Haven’t tested, but maybe adding paths to DEPENDPATH could help. For example:

by default it will rebuild when you modify any header.. can you post your .pro file here

QMake will only observe dependencies in files listed in .pro files, or files in DEPENDPATH and INCLUDEPATH.

Here is my .pro file:

This project simply tests the functionality of a custom header. The header has templated source code, so there is no accompanying .cpp file. The layout of the projects is as follows

~/analysis/ # This is the main source folder for my large project |- outlier.h |- other source and header files
~/analysis/sandbox/outlierdetecttest/ # This is the folder where the project for testing the outlier detection header lies |- main.cpp |- outlierdetecttest.pro

The tools.h files are only used for debugging, and really aren’t necessary.—

Now, suppose I have already built the project. I run it and decide to change something in the header. After I edit the header and hit the build button (or ctrl-b ), nothing happens. If, however, I edit the main.cpp source file and request a rebuild, then the executable is rebuilt.

I do not want to make the main source folder ( ~/analysis) part of the dependency path. I only want to make the outlierdetecttest build depend on changes in the header file. How can I do this?