Qt 5.6 introduces many new features and improvements along with bug fixes over the 5.5.x series. For more details, refer to the online documentation included in this distribution. The documentation is also available online: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5.6 The Qt version 5.6 series is binary compatible with the 5.5.x series. Applications compiled for 5.5 will continue to run with 5.6. Some of the changes listed in this file include issue tracking numbers corresponding to tasks in the Qt Bug Tracker: http://bugreports.qt.io/ Each of these identifiers can be entered in the bug tracker to obtain more information about a particular change. **************************************************************************** * Deprecation Notice * **************************************************************************** The following platforms or toolchains are deprecated and will be removed as of Qt 5.7: * Apple OS X 10.7 (Lion) * GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) versions 4.6 and earlier * Microsoft Visual Studio compiler versions 2008, 2010 and 2012 * Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista * Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 7 * Microsoft Windows Embedded Compact 2013 Deprecated platforms and toolchains continue to work until removed. - The QtScript module is deprecated and will be removed from Qt's binary packages starting with version 5.7. The 5.6 releases of QtScript should continue to work along with Qt 5.7 and future versions. **************************************************************************** * Future Direction Notice * **************************************************************************** - In Qt 6, QCoreApplication::notify() will not be called for events being delivered to objects outside the main thread. The reason for that is that the main application object may begin destruction while those threads are still delivering events, which is undefined behavior. Applications that currently override notify() and use that function outside the main thread are advised to find other solutions in the mean time. - Qt 5.7 will begin requiring certain C++11 features in order to compile. The minimum compiler versions for that release will be: * Clang 3.4 (included in XCode 5.1) * GCC 4.7 * Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 SP1 (compiler version 14.0) * Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (compiler version 19.0) **************************************************************************** * Important Behavior Changes * **************************************************************************** - SecureTransport is the default SSL backend on OS X. Use the -no-securetransport configure option to use OpenSSL. - [QTBUG-34611] Arrow indicator is now consistent with platform styles - QtDBus now uses threads to implement processing of incoming and outgoing messages. This solves a number of thread safety issues and fixes an architectural problem that would cause all processing to stop if a particular thread (usually the main thread) is blocked in any operation. On the flip side, application developers need to know that modifications to a QDBusConnection may be visible immediately on the connection, so they should be done in an order that won't allow for incomplete states to be observed (for example, register all objects before acquiring service names). configure & build system ------------------------ - [Unix] Qt's .prl files do not expose private dependencies any more. Projects must explicitly name their dependencies. - [Windows] Enabling link-time code generation in Qt does not enable it in user applications as well any more. - [FreeBSD] The "freebsd-clang" mkspec is no longer in the unsupported/ subdir. If you use scripts to build Qt, you'll need to update them to include "-platform freebsd-clang" or remove the -platform argument. qmake ----- - qmake now enables C++11 support by default if the compiler supports it (unless the compiler defaults to C++14 or a later edition). To disable this (not possible with Microsoft Visual Studio), add "CONFIG -= c++11" to your .pro file. Note that Qt 5.7 requires C++11 support, so it is a good idea to ensure your code works with that compiler setting. - [Windows] The .prl files written by earlier versions of Qt cannot be used any more. This will affect you if you depend on 3rd party libraries which come with .prl files. Patch up QMAKE_PRL_TARGET to contain the complete file name of the library, and replace any /LIBPATH: in QMAKE_PRL_LIBS with -L. - [Windows] QMake is now a lot stricter about what may appear in LIBS. Use -L instead of the Windows-specific /LIBPATH. Put flags other than -l and -L into QMAKE_LFLAGS. - The library lookup has been simplified. This includes the removal of support for the QMAKE__SUFFIX variables, and the removal of attempts to locate libraries under slightly different names than specified. - [Unix] QMAKE_POST_LINK steps of static libraries are now required to operate on $(TARGET) in $(DESTDIR) instead