Building PyQt5 with configure.py

Prior to the release of SIP v5 the only way to build PyQt5 (and related projects) was based on a configure.py script. This method is now deprecated and will be removed when SIP v6 is released (which is expected to be mid-2020).

configure.py supports both SIP v4 and SIP v5. Therefore you can move to SIP v5 without needing to change the way you build PyQt5 at the same time.

Installing Prerequisites

SIP

SIP v4 or SIP v5 must be installed before building and using PyQt5. If you are using SIP v5 you can simply install it using pip.

If you are using SIP v4 then you must build it from the source package from https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/download.

Note

When building PyQt5 v5.11 or later you must configure SIP v4 to create a private copy of the sip module using a command line similar to the following:

python configure.py --sip-module PyQt5.sip

If you already have SIP v4 installed and you just want to build and install the private copy of the module then add the --no-tools option.

Building PyQt5

Downloading

Starting with PyQt5 v5.14.0 the GPL source packages can be downloaded from the PyQt5 project at PyPI. You can download earlier releases from https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download5.

If you are using the commercial version of PyQt5 then you should use the download instructions which were sent to you when you made your purchase. You must also download your pyqt-commercial.sip license file.

Configuring

After unpacking the source package you should then check for any README files that relate to your platform.

If you are using the commercial version of PyQt5 then you must copy your pyqt-commercial.sip license file to the sip directory, or to the directory specified by the --license-dir option of configure.py.

You need to make sure your environment variables are set properly for your development environment.

In order to configure the build of PyQt5 you need to run the configure.py script as follows:

python3 configure.py

This assumes that the Python interpreter is on your path. Something like the following may be appropriate on Windows:

c:\Python38\python configure.py

If you have multiple versions of Python installed then make sure you use the interpreter for which you wish to build PyQt5 for.

The full set of command line options is:

-h, --help

Display a help message and exit.

--abi-version VERSION

New in version 5.12.3.

The sip module implements a versioned ABI and PyQt5 must be built to use a combatible version. The ABI version has a major number and a minor number separated by .. The ABI version used by PyQt5 must have the same major number and a minor number no larger than the minor number implemented by the sip module. By default PyQt5 will use the latest ABI version. The option is ignored unless SIP v5 is being used.

--allow-sip-warnings

New in version 5.9.1.

Normally any warning message generated by the SIP code generator is treated as an error. This option causes warning messages to be considered non-fatal. It is normally only required if a later version of the code generator is being used that has deprecated a feature used by this version of PyQt5.

--assume-shared

Normally Qt is checked to see if it has been built as shared libraries. Some Linux distributions configure their Qt builds to make this check unreliable. This option ignores the result of the check and assumes that Qt has been built as shared libraries.

--bindir DIR

The pyuic5, pyrcc5 and pylupdate5 utilities will be installed in the directory DIR.

--concatenate

The C++ source files for a Python module will be concatenated. This results in significantly reduced compilation times. Most, but not all, C++ compilers can handle the large files that result. See also the --concatenate-split option.

--concatenate-split N

If the --concatenate option is used to concatenate the C++ source files then this option determines how many files are created. The default is 1.

--configuration FILE

FILE contains the configuration of the PyQt5 build to be used instead of dynamically introspecting the system and is typically used when cross-compiling. See Configuring with Configuration Files.

--confirm-license

Using this confirms that you accept the terms of the PyQt5 license. If it is omitted then you will be asked for confirmation during configuration.

--dbus DIR

The dbus-python.h header file of the dbus-python package can be found in the directory DIR/dbus.

--debug

The PyQt5 modules will be built with debugging symbols. On Windows configure.py must be run using a debug version of Python.

--designer-plugindir DIR

The Python plugin for Qt Designer will be installed in the directory DIR.

--destdir DIR

The PyQt5 Python package will be installed in the directory DIR. The default is the Python installation’s site-packages directory. If you use this option then the PYTHONPATH environment variable must include DIR.

--disable MODULE

New in version 5.5.1.

Normally all PyQt5 modules are enabled and are built if the corresponding Qt library can be found. This option will suppress the check for MODULE. The option may be specified any number of times.

--disable-feature FEATURE

New in version 5.10.1.

A PyQt5 module may be configured differently depending on the corresponding Qt configuration. This takes the form of a set of features that may be disabled. Normally this is determined automatically. This option will explicitly disable the FEATURE feature. The option may be specified any number of times.

--enable MODULE

Normally all PyQt5 modules are enabled and are built if the corresponding Qt library can be found. Using this option only those modules specifically enabled will be built. The option may be specified any number of times. Note that using this option suppresses the checks that are normally made to determine how the module should be configured, i.e. which features should be disabled.

