Setting up the application information in CMake

akshaybabloo · wrote on 7 Jan 2021, 01:44

How should I set the application information using CMake. For QMake we can use - https://stackoverflow.com/a/11971210/3782963.

The process name in Activity monitor (macOS) is empty and looks something like this:

akshaybabloo · wrote on 6 May 2021, 03:30

I think I found the way to do this. We need win.rc on windows and Info.plist on mac, these files tell their OS's what to name the application.

Windows

For example, this is what I have (win.rc):

IDI_ICON1               ICON    DISCARDABLE     "resources/images/datalogger.ico"


1 VERSIONINFO
    FILEVERSION    0,0,0,0
    PRODUCTVERSION 0,0,0,0
{
    BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
    {
        BLOCK "000004B0"
        {
            VALUE "CompanyName",        "DataLogger\0"
            VALUE "FileDescription",    "DataLogger\0"
            VALUE "FileVersion",        "git\0"
            VALUE "OriginalFilename",   "datalogger.exe\0"
            VALUE "ProductName",        "DataLogger\0"
            VALUE "ProductVersion",     "git\0"
        }
    }
    BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
    {
        VALUE "Translation", 0x0000, 0x04B0
    }
}

then I added this filename to CMakeLists.txt before find_package(...) as:

if (WIN32)
    set(APP_ICON_RESOURCE_WINDOWS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/win.rc")
endif ()

Finally add this:

then add

set(PROJECT_SOURCES

        main.cpp

        resources.qrc

+        ${APP_ICON_RESOURCE_WINDOWS}

        mainwindow.cpp mainwindow.h mainwindow.ui
)

macOS

I have a file called Info.plist in the root

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
                <string>datalogger.icns</string>
                <key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
                <string>DataLogger</string>
                <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
                <string>Viewer</string>
                <key>LSIsAppleDefaultForType</key>
                <true/>
            </dict>
        </array>
        <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
        <string>datalogger.icns</string>
        <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
        <string>APPL</string>
        <key>NSPrincipalClass</key>
        <string>NSApplication</string>
        <key>CFBundleSignature</key>
        <string>????</string>
        <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
        <string>datalogger</string>
        <key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
        <string>Copyright (c) 2021, Akshay Raj Gollahalli</string>
        <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
        <string>datalogger</string>
        <key>CFBundleName</key>
        <string>DataLogger</string>
        <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
        <string>3.1.2</string>
        <key>AppleMagnifiedMode</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</plist>

In your CMakeList.txt before find_package(...), add:

if (APPLE)
    set(MACOSX_BUNDLE_ICON_FILE datalogger.icns)
    # And the following tells CMake where to find and install the file itself.
    set(app_icon_macos "resources/images/datalogger.icns")
    set_source_files_properties(${app_icon_macos} PROPERTIES
            MACOSX_PACKAGE_LOCATION "Resources")
endif ()

then add

set(PROJECT_SOURCES
+        MACOSX_BUNDLE

        main.cpp

        resources.qrc

+        ${app_icon_macos}

        mainwindow.cpp mainwindow.h mainwindow.ui
)

kkoehne · 30 Jan 2021, 04:30

I assume this is Windows? Unfortunately CMake doesn't provide a convenient API for this yet. See the request https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/21314 that we filed about this a while ago.

Meanwhile you can add the information by adding an .rc file manually. For Qt binaries, the logic for this is done in QtCoreMacros.cmake (check out _qt_internal_generate_win32_rc_file function). But this isn't public API, because we feel this should rather be provided upstream, in CMake.

akshaybabloo · wrote on 30 Jan 2021, 04:30

@kkoehne No this is Mac. I think in windows it shows the name with .exe.

OK will give this a try.

akshaybabloo · wrote on 6 May 2021, 03:30

I think I found the way to do this. We need win.rc on windows and Info.plist on mac, these files tell their OS's what to name the application.

Windows

For example, this is what I have (win.rc):

IDI_ICON1               ICON    DISCARDABLE     "resources/images/datalogger.ico"


1 VERSIONINFO
    FILEVERSION    0,0,0,0
    PRODUCTVERSION 0,0,0,0
{
    BLOCK "StringFileInfo"
    {
        BLOCK "000004B0"
        {
            VALUE "CompanyName",        "DataLogger\0"
            VALUE "FileDescription",    "DataLogger\0"
            VALUE "FileVersion",        "git\0"
            VALUE "OriginalFilename",   "datalogger.exe\0"
            VALUE "ProductName",        "DataLogger\0"
            VALUE "ProductVersion",     "git\0"
        }
    }
    BLOCK "VarFileInfo"
    {
        VALUE "Translation", 0x0000, 0x04B0
    }
}

then I added this filename to CMakeLists.txt before find_package(...) as:

if (WIN32)
    set(APP_ICON_RESOURCE_WINDOWS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/win.rc")
endif ()

Finally add this:

then add

set(PROJECT_SOURCES

        main.cpp

        resources.qrc

+        ${APP_ICON_RESOURCE_WINDOWS}

        mainwindow.cpp mainwindow.h mainwindow.ui
)

macOS

I have a file called Info.plist in the root

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
                <string>datalogger.icns</string>
                <key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
                <string>DataLogger</string>
                <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
                <string>Viewer</string>
                <key>LSIsAppleDefaultForType</key>
                <true/>
            </dict>
        </array>
        <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
        <string>datalogger.icns</string>
        <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
        <string>APPL</string>
        <key>NSPrincipalClass</key>
        <string>NSApplication</string>
        <key>CFBundleSignature</key>
        <string>????</string>
        <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
        <string>datalogger</string>
        <key>NSHumanReadableCopyright</key>
        <string>Copyright (c) 2021, Akshay Raj Gollahalli</string>
        <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
        <string>datalogger</string>
        <key>CFBundleName</key>
        <string>DataLogger</string>
        <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
        <string>3.1.2</string>
        <key>AppleMagnifiedMode</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</plist>

In your CMakeList.txt before find_package(...), add:

if (APPLE)
    set(MACOSX_BUNDLE_ICON_FILE datalogger.icns)
    # And the following tells CMake where to find and install the file itself.
    set(app_icon_macos "resources/images/datalogger.icns")
    set_source_files_properties(${app_icon_macos} PROPERTIES
            MACOSX_PACKAGE_LOCATION "Resources")
endif ()

then add

set(PROJECT_SOURCES
+        MACOSX_BUNDLE

        main.cpp

        resources.qrc

+        ${app_icon_macos}

        mainwindow.cpp mainwindow.h mainwindow.ui
)