Qbs Manual | Command-Line Interface | shell

Qbs 1.11.0

# shell

## Synopsis

      qbs shell [options] [configuration-name] [property:value]

## Description

Opens a shell in the environment that a build with the specified parameters would use.

For more information, see Using the Shell.

## Options

### `--build-directory|-d <directory>`

Specifies a `<directory>` where build artifacts are stored.

The default value is the current directory unless `preferences.defaultBuildDirectory` is set.

Relative paths will be interpreted relative to the current directory.

You can use the following special values as placeholders:

- `@project` is expanded to the name of the project file excluding the extension `.qbs`.
- `@path` is expanded to the name of the directory containing the project file.

### `[--file|-f <file>]`

Uses `<file>` as the project file. If `<file>` is a directory and it contains a single file with the extension `.qbs`, that file will be used.

If this option is not given at all, the behavior is the same as for `-f <working-dir>`.

### `--products|-p <name>[,<name>...]`

Takes only the products specified by `<name>` and their dependencies into account.

### `--settings-dir <directory>`

Reads all settings (such as profile information) from the specified `<directory>`. If the directory does not exist, it will be created.

The default value is system-specific. For example:

- Linux: `$HOME/.config/QtProject/qbs`
- Windows: `%APPDATA%\QtProject\qbs`
- macOS: `$HOME/Library/Preferences/qbs`

## Parameters

### `configuration-name`

Specifies the build configuration to use.

The `debug` and `release` configuration names imply the respective build variant. A debug build contains additional debug symbols that are needed for debugging the application but that can be left out from the release version. Generally, debug builds are used for testing and release builds for creating the final installation file.

The build variant can also be specified explicitly by using the qbs.buildVariant property.

When naming configurations created for special purposes, follow the rules for legal names generally used in programming languages:

- The first character must be a letter (a-z), an underscore (_), or a dollar sign ($).
- Subsequent characters may be letters, digits, underscores, or dollar signs.

### `property:value`

Property values set in project files or profiles can be overridden on the command line. The syntax is:

      <prefix>.<property-name>:<property-value>

For more information, see Overriding Property Values from the Command Line.

## Examples

Opens a shell with the same environment that Qbs uses when building the project:

      qbs shell