Qt and zip files

I'm trying to write a simple Qt app that will access zip files and read the content of these zip files (the content are text files). Many posts says that Quazip is the solution.

Being new to Qt and coming from .Net background, I really don't know how to use the Quazip, I downloaded the Quazip source but I'm not sure, should I compile it or should I use the source code in my project. I really have no clue.

Any hel开发者_JS百科p is much appreciated. Regards.

It seems as you have various options. You can use source code immediately by copying the relevant files into your project. By default however a static library is compiled when you run

> make install

and in that case you need to add the relevant path to your .pro file so that it finds is static library.

Well, you have several options:

• Just add the sources to your project. Pros: you can modify them if you want without affecting your other projects. Cons: updating QuaZip is probably going to be a maintenance headache.
• Compile it as a static library (qmake CONFIG+=staticlib). Pros: updating is easier as you don't have to deal with structural changes, only recompile QuaZip and rebuild/relink your projects. Cons: you still have to recompile and relink.
• Compile QuaZip as a shared (DLL) library. Pros: updating is extremely easy provided that the new version maintains binary compatibility, plus the code is shared among various applications running at the same time. Cons: it will break everything (that is, until you rebuild/relink your apps) if the new version doesn't maintain binary compatibility.

If you just need to read some zip files in some random project, any of these three will do fine. You probably won't have to update QuaZip either, unless you find some bugs that need to be fixed.

As for the binary compatibility: it is guaranteed that third level version changes (x.y.z1 -> x.y.z2) are binary compatible. As for minor version changes (x.y1 -> x.y2), they probably won't be binary compatible for some time, until the Pimpl idiom is implemented properly.