What is the purpose of the *.pro file?

Question

I just started using Qt and noticed that in each example code folder there is a .pro file (and there is also a makefile created too... why?). What is the purpose of the .pro file?

Solution

It's a multiplatform project file which qmake turns into platform-specific makefiles. The main reason for its existence is easier configuration and compilation of multiplatform projects. Compare e.g. to autotools-generated configure scripts and makefiles commonly seen in unixland.