- Qt 6.8
- Qt Core
- CMake Variables in Qt6 Core
- QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR
- Qt 6.8.1 Reference Documentation

# QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR

Prefix-relative subdirectory for deploying runtime binaries on some target platforms.

This variable is defined by the script named by QT_DEPLOY_SUPPORT. It should only be used as part of deployment during installation or a post-build rule.

Note: This is a low-level deployment API variable, and should only be used in advanced use-cases that are not covered by the higher-level API commands, like qt_generate_deploy_app_script.

This variable was introduced in Qt 6.3.

Projects should use `QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR` in their deploy scripts to avoid hard-coding a particular directory in which to deploy the following types of binaries:

- Executables on all platforms.
- DLLs on Windows.

`QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR` defaults to the value of `${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}` (usually `bin`), which is provided by CMake's GNUInstallDirs module. To change the value of `QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR`, ensure that the project sets `CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR` before the `Core` package is found.

The `QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR` path is relative to QT_DEPLOY_PREFIX.

This variable is not meaningful when deploying into a macOS app bundle and should not be used for that scenario.

## Example

     cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16...3.22)
     project(MyThings)

     find_package(Qt6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Core)
     qt_standard_project_setup()

     qt_add_executable(MyApp main.cpp)

     set_target_properties(MyApp PROPERTIES
         WIN32_EXECUTABLE TRUE
         MACOSX_BUNDLE TRUE
     )

     # App bundles on macOS have an .app suffix
     if(APPLE)
         set(executable_path "$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:MyApp>.app")
     else()
         set(executable_path "\${QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR}/$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:MyApp>")
     endif()

     # Helper app, not necessarily built as part of this project.
     qt_add_executable(HelperApp helper.cpp)
     set(helper_app_path "\${QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR}/$<TARGET_FILE_NAME:HelperApp>")

     # Generate a deployment script to be executed at install time
     qt_generate_deploy_script(
         TARGET MyApp
         OUTPUT_SCRIPT deploy_script
         CONTENT "
     qt_deploy_runtime_dependencies(
         EXECUTABLE \"${executable_path}\"
         ADDITIONAL_EXECUTABLES \"${helper_app_path}\"
         GENERATE_QT_CONF
         VERBOSE
     )")

     # Omitting RUNTIME DESTINATION will install a non-bundle target to CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR,
     # which coincides with the default value of QT_DEPLOY_BIN_DIR used above, './bin'.
     # Installing macOS bundles always requires an explicit BUNDLE DESTINATION option.
     install(TARGETS MyApp HelperApp    # Install to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/bin/MyApp.exe
                                        #                           and ./binHelperApp.exe
             BUNDLE  DESTINATION .      # Install to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp
     )
     install(SCRIPT ${deploy_script})    # Add its runtime dependencies

See also QT_DEPLOY_SUPPORT, QT_DEPLOY_PREFIX, QT_DEPLOY_LIBEXEC_DIR, QT_DEPLOY_LIB_DIR, QT_DEPLOY_PLUGINS_DIR, QT_DEPLOY_QML_DIR, and QT_DEPLOY_TRANSLATIONS_DIR.