Qbs (build tool)

Qbs is a cross-platform free and open-source software for managing the build process of software. It is designed to support large, complex projects, written in any number of programming languages, primarily C/C++.

Qbs is an all-in-one tool that generates a build graph from a high-level project description (like its predecessor qmake), and additionally undertakes the task of executing the commands in the low-level build graph (like make). Because Qbs does not generate or rely on Makefiles, this results in incredibly fast incremental builds.

Qbs was originally created by Nokia, and is now primarily developed by The Qt Company, who distributes it along with their Qt toolkit. It integrates with the Qt framework, and automates the creation of moc (meta object compiler) and rcc (resource compiler) sources, which are used in Qt's meta-object system and in the integration of binary resources (e.g. pictures). The developers hope to eventually push for Qbs to replace qmake as Qt's own build system.

Qbs is unique in that it has no mechanism for in-source builds, guaranteeing the ability to create several builds from a single source tree, including building them from a single command invocation and in parallel. This is a key feature, ensuring that source files remain unaffected if a build directory is removed and that no output artifacts are written into the source directory.

Qbs has no built-in support for any particular programming language, toolkit, or library. This is again in contrast to qmake, which hardcodes support for many Qt-related tools and workflows. Instead, Qbs is provided with a set of modules written in a QML dialect and JavaScript that enable support for a variety of programming languages and tools. Qbs currently provides modules supporting the Android SDK and NDK, C, C++, Java, NSIS, TypeScript, WiX, Xcode, and a variety of other tools.