Differences between embed_manifest_exe with VS2012 and Qt Creator

I was attempting to keep my release build directory free of intermediate/generated files and noticed a disparity between Visual Studio and Qt Creator, using the same .pro.

For Visual Studio, the default embed_manifest_exe works perfectly. The relevant log bit appears like so:

/MANIFEST /MANIFESTUAC:"level='asInvoker' uiAccess='false'" /manifest:embed "/MANIFESTDEPENDENCY:type='win32' name='Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls' version='6.0.0.0' publicKeyToken='6595b64144ccf1df' language='' processorArchitecture=''"

With no .manifest file left alongside the exe.

For Qt Creator, despite its name, embed_manifest_exe does not use /MANIFEST:embed. It instead appends /MANIFEST /MANIFESTFILE:<filename> to the end of $(LINKER) $(LFLAGS) and runs mt.exe. This prevents you from changing it for one; and secondly, adding /MANIFEST:embed manually will cause a linker error:

QMAKE_LFLAGS += /MANIFEST:embed /MANIFESTUAC

Causes the following Makefile and resultant linker output:

Makefile.Release:

LFLAGS = /NOLOGO /DYNAMICBASE /NXCOMPAT /MANIFEST:embed /MANIFESTUAC
...
$(LINKER) $(LFLAGS) /MANIFEST /MANIFESTFILE:<EXE_PATH>.embed.manifest /OUT:$(DESTDIR_TARGET)

Linker output:

LINK : warning LNK4075: ignoring '/MANIFESTFILE' due to '/MANIFEST:EMBED' specification
...
mt.exe /nologo /manifest <EXE_PATH>.embed.manifest /outputresource:<EXE_PATH>;1

The build then fails because the .embed.manifest does not exist.

To replicate the behavior of Visual Studio, you must do the following:

CONFIG -= embed_manifest_exe
QMAKE_LFLAGS += /MANIFEST:embed /MANIFESTUAC

Furthermore, this configuration causes Visual Studio to no longer embed the manifest at all. It causes the following to be added to .vcxproj:

<EmbedManifest>false</EmbedManifest>

And /MANIFEST:embed is completely ignored in QMAKE_LFLAGS. It then calls mt.exe (when it did not before) like so:

mt.exe /nologo /verbose /out:<EXE_PATH>.manifest /manifest <INTERMEDIATE_PATH><EXE_NAME>.intermediate.manifest

^{(The paths are unimportant... I have different obj/moc/etc dirs defined)}

Note there is no /outputresource as with Qt Creator.

So, in summary:

Qt Creator:

CONFIG -= embed_manifest_exe
QMAKE_LFLAGS += /MANIFEST:embed /MANIFESTUAC

VS:

CONFIG *= embed_manifest_exe

Do the exact same thing, and only then. I have verified the manifest gets embedded into the EXE in both cases.

And:

CONFIG *= embed_manifest_exe
QMAKE_LFLAGS += /MANIFEST:embed /MANIFESTUAC

Breaks in Qt Creator.

I somewhat hackishly differentiate between Qt creator and Visual Studio by comparing PWD/OUT_PWD and assuming Qt will always use a shadow build (a poor assumption) and can target them separately, or more sanely:

QMAKE_POST_LINK += del *.manifest

(Edit: Fixed formatting)