qmake is a utility that automates the generation of Makefiles. Makefiles are used by the program make to build executable programs from source code; therefore qmake is a make-makefile tool, or makemake for short.The Makefiles that qmake produces are tailored to the particular platform where it is run from based on qmake project files. This way one set of build instructions can be used to create build instructions on different operating systems.