qbs-build.md

Qbs: Build

Once as you open the directory with the file *.qbs project file, the Qbs extension is automatically initialized, and then starts the Qbs session.

You can make sure that the Qbs session is initialized successfully by looking at the caption Qbs: Started on the corresponding button on the status bar:

If something goes wrong, the user can manually restart the Qbs session using the following commands:

• From the command palette in VS Code, run the Qbs: Stop Session command to stop the session.

• From the command palette in VS Code, run the Qbs: Start Session command to start the session.

• From the command palette in VS Code, run the Qbs: Restart Session command to restart the session (performs the stop and the start sequence automatically).

Select a project

When the workspace folder with the Qbs project files is opened in the VS Code, the Qbs extension automatically sets a previously used Qbs project as an active project. Also the Qbs extension tries to restore that project's configuration (such as an build profile, build configuration, build product, run product and the debugger). In case the previous Qbs project does not exists or the restore fails, the Qbs extension tries to set the first Qbs project file from the selected workspace folder as the active Qbs project.

The Qbs allows to have a multiple Qbs project files in the same directory. The user can choose one of them:

• From the command palette in VS Code, run the Qbs: Load Project command, or press the Click to Select the Active Project button in the status bar.

When the Qbs active project is selected, its name will be displayed in the corresponding button caption:

Resolve a project

When the Qbs active project is selected, the Qbs extension automatically starts the project resolving operation using the last restored build confguration for this active Qbs project (or with the default build configuration if the Qbs project was open at first time).

This resolve operation scans the project dependencies and creates the build tree.

The progress of this operation is displayed in the corresponding popup message:

The user can start the resolving manually:

• From the command palette in VS Code, run the Qbs: Resolve or the **Qbs: Resolve and Force Probe Execution **command.

Configure a project

The procedure for configuring a Qbs project is to select the desired build, build, and product for building:

• To select the build profile, from the VS Code command pallette run the Qbs: Select Build Profile command, or press the Click to Select the Build Profile button in the status bar:

• To select the build configuration, from the VS Code command pallette run the Qbs: Select Build Configuration command, or press the Click to Select the Build Configuration button in the status bar:

Also it is possible to edit the build configurations and override the build properties, run the *Qbs: Edit Build Configurations command.

Currently the default release, debug, profiling are supported by the Qbs internally. Also, the user can create its own custom build configurations.

• To select the build product, from the VS Code command pallette run the Qbs: Select Build Product command, or press the Click to Select the Product to Build button in the status bar:

You can choose to build either one product or ALL products of the active Qbs project.

When any of these configurations (e.g. build profile, build configuration, build product) change, then the Qbs extension starts the project resolving again.

The progress of this resolving operation is displayed in the corresponding popup message:

Build a project

To build the selected Qbs product, from the VS Code command pallette run the Qbs: Build command, or press the Build button in the status bar:

The progress of this building operation is displayed in the corresponding popup message:

Clean a project

To clean the selected Qbs product from all generated build artifacts, from the VS Code command pallette run the Qbs: Clean command.

The progress of this cleaning operation is displayed in the corresponding popup message:

Cancel an operation

To cancel the current active long-time operation from the VS Code command pallette run the Qbs: Cancel Operation command or click on the Cancel button in the progress popup.

Watch for output

The progress of operations such as resolving, building, and `cleaning' is also displayed as text messages reported from Qbs.

The Qbs extension provides one output Qbs channel for displaying the messages:

• Qbs - displays the messages of the main build, clean and resolve processes, and also the internal service messages (e.g. comes from the JS engine of Qbs):

Next steps

• Explore the Qbs extension documentation