Qt Installer framework - Copying files to location other than install directory

Question

I know that, whatever data is placed in package/component dir/data, will be copied to the install directory. What I mean is if I have a binary, readme, license.txt inside package/component dir/data/myapp, package/component dir/data/readme, package/component dir/data/license.txt and if I choose my target installation dir to be “/opt/myfirstapp”, then inisde /opt/myfirstapp, I will have 3 files copied, myapp, readme, license.txt.

Having said that, I also have a “/usr” directory with in package/component dir/data/, however this is not the standard “/usr” which will be inside root “/”, it is just a replica. Now inside my replica “/usr” I have some directory hierarchy and some files, like /usr/bin/myapp, /usr/lib/libmyapp.so, /usr/share/icons” and many more, infact a lot. Now I want the replica “/usr” content to be copied to “/usr” (the original usr inside root folder). I should also make sure that I just add new contents to “/usr” (root /usr), but delete any existing content.

Question is clear, some files inside my data directory will have to go to target install dir, but some selected ones (for ex: /usr) will have to be copied to other paths. How do I achieve this.

Answer 1

Currently we have the same problem in my company: we need 2 target directories, one for the exe and one for the libraries (well, it's a bit more complex but in few words...).

After having spoken with Qt support and got the answer that it's actually not possible ("It is possible only after extracting. After extraction, you can use copy or move operation, unfortunately there is currently no other way.") I decided to use the AdminTargetDir as the second target directory. This because there's no other way to pass dynamic variables to the IFW. So after installation I call a "finalizeInstall_patch.bat" file passing the TargetDir and AdminTargetDir and this will move the libraries directory from TargetDir to AdminTargetDir. Why a .bat patch file ? because it's actually not possible to move a directory using the methods provided by the IFW. Qt support just opened a suggestion-ticket for our problem: https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTIFW-595

I hope that this answer will help others having same similar problems.

NOTE: There is a way to move a directory (on Windows), calling addOperation("Execute", "cmd /C move source dest...") but this brings to other problems out of topic here.

Answer 2

This worked for us (Qt Installer, macOS):

var args = ["cp", "-R", "@TargetDir@/MyApp.app", "/Applications"];
component.addOperation("Execute", args);