- Qbs Manual
- Buildconfig Module
- Qbs 2.4.0

Project Properties ◦ Configurable Library

# Buildconfig Module

In the previous chapter, we added some properties to our main Project file. While this is a perfect approach for public properties of the project, sometimes we want to add some private properties for better tuning. Of course, we could put everything in the Project file, but that would make it very convoluted. Also, accessing the top-level project all the way from products makes things strongly tied.

You can also use a Module that products may depend on. That way, a Product only uses properties of the module it depends on without the need to know about the top-level project.

Let's create a file named `mybuildconfig.qbs` and put it into the `qbs/modules/mybuildconfig` directory, near the `qbs/imports` directory:

     // qbs/modules/mybuildconfig.qbs
     Module {
     }

So far, this is just an empty Module so let's add some properties to it:

     // qbs/modules/mybuildconfig.qbs
     Module {
         property string appInstallDir: "bin"
         property string libDirName: "lib"
         property string libInstallDir: qbs.targetOS.contains("windows") ? appInstallDir : libDirName

We added the `appInstallDir` and `libInstallDir` properties that will allow us to configure the installation location of the our application and library, respectively.

Now we can use our module in the `MyApplication.qbs` item:

     CppApplication {
         Depends { name: "mybuildconfig" }
         installDir: mybuildconfig.appInstallDir

         version: "1.0.0"
         // ...

We pull in the new module using the Depends item, similar to how we pulled in the cpp module dependency earlier. We also set the installDir property to the corresponding module property, namely to `mybuildconfig.appInstallDir`.

Qbs modules have the feature to automatically export properties of other modules. Those exported properties are merged in the resulting product. We can use this feature to set the cpp.rpaths in our module rather than in products:

     // qbs/modules/mybuildconfig.qbs
     Module {
         property string appInstallDir: "bin"
         property string libDirName: "lib"
         property string libInstallDir: qbs.targetOS.contains("windows") ? appInstallDir : libDirName

         Depends { name: "cpp" }

         property bool enableRPath: true
         property stringList libRPaths: {
             if (enableRPath && cpp.rpathOrigin && product.installDir) {
                 return [FileInfo.joinPaths(cpp.rpathOrigin, FileInfo.relativePath(
                                                FileInfo.joinPaths('/', product.installDir),
                                                FileInfo.joinPaths('/', libInstallDir)))];
             }
             return [];
         }

         cpp.rpaths: libRPaths
     }

Here, we inject the dependency on the cpp module and calculate the `libRPaths` property. This is a relative path from the `product.installDir` (which is either `"bin"` or `"lib"`, depending on product type to `libInstallDir`). Finally, we set cpp.rpaths to this property. This way, those `rpaths` will be automatically exported to all products that depend on the `mybuildconfig` module.

Now, we can also use our new module in the library item:

     // qbs/imports/MyLibrary.qbs
         // ...
         Depends { name: "mybuildconfig" }
         installDir: mybuildconfig.libInstallDir

         Depends { name: "cpp" }
         property string libraryMacro: name.replace(" ", "_").toUpperCase() + "_LIBRARY"
         cpp.defines: [libraryMacro]
         cpp.sonamePrefix: qbs.targetOS.contains("darwin") ? "@rpath" : undefined

         Export {
         // ...

Let's change the library folder name from `"lib"` to `"lib64"` when building our project:

     $ qbs modules.mybuildconfig.libDirName:lib64
     ...
     $ ls default/install-root/usr/local/
     bin    lib64

Project Properties ◦ Configurable Library