Undefined

The architectures the product will be built for.

Default: Undefined

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.9.

The name of the build variant for the current build.

Possible values are "debug", "release" and "profiling". A debug build usually contains additional debug symbols that are needed for debugging the application and has optimizations turned off. A profiling build usually contains debug symbols and has optimizations turned on. This is useful for profiling tools or when you need to retain debug symbols in a release build. A release build is a build without debug information and with optimizations enabled.

Default: "release" if qbs.configurationName is "release". Otherwise "debug"

The build variants the product will be built for.

Default: Undefined

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.9.

The name of the current build configuration.

The build configuration is set via the command line parameter config. For more information, see build.

Default: "default"

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.6.

Whether to generate debug information.

Default: true if qbs.buildVariant is "debug" or "profiling". Otherwise false.

Whether to enable debug functionality in the product. Not to be confused with generation of debug symbols or the code optimization level.

The property changes the following things when enabled:

• Passes a flag to the Windows linker to link against a debug Windows CRT (common runtime) library (for example /MTd instead of /MT)

The property changes the following things when disabled:

• Passes the NDEBUG define to the compiler

Typically, this property is enabled for debug builds and disabled for release or profiling builds.

Default: true for debug builds, false otherwise.

Whether to install a certain set of files.

This property is typically set in a Group item to mark a number of files as installable.

Default: false

The installation directory for the files of a product or a Group.

The value of this property is a path that is relative to installPrefix.

Default: Undefined

The global installation prefix. It is implicitly prepended to all values of installDir.

The value of this property itself is relative to the installRoot in the context of installation.

Default: "/usr/local" on Unix, "" otherwise

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.1.

The global installation root. It is implicitly prepended to all values of installPrefix in the context of installation.

Default: <build dir>/install-root

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.4.

The base directory of the local files that are going to be installed. The source base directory is omitted from the target directory path specified in installDir.

Default: The directory of the current file to be installed, relative to the product's source directory.

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.4.

The general type of optimization that should be performed by all toolchains.

Allowed values are:

• "fast"
• "none"
• "small"

Default: "none" if qbs.buildVariant is "debug". Otherwise "fast".

The profiles for which the product should be built.

For each profile listed here, one instance of the product will be built according to the properties set in the respective profile.

Default: [project.profile]

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.9.

The platform-specific file path corresponding to the command line interpreter.

On Windows, this is the path to cmd.exe, which is held in the COMSPEC environment variable (typically, C:/Windows/System32/cmd.exe), On Unix-like platforms, this is /bin/sh.

Default: "%COMSPEC%" on Windows, "/bin/sh" on Unix

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.5.

The sysroot of the target platform.

This property is typically set in a profile for cross-compiling.

Default: Undefined

Contains the list of string values describing the OS and OS family that is used to build a project.

This property is calculated based on the targetPlatform property and is typically used to test for a particular OS or OS family in conditionals:

Group {
    // Includes all Unix-like platforms, such as: Linux, BSD, Apple platforms and others.
    condition: qbs.targetOS.includes("unix")
    files: ...
}
Group {
    // Includes all Apple platforms, such as macOS, iOS, and iOS Simulator.
    condition: qbs.targetOS.includes("darwin")
    files: ...
}
Group {
    // Includes only macOS
    condition: qbs.targetOS.includes("macos")
    files: ...
}

Avoid using targetPlatform for this purpose. For example, instead of:

qbs.targetPlatform === "macos" || qbs.targetPlatform === "ios" || qbs.targetPlatform === "tvos" || qbs.targetPlatform === "watchos"

use

qbs.targetOS.includes("darwin")

However, in some cases using targetPlatform would be acceptable, such as when the resulting condition would be simpler while still being correct:

qbs.targetPlatform === "linux"

versus

qbs.targetOS.includes("linux") && !qbs.targetOS.includes("android")

For the complete list of possible values, see Relation between targetPlatform and targetOS.

Default: Undefined

The OS you want to build the project for.

This property is typically set in a profile or for a particular product where the target OS is always known (such as an Apple Watch app written in native code).

For example, a profile used for building for the iOS Simulator platform will have this property set to the ios-simulator value:

profiles.xcode-iphonesimulator.qbs.targetPlatform: "ios-simulator"

You should generally treat this property as write-only and avoid using it to test for the current target OS. Instead, use the targetOS property for conditionals.

Relation between targetPlatform and targetOS

This table describes the possible values and matching between the targetPlatform and the targetOS properties:

Default: Host.platform()

This property was introduced in Qt 1.11.

See also Target Platforms.

Contains the list of string values describing the toolchain and toolchain family that is used to build a project.

This property is deduced from the toolchainType property and is typically used to test for a particular toolchain or toolchain family in conditionals:

Properties {
    // flags for GCC
    condition: qbs.toolchain.includes("gcc")
    cpp.commonCompilerFlags: ...
}
Properties {
    // flags for MSVC
    condition: qbs.toolchain.includes("msvc")
    cpp.commonCompilerFlags: ...
}

Unlike toolchainType, which contains a single value, qbs.toolchain is a string list which also contains the toolchain family. This allows to make conditions and checks simpler. For example, instead of:

(qbs.toolchainType === "xcode" || qbs.toolchainType === "clang" || qbs.toolchainType === "gcc")

use:

qbs.toolchain.includes("gcc")

since XCode, GCC and Clang belong to the "gcc" family.

Relation between toolchainType and toolchain

This table describes the possible values and matching between the toolchainType and the toolchain properties:

Default: Undefined

The toolchain that is going to be used for this build.

For example, to build a project using the "clang" toolchain, simply do

qbs build qbs.toolchainType:clang

You should generally treat this property as write-only and avoid using it to test for the current toolchain. Instead, use the toolchain property for conditionals.

Typical values include: "gcc", "clang", "clang-cl", "mingw", "msvc", and "xcode". Also see Relation between toolchainType and toolchain.

By default, qbs.toolchainType is automatically detected based on the targetOS property:

Default: Determined automatically.

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.11.

The version number of Qbs as a string. For example, "1.4.1".

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.4.1.

The major version number of Qbs.

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.4.1.

The minor version number of Qbs.

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.4.1.

The patch version number of Qbs.

This property was introduced in Qbs 1.4.1.