[cmake-developers] DeployQt5/generalizing DeployQt4 for Qt5

[Stephen Kelly]

Marcus D. Hanwell wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Is anyone working on, or have, a DeployQt5 or a generalized DeployQt4?
> We use it in our packaging process, and it is one of the last things I
> need to switch to Qt 5. If not, I was going to take a look at this,
> and see what I can put together.

I've never used DeployQt4 or BundleUtilities, and I don't know much about 
Mac (which BundleUtilities seems to strongly relate to somehow), so I don't 
know what is needed from a DeployQt5, which is why I haven't written such a 
thing yet. It seems like something that should be versioned with and shipped 
with Qt 5.

The intersection of people who know a lot/enough about CMake, packages, and 
DeployQt4, and Qt 5 is a small set. Please help me with these questions:

* What is so special about Qt deployment that it needs special handling in 
CMake? Why is there no (to pick some random examples) DeployLibLZMA, 
DeployMPEG, DeployVTK etc? Is it really mostly just the path adjustment 
stuff and the qt.conf?

* How is it used in real-life? How does it intersect to cpack related code?

* It was written in a different era of CMake design. How do things like 
guaranteed use of IMPORTED targets (as Qt 5 ensures), listing of the 
libraries in INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES, or other modern features of CMake 
affect the design of DeployQt5?

* It seems to have macros related to plugins. When using a statically built 
Qt, plugins are also relevant in the buildsystem because I need to compile 
them into my application. Should there be one generic interface in CMake for 
both this kind of thing and what DeployQt4 is doing?

* How should the parameters of the functions be changed? They seem to not 
use MacroParseArguments.

Thanks,

Steve.