Console output in a Qt GUI app?

Windows does not really support dual mode applications.

To see console output you need to create a console application

CONFIG += console

However, if you double click on the program to start the GUI mode version then you will get a console window appearing, which is probably not what you want. To prevent the console window appearing you have to create a GUI mode application in which case you get no output in the console.

One idea may be to create a second small application which is a console application and provides the output. This can call the second one to do the work.

Or you could put all the functionality in a DLL then create two versions of the .exe file which have very simple main functions which call into the DLL. One is for the GUI and one is for the console.

Add:

#ifdef _WIN32
if (AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS)) {
    freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stdout);
    freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stderr);
}
#endif

at the top of main(). This will enable output to the console only if the program is started in a console, and won't pop up a console window in other situations. If you want to create a console window to display messages when you run the app outside a console you can change the condition to:

if (AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS) || AllocConsole())

void Console()
{
    AllocConsole();
    FILE *pFileCon = NULL;
    pFileCon = freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stdout);

    COORD coordInfo;
    coordInfo.X = 130;
    coordInfo.Y = 9000;

    SetConsoleScreenBufferSize(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), coordInfo);
    SetConsoleMode(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE),ENABLE_QUICK_EDIT_MODE| ENABLE_EXTENDED_FLAGS);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    Console();
    std::cout<<"start@@";
    qDebug()<<"start!";

You can't use std::cout as others have said,my way is perfect even for some code can't include "qdebug" !

So many answers to this topic. 0.0

So I tried it with Qt5.x from Win7 to Win10. It took me some hours to have a good working solution which doesn't produce any problems somewhere in the chain:

#include "mainwindow.h"

#include <QApplication>

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream>

//
// Add to project file:
// CONFIG += console
//

int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
    if( argc < 2 )
    {
    #if defined( Q_OS_WIN )
        ::ShowWindow( ::GetConsoleWindow(), SW_HIDE ); //hide console window
    #endif
        QApplication a( argc, argv );
        MainWindow *w = new MainWindow;
        w->show();
        int e = a.exec();
        delete w; //needed to execute deconstructor
        exit( e ); //needed to exit the hidden console
        return e;
    }
    else
    {
        QCoreApplication a( argc, argv );
        std::string g;
        std::cout << "Enter name: ";
        std::cin >> g;
        std::cout << "Name is: " << g << std::endl;
        exit( 0 );
        return a.exec();
    }
}

I tried it also without the "CONFIG += console", but then you need to redirect the streams and create the console on your own:

#ifdef _WIN32
if (AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS) || AllocConsole()){
    freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stdout);
    freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stderr);
    freopen("CONIN$", "r", stdin);
}
#endif

BUT this only works if you start it through a debugger, otherwise all inputs are directed towards the system too. Means, if you type a name via std::cin the system tries to execute the name as a command. (very strange)

Two other warnings to this attempt would be, that you can't use ::FreeConsole() it won't close it and if you start it through a console the app won't close.

Last there is a Qt help section in QApplication to this topic. I tried the example there with an application and it doesn't work for the GUI, it stucked somewhere in an endless loop and the GUI won't be rendered or it simply crashes:

QCoreApplication* createApplication(int &argc, char *argv[])
{
    for (int i = 1; i < argc; ++i)
        if (!qstrcmp(argv[i], "-no-gui"))
            return new QCoreApplication(argc, argv);
    return new QApplication(argc, argv);
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    QScopedPointer<QCoreApplication> app(createApplication(argc, argv));

    if (qobject_cast<QApplication *>(app.data())) {
       // start GUI version...
    } else {
       // start non-GUI version...
    }

    return app->exec();
}

So if you are using Windows and Qt simply use the console option, hide the console if you need the GUI and close it via exit.