How to install Qt Maintenance Tool on macOS using HomeBrew

[fsfarimani]

Following this post, I am being told that the Qt Maintenance Tool, which AFIK is some sort of Qt internal package manager, needs to be installed. Now I don't want to install anything without the de facto package manager on macOS, HomeBrew. Whether it is the right choice or not is a debate that I'm not interested in here. What I want to know is if any of the packages available on HomeBrew or HomeBrew Cask, come with the Maintenance Tool included? The result of brew search qt on my machine is:

==> Formulae
cartr/qt4/automoc4           cartr/qt4/libechonest        cartr/qt4/pyside-tools@1.2   cartr/qt4/qt@4 ✔             cartr/qt4/sqliteman          qtads                        wolfmqtt
cartr/qt4/coin@3.1.3         cartr/qt4/openssl@1.0 ✔      cartr/qt4/pyside@1.2         cartr/qt4/qwt-qt4 ✔          cartr/qt4/treeline           qtfaststart
cartr/qt4/cuty_capt          cartr/qt4/poppler-qt4        cartr/qt4/qbzr               cartr/qt4/qwtpolar           cartr/qt4/valkyrie           qtkeychain
cartr/qt4/ezlupdate          cartr/qt4/puddletag          cartr/qt4/qt-legacy-formula  cartr/qt4/rcssserver         pyqt ✔                       seqtk
cartr/qt4/frescobaldi        cartr/qt4/pyqt@4             cartr/qt4/qt-webkit@2.3      cartr/qt4/shiboken@1.2       qt ✔                         sqtop
==> Casks
mqtt-explorer                                      qt-design-studio                                   qtpass                                             trojan-qt5
mqttfx                                             qt3dstudio                                         qtspim                                             homebrew/cask-versions/qt-creator-dev
qt-creator                                         qtox                                               qtum

from which I have cartr/qt4/openssl@1.0, cartr/qt4/qt@4, cartr/qt4/qwt-qt4, pyqt, and qt installed. Now searching the internet this post on StackOverflow claims that none of the packages qualify, but given other misleading information on that post, I doubt if it can be trusted. Besides, it is from a couple of years ago and things might have changed since then. According to the answers on this StackExchange page, there are packages on Ubuntu coming with the Qt Maintenance Tool included, and there is a high chance some of the many packages listed above also have it. Now my questions are:

• Given the packages I have already installed, which are required for other projects, which one of the existing HomeBrew packages should/can I install to have the Maintenance Tool? It is important that the new package does not mess up with the existing ones.
• How do I test if I have the Maintenance Tool installed?
• Does Qt Maintenance Tool has some sort of command-line interface (CLI)?

Thanks for your support in advance.

[MEMekaniske]

@fsfarimani said in How to install Qt Maintenance Tool on macOS using HomeBrew:

Given the packages I have already installed, which are required for other projects, which one of the existing HomeBrew packages should/can I install to have the Maintenance Tool? It is important that the new package does not mess up with the existing ones.
How do I test if I have the Maintenance Tool installed?
Does Qt Maintenance Tool has some sort of command-line interface (CLI)?

Installing Qt will also install / download the Qt Maintenance Tool as it is it's installer, updater and uninstaller.

Guess you can just hit the spacebar and seach for MaintenanceTool on mac, to see if you have the file somewhere?

No there is no direct way to use it as a CLI Installer as I know of.

[SGaist]

Hi and welcome to devnet,

From a quick look at the recipe for the "qt" package which matches Qt 5, brew does not make use of the pre-built binaries provided by the Qt Company therefore there's no reason for them to provide the Maintenance Tool.

Same on Linux, no distribution provides that tool because they package their own build of Qt.

The Maintenance Tool presence implies that you used either the Online or Offline installer.

@MEMekaniske you can use a script to make an unattended installation.

Using the installer should not break anything as the installation is done in either your home folder or in /opt so that it does not mix with your system installation. If it does somehow it means that there was something wrong before.

[MEMekaniske]

Same on Linux, no distribution provides that tool because they package their own build of Qt.

So this is why my environment got all messed up when I installed some tools dependening on xcode and qt with brew.. Had to format the mac and install everything again, never used brew since.

Learn something every day, fortunatly..

[fsfarimani]

@SGaist Thanks for the reply. Did you check all of the packages above? I mean there are a lot of them. There is a good chance one/or some, especially the Cask ones, are the pre-built binaries provided by the Qt Company.

[fsfarimani]

@MEMekaniske opened a new feature request for a CLI here.

[SGaist]

@fsfarimani no I have not checked each and every package. Also, not every package starting with qt has something to do with that framework. For example qtfaststart is a video related package.

If you want more information about the packages provided by brew, you should contact their maintainers. The Qt Project does not handle them.