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I'm trying to install QtiPlot on Mac OS X, but I can't compile it since qmake isn't known. How can I install qmake on Mac OS X?

Wuffers
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Fábio Perez
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6 Answers6

144

Homebrew version

$ brew install qt
jabley
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    Better than MacPorts! – Fábio Perez Nov 05 '13 at 04:46
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    If you get Error: Qt currently requires --HEAD on Mavericks, run brew install qt --HEAD (requires git). – Jace Browning Jan 28 '14 at 03:37
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    While qmake does exist in the Homebrew package, it doesn't appear to be symlinked by default anymore. Try brew link qt Or if that doesn't work: ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/qt/<QT_VERSION_HERE>/bin/qmake /usr/local/bin/qmake – TrinitronX Dec 05 '17 at 20:47
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    If you need specific version of qt, for example 4.8.7_2: use brew switch qt 4.8.7_2. Make sure you add it to PATH: export PATH="/usr/local/opt/qt/bin:$PATH" – TrinitronX Dec 05 '17 at 20:53
  • I have installed qt with Homebrew but I didn't find Qt Maintenance Tool – user36582 Jan 23 '18 at 21:18
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    @TrinitronX's suggestion is good to use brew link qt, but I had to use --force. Here's the whole command: brew link qt --force. To verify it worked, then run which qmake to print out the path to qmake. – kbpontius Nov 06 '19 at 16:29
  • @kbpontius: Thanks! I've updated the solution to add this information :-) – TrinitronX Nov 06 '19 at 22:50
40

Just to elaborate for anyone who finds that after installing qt5, can't access qmake in the terminal.

Install QT5 using: 

brew install qt5

Then to allow access qmake from the terminal you'll need to run:

brew link qt5 --force
elMarquis
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Just got it!

  1. Install MacPorts: http://www.macports.org/

  2. On Terminal: sudo port install qt4-mac

Then, I got qmake. You can install qtiplot directly by running: sudo port install qtiplot. Process takes about 3h.

Fábio Perez
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    It appears that either updating the path, or manually symlinking qmake is now needed: http://stackoverflow.com/a/31318672/1959808 – 0 _ Nov 11 '15 at 23:10
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    e.g. /usr/bin/sudo ln -s /opt/local/libexec/qt5/bin/qmake /opt/local/bin/qmake – Goblinhack Oct 18 '20 at 18:10
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The official Qt installer, including qmake, is available from nokia at http://qt.nokia.com/downloads, but BE CAREFUL:

The so-called "SDK" download, which appears near the top of the page is not what you want. Maddeningly, qmake and other needed tools are available from the "Qt Libraries" download. Scroll down the page and find "Qt libraries". This gets me confused every time I install Qt on the Mac.

Christopher Bruns
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7

QMake is part of Qt since 3.0, earlier versions had tMake.

So, either look for tMake instead or install/upgrade your Qt to get QMake, good luck!

Tamara Wijsman
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5

For installing Qt5 with brew, you can do

brew install qt5

Junv
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    Isn't this essentially the same as the accepted answer (wouldn't anyone doing the installation recognize a name change and understand to use the actual name of what they want to install)? – fixer1234 Nov 16 '14 at 05:27
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    This gave me qt5 but not qmake. I only get qmake with brew install qt, but then it is the old version of qmake :( – Thomas Ahle Sep 02 '16 at 10:55
  • worked for me by also doing what suggested by elMarquis – Riccardo Cossu Dec 09 '16 at 10:25
  • Can't work out whether it's a synonym in Homebrew, but it does the same thing as brew install qt. Today's homebrew recipe doesn't symlink qtmake sadly. – paul_h Dec 30 '17 at 12:15
  • This absolutely includes qmake. See elMarquis's answer. –  Sep 21 '18 at 18:25