of $$OUT_PWD. This matches the Windows backends. - Makespecs must now define QMAKE_{PREFIX,EXTENSION}_{SH,STATIC}LIB. Accessibility ------------- - [QTBUG-44479] We now report text attributes correctly on Linux, so ORCA+F now works properly in QTextEdit and other text controls. Widgets ------- - [QTBUG-1049][QTBUG-2295][QTBUG-4532][QTBUG-18883][QTBUG-35148] The tabs for the tabified docks can be moved by the user. QtTest ------ - [QTBUG-47370] Crash/exception information is now logged to standard output on Windows. **************************************************************************** * Library * **************************************************************************** QtCore ------ - Types in the Q_PROPERTY macro can now contain commas (for example, QMap) - Added QVersionNumber. - All generic containers (with the exception of QVarLengthArray, but including QSharedPointer) destroy the previous state as part of a move-assignment. Previously, they would dump it into the right-hand-side object. Note that this is only true for the generic containers. Other implicitly-shared types, as well as the non-generic containers such as QString, QByteArray, etc. still swap the contents with the right-hand-side object when move-assigned into, and for performance reasons, this does not change in the foreseeable future. - All containers (with the exception of QVarLengthArray, but including QSharedPointer) are now nothrow_default_constructible, nothrow_move_constructible, nothrow_move_assignable, and nothrow-swappable. - [QTBUG-25919] Added rbegin(), crbegin(), rend(), crend(), and reverse_iterator and const_reverse_iterator typedefs to QByteArray, QString, QList, QLinkedList, QVector, QVarLengthArray, and QSet. - [QTBUG-46026] Added the convenience constFirst() and constLast() functions to QList and QVector. - Added relational operators <, <=, >, >= to QList, QVector, and QVarLengthArray if the element type supports operator<. - Added qHash() overloads for QList, QVector, QLocale, QMatrix, QTransform, QMimeType, QRegExp, QRegularExpression, and QUrlQuery. - Unicode data updated to v8.0 - Logging: * QT_LOGGING_RULES now supports multiple rules separated by semicolons * Systems with syslog may now pass -syslog to configure to send logging output to syslog. - QCommandLineParser: * [QTBUG-44298] Added support for hiding options from the --help output, with QCommandLineOption::setHidden(true). * Added parsing mode for options after arguments, to allow treating them as more arguments. - QDebug: * How verbose a single debug output should be can now be fine-tuned by setting a verbosity on the debug stream. * When streaming QWindow, QScreen, QWidget instances to a debug stream that has increased verbosity set, detailed information about geometries, states etc. is printed. - QDir: * Added listSeparator(). - QHash/QMap: * Added key iterators, accessible through keyBegin() and keyEnd(). - QLatin1String: * Added default constructor. - QLocale: * [QTBUG-4044][QTBUG-3068] The C locale does not use group separators to format numbers any more. * [QTBUG-49031] Fixed a bug that caused QLocale::textDirection() to always return Qt::LeftToRight and QLocale::script() to return QLocale::AnyScript for the Windows system locale. - QMap: * Added const equal_range() overload. - QMetaProperty: * write() now resets the property if an empty QVariant is given, or set a default constructed object if the property is not resettable. - QPluginLoader: * Fixed the search order of Qt plugins so that paths specified by the QT_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable are searched before built-in paths. - QProcess: * [QTBUG-47271] Fixed a bug that caused QProcess to launch a child process on Unix even if the directory specified with setWorkingDirectory did not exist. * Deprecated QProcess::error() signal in favor of the new QProcess::errorOccurred() signal. - QProcessEnvironment: * Fixed a bug in operator== involving different empty states. - QSet: * Added intersects(). - QSharedPointer: * [QTBUG-49748] Fixed a problem that causes a compilation error when constructing a QSharedPointer of a const type that derives from QEnableSharedFromThis. - QStorageInfo: * Added QStorageInfo::blockSize(), which returns the optimal block size for transferring data to and from the storage. - QString: * fromLatin1(), fromAscii(), fromUtf8() and fromLocal8Bit() now return a null QString when called with a null QByteArray. * Added insert(int, QStringRef), insert(int, const char*), and insert(int, QByteArray) overloads. * Added prepend(QStringRef) and prepend(const QChar *, int) overloads. * resize() no longer shrinks the capacity. That means resize(0) now reliably preserves capacity(). - QStringRef: * Added truncate(int). - QTemporaryDir: * Added errorString() method that returns the string explaining why creating the temporary directory failed. - QTextStream: * Can now stream QStringRef without converting to a QString first. - QThread: * [QTBUG-49870] Fixed a bug that would cause debug-mode applications to live-lock on exit