KDE Framework 6 Unofficial Binary Redistribution

This repository contains build scripts for building KDE Frameworks 6 binaries for Windows and macOS, with GitHub Actions CI build them automatically. You can also build them manually by yourself as well.

Building

To build the binaries, you need to have the following tools installed:

Regular C++/Qt development requirements

Before starting, at least ensure you can build a Qt application without any non-Qt dependencies. Thus, you at least need:

• CMake
• Visual Studio with C++ support (if you are using Windows)
• Qt 6.y.z (You can get official binaries via aqtinstall's aqt command)

KDE Framework 6 dependencies

These are required mainly by ki18n.

• Python 3
• gettext
  • Windows: can install from Scoop via: scoop install gettext
  • macOS: can install from Homebrew via: brew install gettext

This is optional but suggested. It's available in GitHub Actions Windows environment.

• openssl (needed by karchive, can be disable by adding -DWITH_OPENSSL=OFF to karchive's CMakeArgs list)

And these two dependencies will be automatically downloaded and built by the script so you don't need to worry about them:

• zlib
• libintl (we use GNUWin32's libintl with a CMake patch for easier build)

Start building

Note

We are using PowerShell for building. If you are using macOS, you need to install PowerShell first (e.g. brew install powershell) and enter PowerShell by running pwsh command.

Before starting, I suggest you create a env.local.ps1 file to set up your environment variables. You need to tell CMake where to find your Qt installation. Following is a sample env.local.ps1:

# Windows example:
$env:QT_DIR = "D:\SDK\aqt\6.10.2\msvc2022_64"
$env:PATH = "$env:QT_DIR\bin;$env:PATH"
$env:CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH = "kf6redist-install"

# macOS example:
$env:QT_DIR = "/Users/blumia/Qt/6.10.2/macos"
$env:PATH = "$env:QT_DIR/bin:$env:PATH"
$env:CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH = "kf6redist-install"

After that, simply run build.ps1 to start build. The script will fetch required sources and build them.

Using

After build, you can find the built binaries in kf6redist-install directory.

The pre-built binaries are also a simple zip file which contains the built binaries, but you'll need a matching Qt installation to use them.

To consume them, you need to set up your environment variables while building your own Qt/KF6 application. Simply add the path to kf6redist-install to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH environment variable.

Note

If you need to use Ki18n, you are very likely need to also have python and gettext installed.

Notes

ECMAddAppIcon

For Windows, if you want to use ecm_add_app_icon() to generate application icon, you will also need icoutils (be able to find icotool.exe in your PATH will be enough), otherwise icon generation will be skipped.

There are multiple ways to get icoutils, you can either:

• Use icoutils-rs which is maintained by myself: cargo binstall icoutils-rs.
• Get icoutils package from MSYS2 and use its icotool.exe binary (needs 4 extra DLLs also from MSYS2).
• Other possible methods...

Why build breeze? Isn't it from Plasma instead of KF?

You'll likely need Breeze style for Qt widgets to make the application look nice.

Deploying KF6 applications for Windows

Beside regular KF DLLs, be sure you don't forget the following ones:

• data/locale/<localeCode>/LC_MESSAGES/*.{mo,qm} and data/locale/<localeCode>/kf6_entry.desktop for localization
• iconengines/KIconEnginePlugin.dll to ensure icon color follows your application theme
• styles/breeze6.dll provides Breeze style

Deploying KF6 applications for macOS

Make sure you include the following files before bundle your application with macdeployqt.

• your.app/Contents/Resources/locale/<localeCode>/LC_MESSAHES/*.{mo,qm} and your.app/Contents/Resources/locale/<localeCode>/kf6_entry.desktop for localization
• your.app/Contents/PlugIns/iconengines/KIconEnginePlugin.so to ensure icon color follows your application theme
• your.app/Contents/PlugIns/styles/ provides Breeze style

Note

Loading translations on macOS is still sort of problematic, please see https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/ki18n/-/merge_requests/164 for related discussions.

After that, use macdeployqt to deploy and sign your app (e.g. macdeployqt ./path/to/your.app -codesign="-" for local development).