This is about compiling and linking applications that use GLFW. For information on how to write such applications, start with the introductory tutorial. For information on how to compile the GLFW library itself, see Compiling GLFW.
This is not a tutorial on compilation or linking. It assumes basic understanding of how to compile and link a C program as well as how to use the specific compiler of your chosen development environment. The compilation and linking process should be explained in your C programming material and in the documentation for your development environment.
You should include the GLFW header in the source files where you use OpenGL or GLFW.
This header declares the GLFW API and by default also includes the OpenGL header from your development environment. See below for how to control this.
The GLFW header also defines any platform-specific macros needed by your OpenGL header, so it can be included without needing any window system headers.
For example, under Windows you are normally required to include windows.h before the OpenGL header, which would bring in the whole Win32 API. The GLFW header duplicates the small number of macros needed.
It does this only when needed, so if windows.h is included, the GLFW header does not try to redefine those symbols. The reverse is not true, i.e. windows.h cannot cope if any of its symbols have already been defined.
In other words:
windows.h or other platform-specific headers unless you plan on using those APIs directlyIf you are using an OpenGL extension loading library such as glad, the extension loader header should be included before the GLFW one.
Alternatively the GLFW_INCLUDE_NONE macro (described below) can be used to prevent the GLFW header from including the OpenGL header.
These macros may be defined before the inclusion of the GLFW header and affect its behavior.
GLFW_DLL is required on Windows when using the GLFW DLL, to tell the compiler that the GLFW functions are defined in a DLL.
The following macros control which OpenGL or OpenGL ES API header is included. Only one of these may be defined at a time.
GLFW_INCLUDE_GLCOREARB makes the GLFW header include the modern GL/glcorearb.h header (OpenGL/gl3.h on macOS) instead of the regular OpenGL header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_ES1 makes the GLFW header include the OpenGL ES 1.x GLES/gl.h header instead of the regular OpenGL header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_ES2 makes the GLFW header include the OpenGL ES 2.0 GLES2/gl2.h header instead of the regular OpenGL header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_ES3 makes the GLFW header include the OpenGL ES 3.0 GLES3/gl3.h header instead of the regular OpenGL header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_ES31 makes the GLFW header include the OpenGL ES 3.1 GLES3/gl31.h header instead of the regular OpenGL header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_ES31 makes the GLFW header include the OpenGL ES 3.2 GLES3/gl32.h header instead of the regular OpenGL header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_NONE makes the GLFW header not include any OpenGL or OpenGL ES API header. This is useful in combination with an extension loading library.
If none of the above inclusion macros are defined, the standard OpenGL GL/gl.h header (OpenGL/gl.h on macOS) is included.
The following macros control the inclusion of additional API headers. Any number of these may be defined simultaneously, and/or together with one of the above macros.
GLFW_INCLUDE_VULKAN makes the GLFW header include the Vulkan vulkan/vulkan.h header in addition to any selected OpenGL or OpenGL ES header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_GLEXT makes the GLFW header include the appropriate extension header for the OpenGL or OpenGL ES header selected above after and in addition to that header.
GLFW_INCLUDE_GLU makes the header include the GLU header in addition to the header selected above. This should only be used with the standard OpenGL header and only for compatibility with legacy code. GLU has been deprecated and should not be used in new code.
GLFW is essentially a wrapper of various platform-specific APIs and therefore needs to link against many different system libraries. If you are using GLFW as a shared library / dynamic library / DLL then it takes care of these links. However, if you are using GLFW as a static library then your executable will need to link against these libraries.
On Windows and macOS, the list of system libraries is static and can be hard-coded into your build environment. See the section for your development environment below. On Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, the list varies but can be retrieved in various ways as described below.
A good general introduction to linking is Beginner's Guide to Linkers by David Drysdale.
The static version of the GLFW library is named glfw3. When using this version, it is also necessary to link with some libraries that GLFW uses.
When using MinGW to link an application with the static version of GLFW, you must also explicitly link with gdi32. Other toolchains including MinGW-w64 include it in the set of default libraries along with other dependencies like user32 and kernel32.
If you are using GLU, you must also link with glu32.
The link library for the GLFW DLL is named glfw3dll. When compiling an application that uses the DLL version of GLFW, you need to define the GLFW_DLL macro before any inclusion of the GLFW header. This can be done either with a compiler switch or by defining it in your source code.
