[Qt-interest] Strict Plugin Loading with -buildkey

[Girish Ramakrishnan]

Jason Todd Slack-Moehrle wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I am developing an application that is plugin based.
> 
> Can anyone explain why I might want to configure using -buildkey <key>?
> I understand that my app would only load plugins that match keys. But
> why do this? Security reasons?
> 

I believe it is just a way to track if the plugin and Qt were built
using the same Qt configuration options (same Qt build). Maybe you have
a custom Qt that has behavioral changes, new api, break abi, fixes that
your plugin relies on and loading other arbit plugins (like says some
style plugin installed in the system) is risky. In that case, you can
configure with a custom buildkey but Qt already autogenerates one for you.

So, no security reason here, afaict.

> What do I use as a key? do I make it up? Can I use anything? What about
> something like: abcderg999xyz? (just trying to get what I can and cannot
> use, any specific format, etc)
> 

My autogenerated build key is #define QT_BUILD_KEY "i686 Linux g++-4
full-config"
. (BUILD_PATH/src/corelib/global/qconfig.h). Providing a -buildkey only
prepends it to the above string, so it can be anything.

Girish