if they had a global static containing a QThread that wasn't exited properly. - QVariant: * [QTBUG-40644] Fixed crash when setting a QVariant of a different type to a property of a custom type by attempting to do a conversion instead. * [QTBUG-37851] QVariant(QColor)::toString() now uses QColor::HexArgb format when the alpha component is different from 1. - QVector: * [QTBUG-39293] resize() will no longer shrink the capacity. That means resize(0) now reliably preserves capacity(). - QtAlgorithms: * Added qFindFirstSetBit() and qFindLastSetBit(). QtDBus ------ - [QTBUG-14131] The QtDBus library now links directly to the libdbus-1 system library if it was detected at configure time. To force linking to the library, pass option -dbus-linked to configure; to force dynamic loading at runtime, use -dbus-runtime. QtGui ----- - [QTBUG-43674] Linux accessibility (using XCB) works for applications launched as root. - Added ReturnKeyType enum that emulates the native return key press on different mobile platforms, to indicate actions such as search, move to next field, and so on. - Painting: * Internal precision of solids and gradients is up to 16bit per color. - QFont: * [QTBUG-15214] QFont now serializes the capitalization setting. - QGuiApplication: * [QTBUG-47690] Fixed a regression where both sessionId and sessionKey were empty on Windows. - QIcon: * [QTBUG-42109] Added the ability for QIcons to be marked as template images. This allows end users to create QSystemTrayIcons that are properly displayed as monochrome images on OS X, which is especially important on Yosemite and above when Dark Mode is turned on. - QKeySequence: * Added qHash(QKeySequence). - QTextLayout: * Added QVector-based alternatives setFormat(), format(), and clearFormat() to setAdditionalFormats(), additionalFormats(), and clearAdditionalFormats(), resp. * [QTBUG-41197] Fixed an uncommon rendering error with fonts containing overlapping contours. * [QTBUG-47547] Fixed some instances of missing glyphs when drawing large fonts. * [QTBUG-47547] Fixed problem where fallback fonts for text with certain styles would be reported as unscalable. * Freetype: * [QTBUG-45963] Fixed a divide-by-zero exception when accessing bitmap fonts. * [QTBUG-50715] QTextLayout::glyphRuns() now returns united bounding rects for glyph runs that are merged. - OpenGL: * [QTBUG-46161] Added QOpenGLExtraFunctions providing OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1 function wrappers in a cross-platform manner. * [QTBUG-39235] Added support for multiple render targets in QOpenGLFramebufferObject. * [QTBUG-42444] Made QInputMethod's visible more accurate. QtNetwork --------- - QSslServer: * In an SSL connection, the client socket now uses the server's cipher preferences by default. This can be disabled using the QSslConfiguration. - QUdpSocket: * [QTBUG-47011] Fixed a bug that caused the QAbstractSocket::ShareAddress option not to work on Linux. QtPlatformSupport ----------------- - QKdeTheme: * Added support for KDE Plasma 5, which is also the default theme now. QtSql ----- - [QTBUG-3500] SSL support for MySQL database connections has been added. Option CLIENT_SSL replaced by SSL_KEY, SSL_CERT, SSL_CA, SSL_CAPATH and SSL_CIPHER, so that the keys, certificates and cipher can be specified. - Improved performance when reading integer values from MySQL databases via prepared statements. QtTest ------ - [QTBUG-47370] A stack trace is output on standard error if a test crashes. - Added macros QTRY_VERIFY2_WITH_TIMEOUT() and QTRY_VERIFY2(), making it possible to output a message after the timeout has expired. QtWidgets --------- - QComboBox: * QComboBox::setView() no longer deletes the old view directly. It now checks the ownership first. - QListView: * [QTBUG-37007] Horizontal scrolling with a vertical mouse wheel is now possible. - QMainWindow: * Added GroupedDragging as a DockOption which allow users to drag all the tabs together when dragging the title of a QDockWidget which is tabbed with others. - QSizePolicy: * Added qHash(QSizePolicy). - QTabBar: * [QTBUG-45173][QTBUG-15128] Fixed moving tab when a stylesheet is applied. - QFontDialog: * Added supportedSchemes property. **************************************************************************** * Platform-specific Changes * **************************************************************************** Android ------- - [QTBUG-38379] Stylus devices such as S Pen will generate QTabletEvents now. - [QTBUG-40731] Implemented QInputMethod::keyboardRectangle. - [QTBUG-45585] Fixed the opening of a local file using QDesktopServices::openUrl(). Windows ------- - [QTBUG-41309][QTBUG-41883][QTBUG-42410] Add a function to QWindowsWindowFunctions to enable working around a limitation with showing other top level windows while showing a fullscreen OpenGL-based window. - DirectWrite support is now the default if available. - DirectWrite: * [QTBUG-48546] Added differentiation between vertical hinting and no hinting in DirectWrite font engine. * [QTBUG-49562] Fixed clipping bug when rendering