Qt Creator - Project ERROR: Xcode not set up properly. You may need to confirm the license agreement by running /usr/bin/xcodebuild

Question

I just installed Qt 5.5 and am using Qt Creator for the first time on OS X. When I first installed Qt, it gave me an error message 'Xcode 5 not installed' which I thought was strange, (I have the Xcode 7 beta), but the install completed successfully anyways.

Now, when I start or open a project, I get the error:

Project ERROR: Xcode not set up properly. You may need to confirm the license agreement by running /usr/bin/xcodebuild.

When I run /usr/bin/xcodebuild in Terminal, I get the following:

xcode-select: error: tool 'xcodebuild' requires Xcode, but active developer directory '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools' is a command line tools instance

I'm not sure what Xcode has to do with Qt Creator, unless it has something to do with accessing libraries for cross-platform compatibility, but is there a way to fix this issue?

Solution 1

>= Xcode 8

In Xcode 8, as Bruce said, this happens when Qt tries to find xcrun when it should be looking for xcodebuild.

Open the file:

Qt_install_folder/5.7/clang_64/mkspecs/features/mac/default_pre.prf

Replace:

isEmpty($$list($$system("/usr/bin/xcrun -find xcrun 2>/dev/null")))

With:

isEmpty($$list($$system("/usr/bin/xcrun -find xcodebuild 2>/dev/null")))

~> Xcode 8

Before Xcode 8, this problem occurs when command line tools are installed after Xcode is installed. What happens is the Xcode-select developer directory gets pointed to /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools.

Point Xcode-select to the correct Xcode Developer directory with the command:

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

Confirm the license agreement with the command:

sudo xcodebuild -license

This will prompt you to read through the license agreement.

Enter agree to accept the terms.

Solution 2

If you change content of Qt_install_folder/5.7/clang_64/mkspecs/features/mac/default_pre.prf then it will work only for Desktop kit, not for ex. simulator.

A better way is just to create symlink:

cd /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/
sudo ln -s xcodebuild xcrun

so you don't have to change .prf files for all targets.

Solution 3

This will do the trick:

#sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

Run this in your terminal.

Solution 4

For users of Xcode 8, there is another problem. See here for a temporary solution until Qt 5.7.1 is released:

https://forum.qt.io/topic/71119/project-error-xcode-not-set-up-properly

To summarise:

Open Qt_install_folder/5.7/clang_64/mkspecs/features/mac/default_pre.prf in a text editor, and replace this:

isEmpty($$list($$system("/usr/bin/xcrun -find xcrun 2>/dev/null"))))

with this:

isEmpty($$list($$system("/usr/bin/xcrun -find xcodebuild 2>/dev/null")))

Solution 5

If you build Qt from source with XCode 8.x, you have to change the "-find" argument in the file qt-everywhere-enterprise-src-5.7.0/qtbase/configure on line 551 so that it looks like:

if ! /usr/bin/xcrun -find xcodebuild >/dev/null 2>&1; then

View more solutions

Comments

[Mohammed Rafeeq]

I got the error xcode-select: error: invalid developer directory '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer'

[Violet Giraffe]

Doesn't work for me with Xcode 8. I have accepted the license via these instructions and still get the same error.

[Libor B.]

Thanks, with XCode 8 after editing default_pre.prf it works !

[tjeden]

I prefer this version, so it looks less messy than editing cfg files.

[mrAlmond]

This causes problems later when xcrun is invoked with parameters not supported by xcodebuild (missing parameter -f).

[ALoopingIcon]

It seems a qt issue. So I consider more dangerous adding a lasting sym link inside xcode distrib than changing a qt conf file that will be replaced by Qt 5.7.1

[DLRdave]

For the Xcode>=8 segment, if you are building Qt from a source tree, you also need to patch the configure file similarly. The commit which fixes this issue in Qt is codereview.qt-project.org/gitweb?p=qt/…

[yogodoshi]

For those wondering where is the installation folder: it will depend on your package manager's settings: /usr/local/Cellar/qt55 for Homebrew, /opt/local/libexec/qt5(-mac) for macports.

[Chchwy]

Don't do this, it mess up my iphone app project.

[BuvinJ]

I upvoted this too soon and got it locked in... I ran into the parameter -f issue.

[John Pollard]

I didn't read the comments before I ran the commands. How can you undo this? I dont see any issues, but im afraid I will months from now. Not sure how to test if this caused an issue for me.

[Daniel Georgiev]

To remove it sudo rm /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/xcrun

[Steve]

I was getting this error when trying to install py35-PyQt5 from macports. The edit to default_pre.prf suggested in this answer fixed the error for me. Note that (as mentioned by yogodoshi above) for macports the file to edit is /opt/local/libexec/qt5/mkspecs/features/mac/default_pre.prf

[Ben Hocking]

With homebrew, after installing [email protected] (which is required for the Ruby capybara gem), I found the relevant default_pre.prf file at: /usr/local/Cellar/[email protected]/5.5.1/mkspecs/features/mac/default_‌​pre.prf. I also tried Rudolf Ratusiński's approach, and while it got me over the first hump, it resulted in numerous spurious messages later that I did not get when I used this approach instead.

[ahay]

This worked great. There definitely is a missing parameter -f problem, but I couldn't get .prf changes to stick, so going to just deal with it for now.

[Misha]

works in Xcode8 and easier than the other steps. Thanks!

[Dylan Pierce]

Confirmed it works on macOS Sierra 10.12.4 with Xcode 8 - Thank you!

[moody]

dont forget to add ': \' at the end

[d1jhoni1b]

This is still working on macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 with Xcode 9.4.1 - Thank you!

[Dev M]

@Ricardo Stuven I Opened the file "default_pre.prf" but found that the line is already set correctly. then I tried the xcode-select -switch command but I got "invalid developer directory error".

[RNickMcCandless]

Confirmed this works in macOS Catalina 10.15.2 with Xcode 11.3.

[nerak99]

If you are going to neg an answer, at least have the courtesy to give a clue as to why!