Since Qt Creator 1.1, generic projects are supported, in addition to
\c qmake projects. In other words, you can import existing projects that
- do not use \c qmake or \c CMake and Qt Creator will simply ignore your
+ do not use \c qmake or \c CMake and Qt Creator will simply ignore your
build system.
- This feature lets you use Qt Creator as a code editor. You can build your
- project by modifying the \c make command in the \gui{Project Settings}
- page.
+ This feature lets you use Qt Creator as a code editor. You can change the
+ way your project is built by modifying the \c make command on the
+ \gui{Project Settings} page.
+
+ Since Qt Creator has no way of knowing which files belong to your project,
+ or which include directories and defines you're passing to your compiler,
+ the generic project allows you to specify this information manually.
+
+ \section1 Specifying which files belong to your project
+
+ The list of files belonging to a generic project is specified in the
+ \c{.files} file. Qt Creator adds any files that it recognizes when you
+ first create the generic project. If you want to add additional files, or
+ need to add/remove files later, edit the .files file in Qt Creator. Your
+ project tree will be refreshed on saving this file.
+
+ If you frequently need to update this file, for example after updating
+ from a source control system, you may want to write a small script that
+ updates the file for you. At the moment Qt Creator needs to be restarted
+ when the file is modified externally, in order to pick up the changes.
+
+ \section1 Specifying the include paths
+
+ The include paths are specified in the \c{.includes} file.
+
+ \section1 Specifying the defines
+
+ The defines are specified in the \c{.config} file. This is basically a
+ regular C++ file that is prepended to all your source files when they are
+ being parsed, but you should generally only use it to add lines like the
+ following:
+
+ #define NAME value
+
+ \section1 Creating a run configuration
+
+ Qt Creator can't automatically determine which executable it should run.
+ Hence, set up a custom executable run configuration in the Projects mode,
+ using the + button. Specify the name, executable, optionally some
+ arguments. The working directory is $BUILDDIR by default, which should
+ generally work fine.
*/