--license-dir DIR

The license files needed by the commercial version of PyQt5 can be found in the directory DIR.

--link-full-dll

New in version 5.8.

On Windows the full Python API and the limited API (as used by PyQt) are implemented in different DLLs. Normally the limited DLL is linked (unless a debug version of the Python interpreter is being used to run configure.py). This option forces the full API DLL to be linked instead.

--no-designer-plugin

The Qt Designer plugin will not be built.

--no-dist-info

New in version 5.11.

This disables the creation of the PEP 376 .dist-info directory. Starting with this version a .dist-info directory is created. This contains meta-data about the installation including version information for dependent packages. It also means that pip can be used to uninstall the package.

--no-docstrings

The PyQt5 modules will not contain automatically generated docstrings.

--no-python-dbus

The Qt support for the standard Python DBus bindings is disabled.

--no-qml-plugin

The qmlscene plugin will not be built.

--no-qsci-api

The PyQt5.api QScintilla API file is not installed even if QScintilla does appear to be installed.

--no-sip-files

The .sip files for the PyQt5 modules will not be installed.

--no-stubs

New in version 5.6.

The PEP 484 type hint stub files for the PyQt5 modules will not be installed. This option is ignored (and the stub files are not installed) for versions of Python earlier than v3.5.

--no-tools

New in version 5.3.

The pyuic5, pyrcc5 and pylupdate5 tools will not be built.

--no-timestamp

Normally the header comments of each generated C/C++ source file includes a timestamp corresponding to when the file was generated. This option suppresses the inclusion of the timestamp.

--protected-is-public

On certain platforms the size of PyQt5 modules can be significantly reduced by redefining the C++ protected keyword as public during compilation. This option enables this behaviour and is the default on Linux and macOS.

--protected-not-public

The default redefinition of protected to public during compilation on Linux and macOS is disabled.

--pyuic5-interpreter FILE

FILE is the name of the Python interpreter used in the pyuic5 wrapper. The default is platform dependent.

--qmake FILE

Qt’s qmake program is used to determine how your Qt installation is laid out. Normally qmake is found on your PATH. This option can be used to specify a particular instance of qmake to use.

--qml-debug

New in version 5.8.

Enable the QML debugging infrastructure. This should not be enabled in a production environment.

--qml-plugindir DIR

The Python plugin for qmlscene will be installed in the directory DIR.

--qsci-api

The PyQt5.api QScintilla API file is installed even if QScintilla does not appear to be installed. This option is implied if the --qsci-api-destdir option is specified.

--qsci-api-destdir DIR

The QScintilla API file will be installed in the python subdirectory of the api subdirectory of the directory DIR.

--qtconf-prefix DIR

New in version 5.6.

A qt.conf file is embedded in the PyQt5.QtCore module with Prefix set to DIR which is assumed to be relative to the directory that the PyQt5.QtCore module will be installed in.

--sip FILE

The SIP code generator is used to generate PyQt5’s C++ source code. Normally the code genertor is found on your PATH. This option can be used to specify a particular instance of the code genertor to use.

--sip-incdir DIR

The sip.h header file can be found in the directory DIR.

--sipdir DIR

The .sip files for the PyQt5 modules will be installed in the directory DIR.

--spec SPEC

The argument -spec SPEC will be passed to qmake. The default behaviour is platform specific. On Windows configure.py will choose the value that is correct for the version of Python that is being used. (However if you have built Python yourself then you may need to explicitly specify SPEC.) On macOS configure.py will try and avoid macx-xcode if possible.

--static

The PyQt5 modules will be built as static libraries. This is useful when building a custom interpreter with the PyQt5 modules built in to the interpreter.

--stubsdir DIR

New in version 5.6.

The PEP 484 type hint stub files for the PyQt5 modules will be installed in the directory DIR. By default they will be stored in the same directory where (by default) the corresponding extension modules would be installed. This option is ignored (and the stub files are not installed) for versions of Python earlier than v3.5.

--sysroot DIR

New in version 5.3.

DIR is the name of an optional directory that replaces sys.prefix in the names of other directories (specifically those specifying where the various PyQt5 components will be installed and where the Python include and library directories can be found). It is typically used when cross-compiling or when building a static version of PyQt5. See Configuring with Configuration Files.

--target-py-version VERSION

New in version 5.3.

VERSION is the major and minor version (e.g. 3.4) of the version of Python being targetted. By default the version of Python being used to run the configure.py script is used. It is typically used when cross-compiling. See Configuring with Configuration Files.

--trace

The generated PyQt5 modules contain additional tracing code that is enabled using SIP’s sip.settracemask() function.

