Qt Creator, CMakePresets and conan - can't use own conan profile

[SebastianM]

Qt 6.7, Qt Creator v19, Windows 11.
conanfile.py with description of required packages.
I want Qt Creator to use conan profile present in repository folder, not default one.
I added

"CONAN_HOST_PROFILE": "${sourceDir}/.conan/profiles/msvc_2019_release",
"CONAN_BUILD_PROFILE": "${sourceDir}/.conan/profiles/msvc_2019_release",

to cacheVariables in one of configurationPresets. Then - in CMakeLists.txt - printed all variable with CONAN inside - and confirm that they are read correcty.
Yet, Qt Creator repeatedly creates default profile and ignore mine.

In <build_dir>\conan-dependencies\CMakeLists.txt I've noticed that ...

          conan_profile_detect_default()
          detect_host_profile("C:/dev/my_app/build_my_app_Qt_6.7_msvc2019_Release/conan-dependencies/conan_host_profile")

          set(build_types ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE})
          if (CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
            set(build_types ${CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES})
          endif()

          foreach(type ${build_types})
            conan_install(
              -pr "C:/dev/my_app/build_my_app_Qt_6.7_msvc2019_Release/conan-dependencies/conan_host_profile"
              --build=missing
              -s build_type=${type}
            )
          endforeach()

In other words - it ignores CONAN_HOST/BUILD_PROFILE variables.
I tried to copy conan-dependencies/CMakeLists.txt into my repo as .conan/conan_provider.cmake, substitute -pr with explicit path and add "QT_CONAN_DEPENDENCIES_FILE": "${sourceDir}/.conan/conan_provider.cmake" to configurationPreset.
Still, Qt Creator used the one generated by itself.

How to tell Qt Creator to use my conan profiles?

[cristian-adam]

@SebastianM The code of qtc_auto_setup_conan is located at here.

You can create a QtCreatorPackageManager.cmake file in your top source directory where you can:

macro(myqtc_auto_setup_conan)
# ...
endmacro()
myqtc_auto_setup_conan()

set(QT_CREATOR_SKIP_CONAN_SETUP ON)

But this copying the whole code. The better version would be to fix this case.

Do create a Qt Creator bug with the details presented here.

[SebastianM]

I'll do so.

Bug reported.

[aha_1980]

For reference: That's QTCREATORBUG-34388 now.

[SebastianM]

One of solutions.

• Copy c:\Qt\Tools\QtCreator\share\qtcreator\cmake-helper\conan_provider.cmake to eg. <build_dir>/conan/conan_provider.cmake.
• Edit <build_dir>/conan/conan_provider.cmake
  • Remove lines 616 and 645 (there're comments not needed by Qt Creator, and if not commented it would break the auto-setup feature)
• CMakePresets.json should contain
  • disable Package Manager Auto Setup

      "qt.io/QtCreator/1.0": {
        "PackageManagerAutoSetup": false,
      }
  },

• load modified conan_provider - add base configurationPreset

    {
        "name": "conan-provider",
        "hidden": true,
        "cacheVariables": {   
            "CMAKE_PROJECT_TOP_LEVEL_INCLUDES": "${sourceDir}/.conan/conan_provider.cmake"
        }
    },

• set CONAN_HOST_PROFILE and CONAN_BUILD_PROFILE in selected configurationPreset

      "cacheVariables": {
        "CONAN_HOST_PROFILE": "${sourceDir}/.conan/profiles/msvc_2019_release",
        "CONAN_BUILD_PROFILE": "${sourceDir}/.conan/profiles/msvc_2019_release",

[SebastianM]

Update Qt Creator conan mechanism

In file c:\Qt\Tools\QtCreator_v20\share\qtcreator\cmake-helper\package-manager.cmake
in line 115 (file(WRITE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conan-dependencies/CMakeLists.txt" ") generates CMakeLists.txt with hardcoded default profile

A little bit higher

      set(PROFILE_FILE "")
      if (CONAN_HOST_PROFILE OR CONAN_BUILD_PROFILE)
        if (CONAN_HOST_PROFILE)
          set(PROFILE_FILE "${PROFILE_FILE} -pr:h \"${CONAN_HOST_PROFILE}\"")
        endif()
        if (CONAN_BUILD_PROFILE)
          set(PROFILE_FILE "${PROFILE_FILE} -pr:b \"${CONAN_BUILD_PROFILE}\"")
        endif()
      else()
        set(PROFILE_FILE "-pr:a \"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conan-dependencies/conan_host_profile\"")
      endif()

and substitute in line 134 (before adding above lines)
from -pr \\"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conan-dependencies/conan_host_profile\\" to "${PROFILE_FILE}".