[SOLVED] Run gcc with QProcess in QT5

Issue

I need to compile a source from a first program. I need to run this:

gcc -o finalOutput sources/main.cpp sources/config.h -lcurl '-DHOST=(char*)"https://google.fr/"'

I use QT5, here is what I tested:

QProcess *proc;  
proc = new QProcess();  
proc->start("gcc -o finalOutput sources/main.cpp sources/config.h -lcurl '-DHOST=(char*)"https://google.fr/"'"); // start program
ui->lblReturn->setText("ok");

The problem comes from the syntax of the gcc command, this part:
'-DHOST=(char*)"https://google.fr/"'

I do not understand how to format correctly

Solution

The QProcess::start function has several overloads. The first version

QProcess::start(const QString& command, OpenMode mode=ReadWrite);

has a strange behavior with arguments that contain quote characters. To cite the documentation:

Literal quotes in the command string are represented by triple quotes.

That's why I usually recommend the

QProcess::start(const QString& program, const QStringList& arguments, OpenMode mode=ReadWrite);

overload. Using this, the command

gcc -o finalOutput sources/main.cpp sources/config.h -lcurl '-DHOST=(char*)"https://google.fr/"'

can be executed with the following code:

QStringList args = QStringList()
    << "-o"
    << "finalOutput"
    << "sources/main.cpp"
    << "sources/config.h"
    << "-lcurl"
    << "-DHOST=(char*)\"https://google.fr/\"";
QProcess *proc = new QProcess();
proc->start("gcc", args);

Answered By - pschill