Group Item: cannot install file to same location - qbs

Question

In my project, I have several plugins depending on a single module, containing a Group item similar to:
Group {
name: "group"
qbs.install: true
qbs.installDir: "../"
files: <filename>
}
But compilation fails with "error: Cannot install files 'filename' and 'filename' to the same location 'location'". Basically, qbs cannot copy same file to same location twice (seems illogical to me)
How can this bug be resolved or is there any elegant workaround?

Answer 1

This is a job for the qbs.installSourceBase property. Basically, you set this to the base directory containing the files in your Group, and Qbs will install the listed files into qbs.installDir hierarchically based on their paths relative to the aforementioned base directory.
For example, given the following Group:
// defined in /source/myproject/myproject.qbs
Group {
qbs.install: true
qbs.installDir: "share/stuff"
qbs.installSourceBase: "." // relative to /source/myproject
files: [
"fileA.txt",
"fileB.txt",
"subdir/fileB.txt",
]
}
and the following command line invocation:
$ qbs [...] --install-root /sample/some-root
the following filesystem hierarchy will result:
/sample/some-root/share/stuff/fileA.txt
/sample/some-root/share/stuff/fileB.txt
/sample/some-root/share/stuff/subdir/fileB.txt
See the Qbs Installation Properties documentation for more info.

Answer 2

There is a workaround, which may require some restructuring of a project:
instead of:
Module {
name: "somemodule"
// module properties set to dependant products
Group {
// files to install
qbs.install: true
}
}
we can use:
Product {
name: "somemodule"
Group {
// files to install
qbs.install: true
}
Export {
// module properties set to dependant products
}
}
This way, files are only installed once when steps for mymodule are run, thus eliminating the conflict. Module properties, exported via Export Item, work just as ones exported via Module.
Limitations:
Product has to be added to references of the Project Item
Modules cannot depend on Product Items, which may require to restructure all dependant modules into Project/Export pairs too