--verbose

Compiler commands and any output issued during configuration is displayed instead of being suppressed. Use this if configure.py is having problems to see what exactly is going wrong.

--version

Display the version number and exit.

Any remaining command line arguments are expected to be in the form name=value or name+=value. Such arguments are added to any qmake .pro file created by configure.py.

Building and Installing

The next step is to build PyQt5 by running your platform’s make command. For example:

make

The final step is to install PyQt5 by running the following command:

make install

(Depending on your system you may require root or administrator privileges.)

This will install the various PyQt5 components.

Configuring with Configuration Files

The configure.py script normally introspects the Python installation of the interpreter running it in order to determine the names of the various files and directories it needs. This is fine for a native build of PyQt5 but isn’t appropriate when cross-compiling. In this case it is possible to supply a configuration file, specified using the --configuration option, which contains definitions of all the required values.

A configuration file is made up of a number of named sections each of which contains a number of configuration items. The format of a configuration file is as follows:

• a section name is a single line with the name enclosed between [ and ]

• a configuration item is a single line containing a name/value pair separated by =

• values may be extended to lines immediately following if they are indented by at least one space

• a value may include another value by embedding the name of that value enclosed between %( and )

• comments begin with # and continue to the end of the line

• blank lines are ignored.

Those configuration items that appear before the first section name are automatically added to all sections.

A configuration file defines a section for each version of Qt that requires a different configuration. configure.py will choose the most appropriate section according to the version of Qt you are actually using. For example, if a configuration file contains sections for Qt v5.3 and Qt v5.1 and you are using Qt v5.2.1 then the section for Qt v5.1 will be chosen.

configure.py provides the following preset values for a configuration:

py_major

is the major version number of the target Python installation.

py_minor

is the minor version number of the target Python installation.

sysroot

is the name of the system root directory. This is specified with the --sysroot option.

The following is an example configuration file:

# The target Python installation.
py_platform = linux
py_inc_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/include/python%(py_major).%(py_minor)
py_pylib_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/lib/python%(py_major).%(py_minor)/config
py_pylib_lib = python%(py_major).%(py_minor)mu

# The target PyQt installation.
pyqt_module_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/lib/python%(py_major)/dist-packages
pyqt_bin_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/bin
pyqt_sip_dir = %(sysroot)/usr/share/sip/PyQt5
pyuic_interpreter = /usr/bin/python%(py_major).%(py_minor)
pyqt_disabled_features = PyQt_Desktop_OpenGL PyQt_qreal_double

# Qt configuration common to all versions.
qt_shared = True

[Qt 5.1]
pyqt_modules = QtCore QtDBus QtDesigner QtGui QtHelp QtMultimedia
    QtMultimediaWidgets QtNetwork QtOpenGL QtPrintSupport QtQml QtQuick
    QtSensors QtSerialPort QtSql QtSvg QtTest QtWebKit QtWebKitWidgets
    QtWidgets QtXmlPatterns _QOpenGLFunctions_ES2

This example contains a section for Qt v5.1. We have defined a number of values before the start of the section as they are not specific to any particular version of Qt. Note that if you use this configuration with a version of Qt earlier than v5.1 then you will get an error.

The following values can be specified in the configuration file:

qt_shared

is set if Qt has been built as shared libraries. The default value is False.

py_platform

is the target Python platform.

py_debug

is set if a debug version of the target Python is being used.

py_inc_dir

is the target Python include directory, i.e. the directory containing the Python.h file.

py_pylib_dir

is the target Python library directory.

py_pylib_lib

is the target Python interpreter library. It should not include any platform-specific prefix or suffix.

pyqt_disabled_features

is the space separated list of features (as defined by SIP’s %Feature directive) that should be disabled.

pyqt_module_dir

is the target directory where the PyQt5 modules will be installed. It can be overridden by the --destdir option.

pyqt_modules

is the space separated list of PyQt5 modules that will be built. It can be overridden by the --enable option.

pyqt_bin_dir

is the name of the target directory where the PyQt5 related executables will be installed. It can be overridden by the --bindir option.

pyqt_sip_dir

is the name of the target directory where the PyQt5 .sip files will be installed. It can be overridden by the --sipdir option.

pyuic_interpreter

is the name of the Python interpreter (as it would be called from the target system) that will be used to run pyuic5. It can be overridden by the --pyuic5-interpreter option.

Building PyQt5-related Projects

The additional PyQt5 projects (i.e. PyQtWebEngine, PyQt3D, PyQtChart, PyQtDataVisualization and PyQtPurchasing) are built and installed in exactly the same way as PyQt5 itself. In other words the source packages contain a configure.py script.