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[[Category:Developing_Qt::Instructions]]

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'''English''' | [[Get The Source Japanese|日本語]] | [[Get The Source Bulgarian|Български]]

= Get the source code =

You can develop great Qt code using nothing more than Qt Creator and the final release of SDKs. Polished. Stable. Commercial grade.

On the other hand, if you want to be among the first developers to work with the latest Qt features, you can work with Qt's source code. Features don't get much fresher than that.

If you're ready to drink from the source, this article describes how to set up your local development environment, how to use Git to get Qt's source code, and how to build the libraries on your machine.

If you just want to browse source code online, use this link:

* https://qt.gitorious.org/qt

== Setting up your machine ==

Qt can be built and developed on many different platforms. The operating systems for development are Mac OS X, Windows and Linux, with different requirements on compilers and third-party libraries. Developing Qt requires building it from source, therefore the standard requirements apply:

* Qt for Embedded Linux Requirements [http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/requirements-embedded-linux.html Qt 4]
* Qt for Mac OS X Requirements: [http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/requirements-mac.html Qt 4] [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/macosx-requirements.html Qt 5]
* Qt for Windows CE Requirements: [http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/requirements-wince.html Qt 4] [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/requirements-wince.html Qt 5]
* Qt for Windows Requirements: [http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/requirements-win.html Qt 4] [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/windows-requirements.html Qt 5]
* Qt for X11 Requirements [http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/requirements-x11.html Qt 4] [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/linux-requirements.html Qt 5]

In addition you need to have Perl installed. This is standard on most Linux distributions and Mac OS X. Windows users can download [http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/ ActivePerl] for free. If you also want to build Qt/WebKit from sources, you will need to install Python as well. Windows users can download [http://www.activestate.com/activepython/ ActivePython] for free.

Qt's source code is developed using [http://git-scm.com/ Git], an open source, distributed version control system. You need to have Git >= 1.7.x installed.

For more information please see the separate [[Git_Installation]] wiki page.

== Cloning Qt ==

If you want to contribute to the Qt Project, you should read how to [[Setting-up-Gerrit|set up Git for Gerrit use]] instead.

After setting up your machine by installing the required tools and libraries for building Qt download the source code by cloning the Qt Git repository, using the following commands:

=== Qt 4.x ===

<code>
 git clone git://gitorious.org/qt/qt.git
 cd qt
</code>

=== Qt 5 ===

Getting the Qt 5 sources is a bit more complicated than Qt 4.x, due to the various Qt libraries being split into several repositories. [[Building-Qt-5-from-Git]] has the details on how to get the Qt 5 sources.

=== Behind a Company Firewall ===

If the clone process fails with "<code>unable to connect to socket</code>" it's likely that you are behind a firewall that blocks the Git protocol.

First try replacing the clone URL with its HTTP equivalent, <code>http://git.gitorious.org/qt/qt.git</code>

If that does not help, an alternate solution is to clone using the SSH protocol proxied though a HTTP proxy. This will also work for pushing changes.

==== Linux/Mac ====

First install [http://www.mtu.net/~engstrom/ssh-proxy.php Corkscrew] on your machine.

Next, edit your SSH config and add:

<code>
 Host *gitorious.org
 Hostname ssh.gitorious.org
 Port 443
 ProxyCommand corkscrew yourproxyhost yourproxyport %h %p
</code>

==== Windows ====

If you are using msysgit (full environment), ensure that the <msysgit>/mingw/bin is in your path, so you have access to the <code>connect.exe</code> application. If not, you can download it [http://chaos.troll.no/~marius/connect.exe here], and place it somewhere in your path. <code>Connect.exe</code> is a standalone Windows console application, no MSys/Cygwin binaries required.

Next, edit your SSH config and add:

<code>
 Host '''gitorious.org
 Hostname ssh.gitorious.org
 Port 443
 ProxyCommand connect -H yourproxyhost:yourproxyport %h %p
</code>


Replacing <code>yourproxyhost</code> and <code>yourproxyport</code> with the hostname and port of your company's HTTP proxy.

You should now be able to clone and push using the URL <code>git@gitorious.org:qt/qt.git</code>

h2. Building Qt

Build Qt the same way you would for an official Qt release. The standard build/installation instructions apply:

[http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/supported-platforms.html Supported platforms]

''' [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/macosx.html Installing Qt on Mac OS X]
* [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/windows-support.html Installing Qt on Windows]
* [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/wince-with-qt-introduction.html Installing Qt on Windows CE]
* [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/linux.html Installing Qt on X11 Platforms]

Make sure that you have Perl installed and that it is working. If configure complains about not being able to find headers. It means that syncqt, a program run by configure could not find your Perl installation.

== Generate the Documentation ==

Since the repository is just the source code rather than a complete package the HTML documentation pages are not include. If you use a repository for a previously released Qt version, then you can go to the [http://doc.qt.io/qt online documentation] or [http://www.qt.nokia.com/downloads download a package].

For documentation that is not yet available online or through a package you have to generate the documentation yourself. To do that, run

<code>
 make docs
</code>

after running configure and building the libraries else.

== What's Next? ==