How to make QT produce executable for Windows on Mac?

Question

I'm writing my app on QT and I've produced a working version on my mac. How can make QT also compile an executable for windows?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 08 '11 at 01:20

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Qt SOURCE is compatible to Windows, Mac, Linux, ARM and other platforms.

Qt BINARIES are platform-specific. You cannot compile an .exe on the Mac, and hope to run that binary .exe on Windows or Linux.

You'll need to cross-compile, or actually install the Qt SDK and compile on each target platform, for each different kind of .exe.

answered Dec 08 '11 at 01:20

paulsm4

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thanks but I knew that I can't run .exe on mac. I just wanted to know if there is a way to compile a Windows distribution on OSX instead of moving the source to a pc machine to compile. – Roman Dec 08 '11 at 01:23
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One way is to cross-compile (e.g. MinGW). Personally, I'd just install the QT development kit for Windows on something like CrossOver, install MSVS express: http://www.microsoft.com/express, and compile QT from Visual Studio: http://doc.qt.nokia.com/vs-add-in-1.1.7/index.html – paulsm4 Dec 08 '11 at 03:05
In my experience, cross-compilation usually isn't worth the hassle and you'll need a Windows installation anyway to test if what you built actually works, so you don't gain that much. Additionally, if you're a good citizen writing unit tests, cross-compiling won't execute them on the target platform. – Frank Osterfeld Dec 08 '11 at 07:13

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 08 '11 at 01:18

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Here's a tutorial on cross compiling http://web.me.com/dove_family/martin/cross_compile.html

Or you can get a windows machine or virtual machine. Build your app with a compiler on windows and link with the windows QT libraries. For compilers you can use Visual Studio, or MinGW

answered Dec 08 '11 at 01:18

TJD

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Link is dead, this answer should be edited or removed. – DoctorDbx Sep 09 '20 at 10:26

kichik · Answer 3 · 2019-06-28T18:53:56.043

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A good start would be MinGW for OSX. It should allow you to build Windows applications on OSX.

There are more detailed instructions in another question: How do I configure Qt for cross-compilation from Linux to Windows target?

edited Jun 28 '19 at 18:53

answered Dec 08 '11 at 01:19

kichik

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How to make QT produce executable for Windows on Mac?

3 Answers3