First, make sure that Python 3, Ninja and NASM are all installed. Furthermore, the paths to their executables must not contain any spaces!
All commands are assumed to be run from the VS >=2022 x64 developer command prompt. Additionally, pay close attention to the use of forward and backslashes throughout.
Another prerequisite is that we need to statically compile OpenSSL. The environment variable OPENSSL_BASE_DIR should be set to the source directory (again, no spaces).
> set OPENSSL_BASE_DIR=E:\openssl
> set OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR=%OPENSSL_BASE_DIR%\VC-WIN64A-static
> set OPENSSL_BUILD_DIR=%OPENSSL_BASE_DIR%\build
> mkdir %OPENSSL_BUILD_DIR%
> pushd %OPENSSL_BUILD_DIR%
> mkdir %OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR%
> perl %OPENSSL_BASE_DIR%\Configure VC-WIN64A no-shared --prefix=%OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR% --openssldir=%OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR%
> nmake
> nmake install
The no-shared flag is required to build .lib files that can be linked statically. We do not want .lib files that point to .dll files because the linker will do its job just fine but the program will choke when it runs.
Now we can configure and build Qt. All the paths should use backslashes as separators except for OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR which should use forward slashes! We will be building a bare-bones version of Qt to reduce the build time.
> set OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR=E:/openssl/VC-WIN64A-static
> set QT_BASE_DIR=E:\Qt\6.5.0
> mkdir %QT_BASE_DIR%\build
> mkdir %QT_BASE_DIR%\msvc2019_64-static-release
> pushd %QT_BASE_DIR%\build
> %QT_BASE_DIR%\Src\configure ^
-prefix %QT_BASE_DIR%\msvc2019_64-static-release ^
-release ^
-static ^
-static-runtime ^
-c++std c++20 ^
-make libs ^
-nomake tools ^
-nomake examples ^
-nomake tests ^
-nomake benchmarks ^
-nomake manual-tests ^
-nomake minimal-static-tests ^
-submodules qtbase,qtsvg,qtcharts ^
-skip qtimageformats ^
-skip qtlanguageserver ^
-skip qtshadertools ^
-skip qtdeclarative ^
-skip qtquicktimeline ^
-skip qtquick3d ^
-skip qtmultimedia ^
-skip qt3d ^
-skip qt5compat ^
-skip qtactiveqt ^
-skip qtcoap ^
-skip qtconnectivity ^
-skip qtdatavis3d ^
-skip qtwebsockets ^
-skip qthttpserver ^
-skip qttools ^
-skip qtserialport ^
-skip qtpositioning ^
-skip qtwebchannel ^
-skip qtwebengine ^
-skip qtdoc ^
-skip qtgrpc ^
-skip qtinsighttracker ^
-skip qtlocation ^
-skip qtlottie ^
-skip qtmqtt ^
-skip qtnetworkauth ^
-skip qtopcua ^
-skip qtquick3dphysics ^
-skip qtquickeffectmaker ^
-skip qtremoteobjects ^
-skip qtscxml ^
-skip qtsensors ^
-skip qtserialbus ^
-skip qtspeech ^
-skip qttranslations ^
-skip qtvirtualkeyboard ^
-skip qtwayland ^
-skip qtwebview ^
-openssl-linked -- -D OPENSSL_USE_STATIC_LIBS=ON -D OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=%OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR%
> cmake --build . --parallel 16
> cmake --install .
Now we need to permanently set the environment variable OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=%OPENSSL_OUTPUT_DIR%. This is only required for building a static executable. It will still work we deploy the executable to another machine where OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR is not set.
It should be easy enough to install the shared build for Qt using the official launcher. The launcher should add the shared libraries to the PATH as well. If not, manually add the libraries. The path should be something like E:\Qt\6.5.0\msvc2019_64\bin. Make sure you use backslashes!
The CMake configuration below will build a statically linked executable in the release configuration and a dynamically linked one in the debug configuration. Replace the paths with your own as necessary. Notice how all the path separators must be forward slashes too!
IF (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES Release)
set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "E:/Qt/6.5.0/msvc2019_64-static-release/lib/cmake")
IF (MSVC)
add_compile_options($<$<CONFIG:Release>:/MT>)
ENDIF ()
ELSEIF (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES Debug)
set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "E:/Qt/6.5.0/msvc2019_64/lib/cmake")
ENDIF ()
Extras#
Adding the configuration below to the end of your CMakeLists.txt will build an exectuable that doesn’t spawn a separate console window when you launch it. This only happens if you build the project in release mode though.
IF (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE MATCHES Release)
set_target_properties(FileSyncer PROPERTIES WIN32_EXECUTABLE TRUE)
ENDIF ()