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Building from source

Lexicon is a single CMake target with two Qt module dependencies. If you have Qt 6 and a C++23 compiler, you're three commands away from a running binary.

Prerequisites

Tool	Minimum	Notes
CMake	3.21	Required by `cmake_minimum_required`
Compiler	C++23 support	GCC 13+, Clang 16+, or MSVC 19.3x recommended
Qt	Qt 6 (Qt 5 fallback)	Modules: `Widgets`, `Sql`. The build prefers Qt 6 and falls back to Qt 5 if Qt 6 is absent.
SQLite driver	—	The Qt SQLite plugin (`QSQLITE`) must be available at runtime

Debian/Ubuntu one-liner:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake qt6-base-dev libqt6sql6-sqlite

Standard build

git clone https://github.com/robertvokac/lexicon.git
cd lexicon
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --target Lexicon -j
./build/Lexicon

The build compiles the application sources and the vendored md4qt Markdown parser (about 35 translation units from 3rdparty/md4qt/src) into one executable. AUTOMOC and AUTORCC are enabled, so Qt meta-object code is generated automatically.

ℹ️

Runtime side effect The first run creates lexicon.db in the directory of the executable — for a development build that means inside build/. Delete that file whenever you want a fresh database.

Build configurations

Configuration	Command	Use for
Release	`-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release`	Day-to-day use
Debug	`-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug`	Development, debugging with gdb/lldb
RelWithDebInfo	`-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo`	Profiling and crash analysis

If CMake cannot find Qt, point it at your installation:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/Qt/6.x.y/gcc_64

Platform notes

Linux

Distribution Qt packages work fine; no vendor SDK needed.
The lexicon.desktop file in the repository can be installed for menu integration.

Windows

The target is declared WIN32_EXECUTABLE, so Release builds start without a console window.
Use the Qt Online Installer and configure with -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\Qt\6.x.y\msvc2019_64.
With multi-config generators (Visual Studio), pass --config Release to cmake --build.
Run windeployqt on the built executable to gather the required Qt DLLs for distribution.
An application icon resource (resources.rc) is included in the repository.

macOS

Install Qt via Homebrew (brew install qt@6) and pass -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$(brew --prefix qt@6)".

IDE setup

Qt Creator — open CMakeLists.txt directly; kits handle Qt discovery for you.
CLion — open the project root; set CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH in Settings → Build → CMake if Qt isn't found. (The repository contains an .idea/ folder from CLion development.)
VS Code — use the CMake Tools extension; select a kit with your C++23 compiler and add the Qt path to cmake.configureSettings.

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