unhinted text with grayscale antialiasing. * [QTBUG-49562] Added transformation support to DirectWrite engine when using grayscale antialiasing. * [QTBUG-50009] Fixed transformed text when using the DirectWrite font engine. - Text: * [QTBUG-47141] Made it possible to disable antialiasing for text when drawing into images. * [QTBUG-48546] Fixed uneven kerning for some fonts. X11/XCB ------- - [QTBUG-42985] In case there are no physical screens attached, QGuiApplication::screens() and QGuiApplication::primaryScreen() will now return a placeholder QScreen object. - [QTBUG-49071] Fixed focusIn event on hide/show being not delivered. - Harmonized input context selection. QT_IM_MODULE environment variable is taken into account now. QPA --- - EGLFS/KMS: * It is now possible to set the DPMS mode and get the current value for each screen. - WinRT: * Windows Store apps are now composited inside a XAML container, allowing for tighter integration with the native UI layer. * Application status bar is visible by default now. **************************************************************************** * Tools * **************************************************************************** configure & build system ------------------------ - Qt's build system now detects whether the compiler supports C++14 and experimental support for C++1z. If the compiler supports it, Qt is compiled using that. This does not apply to user applications built using qmake: those are still built with C++11 support only. To build your application with C++14 support, add "CONFIG += c++14" (similarly for C++1z) to your .pro file. - [GCC][ELF] The Qt libraries now contain ELF versions. - [QTBUG-48958][OS X] Configure with -no-rpath now yields dynamic Qt libraries and frameworks with an absolute install name (based in -libdir). This restores Qt 4 behavior. - [MinGW] Fixed detection of DirectWrite. - [iOS] The build process was significantly changed in several ways. This doesn't matter unless you're doing Something Very Special. - [Unix] -force-pkg-config is now just an alias for -pkg-config. - [QTBUG-47840] Fixed pointer size detection when cross-building. - [QTBUG-47920] GStreamer 1.0 is now preferred over 0.10. - [QTBUG-48041][WinRT] Fixed -no-opengl not bailing out despite the configuration causing a build error later on. - [Linux] Qt is now built with relative rpaths, as was already the case on OS X. - [Windows] Configure now supports the -verbose option, like on Unix. - [Unix] Added configure option to enable link-time code generation. - Introduced the -optimized-tools option; supersedes -optimized-qmake. Tools are by default not optimized in debug builds any more. - Non-prefix builds don't have install targets any more. qmake ----- - By default, GNU extensions are now enabled with Clang, GCC, and ICC even in C++11 and C++14 modes. To disable the GNU extensions, add CONFIG+=strict_c++ to your .pro file. - In addition to .qrc files, it is now possible to list standalone files and directories, and collections of files in RESOURCES. - [QTBUG-17533] Fixed dependency scan being confused by directly adjacent string literals without intermediate whitespace. The parser also got more C++ compliant and now understands C++11 raw strings. - [QTBUG-21854] Deprecated DEPLOYMENT in favor of INSTALLS. - [QTBUG-30813] Makefile output no longer contains implicit suffix rules, as all sources are built using explicit rules. - [QTBUG-36575] Fixed handling of QMAKE_OBJECTIVE_CFLAGS for Objective-C (as opposed to Objective-C++). OBJECTIVE_SOURCES was obsoleted; use just SOURCES. This behavior matches Xcode. - [QTBUG-44184][Windows] Added RC_DEFINES to allow overriding DEFINES. This is a workaround for incompatible quoting requirements of rc.exe compared to cl.exe. - [QTBUG-46910][Unix] Fixed infinite recursion with link_prl (the default) and .la files in a .libs/ subdirectory. - [QTBUG-47951] Fixed QMAKE_CXX/CROSS_COMPILE verification with ccache. - [QTBUG-48287][Unix] Fixed race in debug_and_release builds of static libs. - [QTBUG-48648][VS2013] Fixed creation of empty (and thus invalid) sections in manifest files. - [QTBUG-49665][VS] Fixed shadow builds of subdirs projects. - [QTBUG-50442][VS] Added support for precompiled headers without (or with an uncommon) file extension. - 'make check' targets will now extend QT_PLUGIN_PATH instead of overwriting it. - Fixed support for certain versions of (f)lex and yacc. - [Darwin] Info.plist is now correctly placed also in plugin bundles. - [Darwin] CONFIG+=plugin_bundle now actually creates Mach-O bundles. - [Unix] Added support for paths relative to the target in QMAKE_RPATHDIR. - [Unix] Support for CONFIG+=compile_libtool was removed. Use CONFIG+=create_libtool and/or custom compilers instead. - [Windows] Libraries coming with .prl files can now have non-standard file extensions and a major version of zero. - [WEC2013][VS] Fixed support for VS2013 SDKs. - [MSys] Added workaround for MinGW-make's magic handling of paths. Prepend @msyshack@ to INSTALL_ROOT to prevent MSys root prefixing.