An application using the GLFW DLL does not need to link against any of its dependencies, but you still have to link against glu32 if it uses GLU.
This section is about using CMake to compile and link GLFW along with your application. If you want to use an installed binary instead, see With CMake and installed GLFW binaries.
With a few changes to your CMakeLists.txt you can have the GLFW source tree built along with your application.
When including GLFW as part of your build, you probably don't want to build the GLFW tests, examples and documentation. To disable these, set the corresponding cache variables before adding the GLFW source tree.
Then add the root directory of the GLFW source tree to your project. This will add the glfw target and the necessary cache variables to your project.
Once GLFW has been added to the project, link against it with the glfw target. This adds all link-time dependencies of GLFW as it is currently configured, the include directory for the GLFW header and, when applicable, the GLFW_DLL macro.
Note that the dependencies do not include OpenGL or GLU, as GLFW loads any OpenGL, OpenGL ES or Vulkan libraries it needs at runtime and does not use GLU. If your application calls OpenGL directly, instead of using a modern extension loader library you can find it by requiring the OpenGL package.
If OpenGL is found, the OPENGL_FOUND variable is true and the OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR and OPENGL_gl_LIBRARY cache variables can be used.
The OpenGL CMake package also looks for GLU. If GLU is found, the OPENGL_GLU_FOUND variable is true and the OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR and OPENGL_glu_LIBRARY cache variables can be used.
This section is about using CMake to link GLFW after it has been built and installed. If you want to build it along with your application instead, see With CMake and GLFW source.
With a few changes to your CMakeLists.txt you can locate the package and target files generated when GLFW is installed.
Once GLFW has been added to the project, link against it with the glfw target. This adds all link-time dependencies of GLFW as it is currently configured, the include directory for the GLFW header and, when applicable, the GLFW_DLL macro.
Note that the dependencies do not include OpenGL or GLU, as GLFW loads any OpenGL, OpenGL ES or Vulkan libraries it needs at runtime and does not use GLU. If your application calls OpenGL directly, instead of using a modern extension loader library you can find it by requiring the OpenGL package.
If OpenGL is found, the OPENGL_FOUND variable is true and the OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR and OPENGL_gl_LIBRARY cache variables can be used.
The OpenGL CMake package also looks for GLU. If GLU is found, the OPENGL_GLU_FOUND variable is true and the OPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR and OPENGL_glu_LIBRARY cache variables can be used.
GLFW supports pkg-config, and the glfw3.pc pkg-config file is generated when the GLFW library is built and is installed along with it. A pkg-config file describes all necessary compile-time and link-time flags and dependencies needed to use a library. When they are updated or if they differ between systems, you will get the correct ones automatically.
A typical compile and link command-line when using the static version of the GLFW library may look like this:
If you are using the shared version of the GLFW library, omit the --static flag.
You can also use the glfw3.pc file without installing it first, by using the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable.
The dependencies do not include OpenGL or GLU, as GLFW loads any OpenGL, OpenGL ES or Vulkan libraries it needs at runtime and does not use GLU. On macOS, GLU is built into the OpenGL framework, so if you need GLU you don't need to do anything extra. If you need GLU and are using Linux or BSD, you should add the glu pkg-config package.
If you are using the static version of the GLFW library, make sure you don't link statically against GLU.
If you are using the dynamic library version of GLFW, add it to the project dependencies.
If you are using the static library version of GLFW, add it and the Cocoa, OpenGL, IOKit and CoreVideo frameworks to the project as dependencies. They can all be found in /System/Library/Frameworks.
It is recommended that you use pkg-config when building from the command line on macOS. That way you will get any new dependencies added automatically. If you still wish to build manually, you need to add the required frameworks and libraries to your command-line yourself using the -l and -framework switches.
If you are using the dynamic GLFW library, which is named libglfw.3.dylib, do:
If you are using the static library, named libglfw3.a, substitute -lglfw3 for -lglfw.
Note that you do not add the .framework extension to a framework when linking against it from the command-line.
The OpenGL framework contains both the OpenGL and GLU APIs, so there is nothing special to do when using GLU. Also note that even though your machine may have libGL-style OpenGL libraries, they are for use with the X Window System and will not work with the macOS native version of GLFW.