QtCreator qmake Cannot run compiler 'cl'

Question

Just configured new windows environment with MSVS 2017 and Qt5.9.1.
While building example project bars met an error

Project ERROR: Cannot run compiler 'cl'. Maybe you forgot to setup the environment?

With mingw build and run fine.

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I tried to add Custom build step before qmake

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" amd64

But got the same results. In cmd this command works fine. After it cl.exe is reachable.

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All toolsets was found automatically by Qt and seems to be right

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Update1. Build in Developer Command Prompt for VS 2017

**********************************************************************
** Visual Studio 2017 Developer Command Prompt v15.0.26730.16
** Copyright (c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation
**********************************************************************

C:\Users\Admin\source>"C:\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\bin\qmake.exe" C:\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\Examples\Qt-5.9.1\datavisualization\bars\bars.pro -spec win32-msvc

C:\Users\Admin\source>nmake

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 14.11.25508.2
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

        "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\bin\HostX86\x86\nmake.exe" -f Makefile.Release

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 14.11.25508.2
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

        cl -c -nologo -Zc:wchar_t -FS -Zc:rvalueCast -Zc:inline -Zc:strictStrings -Zc:throwingNew -Zc:referenceBinding -O2 -MD -W3 -w34100 -w34189 -w44996 -w44456 -w44457 -w44458 -wd4577 -wd4467 -EHsc -DUNICODE -DWIN32 -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_DATAVISUALIZATION_LIB -DQT_WIDGETS_LIB -DQT_GUI_LIB -DQT_CORE_LIB -DNDEBUG -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\Examples\Qt-5.9.1\datavisualization\bars -I. -I../../../include -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtDataVisualization -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtWidgets -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtGui -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtANGLE -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtCore -Irelease -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\mkspecs\win32-msvc -Forelease\ @C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nm6ED7.tmp
main.cpp
graphmodifier.cpp
Generating Code...
        cl -c -nologo -Zc:wchar_t -FS -Zc:rvalueCast -Zc:inline -Zc:strictStrings -Zc:throwingNew -Zc:referenceBinding -O2 -MD -W3 -w34100 -w34189 -w44996 -w44456 -w44457 -w44458 -wd4577 -wd4467 -EHsc -DUNICODE -DWIN32 -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_DATAVISUALIZATION_LIB -DQT_WIDGETS_LIB -DQT_GUI_LIB -DQT_CORE_LIB -DNDEBUG -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\Examples\Qt-5.9.1\datavisualization\bars -I. -I../../../include -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtDataVisualization -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtWidgets -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtGui -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtANGLE -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\include\QtCore -Irelease -I..\..\..\Devel\Qt\Qt5.9.1\5.9.1\msvc2017_64\mkspecs\win32-msvc -Forelease\ @C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nm7EF5.tmp
moc_graphmodifier.cpp
        link /NOLOGO /DYNAMICBASE /NXCOMPAT /INCREMENTAL:NO /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS "/MANIFESTDEPENDENCY:type='win32' name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' version='6.0.0.0' publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df' language='*' processorArchitecture='*'" /MANIFEST:embed /OUT:release\bars.exe @C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nm8417.tmp
Qt5DataVisualization.lib(Qt5DataVisualization.dll) : fatal error LNK1112: module machine type 'x64' conflicts with target machine type 'x86'
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\bin\HostX86\x86\link.EXE"' : return code '0x458'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.11.25503\bin\HostX86\x86\nmake.exe"' : return code '0x2'
Stop.

C:\Users\Admin\source>

Linkage errors. But cl.exe found.

Answer 1

After next steps all runs fine.

1. Set Dracula style for QtCreator :)
2. Modify MSVS installation addning VC++ 2015.3 v140 toolset for desktop (x86,x64).

Very strange. And that is why I don't like windows. It lives its own live!

So the answer is TRY TO REINSTALL/modify components, including QtCreator itself.

Answer 2

I had a similar case, which was solved by adding the path to cl.exe to the path environment variable:

set path=%path%;%qtdir%\bin;"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.12.25827\bin\Hostx64\x64"
set QMakeSpec=win32-msvc
qmake -tp vc

Maybe another cl.exe is interfering here?