There was a self-answered question, How to generate compile_commands.json with QT project?, where the asker however was satisfied with the generation through Qt Creator.

Sadly, that's not an option for me; this needs to work in a CLI workflow on Linux.

Using bear to generate a compilation database from a make is unsatisfactory (and slow).

Since Qt Creator seems to have the functionality, it does exist in FOSS on Linux. (it's in a plugin, unless demonstrated otherwise, I'll assume the plugin environment necessary to run the conversion cannot be replicated without running the GUI.)

How do I create a compile_commands.json from a qmake-targetting .pro file without going through bear, compiledb (and doing a flaky build) or GUI?

Aiming at qmake-qt5, so far.

There was a self-answered question, How to generate compile_commands.json with QT project?, where the asker however was satisfied with the generation through Qt Creator.

Sadly, that's not an option for me; this needs to work in a CLI workflow on Linux.

Using bear to generate a compilation database from a make is unsatisfactory (and slow).

Since Qt Creator seems to have the functionality, it does exist in FOSS on Linux. (it's in a plugin, unless demonstrated otherwise, I'll assume the plugin environment necessary to run the conversion cannot be replicated without running the GUI.)

How do I create a compile_commands.json from a qmake-targetting .pro file without going through bear, compiledb (and doing a flaky build) or GUI?

Aiming at qmake-qt5, so far.

• qmake
• compilation-database

Share Improve this question Follow edited Mar 14 at 8:49 Marcus Müller asked Mar 8 at 17:07 Marcus MüllerMarcus Müller 36.5k44 gold badges5858 silver badges103103 bronze badges

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Sorted by: Reset to default 0

In the qmake man page, there's no such option.

If we have a look at the source of Qt Creator, the logic is in src/plugins/cppeditor/compilationdb.cpp. They use their own implementation to genreate compile_commands.json. It would be possible to create a standalone CLI program from it with some effort.

const QString fileName = "compile_commands.json";
//...
    QFile compileCommandsFile(baseDir.pathAppended(fileName).toFSPathString());
    const bool fileOpened = compileCommandsFile.open(QIODevice::WriteOnly | QIODevice::Truncate);
//...
    compileCommandsFile.write("[");
    const QJsonArray jsonProjectOptions = QJsonArray::fromStringList(projectOptions);
    // More logic to write the file
    compileCommandsFile.write("]");
    compileCommandsFile.close();