Installing SDL on OSX

Question

I downloaded SDL2-2.0.3. I ran ./configure && make && make install.

I\'ve also tried brew install SDL2.

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Answer 1

The following command is installed along with SDL and it tells you the correct switches for compiling and linking:

sdl2-config --cflags --libs

On my particular machine, that gives:

-I/usr/local/include/SDL2 -D_THREAD_SAFE
-L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2

That means you can compile and link like this and always be assured of getting the correct settings:

g++ main.cpp -o main $(sdl2-config --cflags --libs)

Or, you can put it in a Makefile like this (with a TAB at the start of the second line):

main:   main.cpp
        g++ main.cpp -o main $$(sdl2-config --cflags --libs)

Answer 2

Make sure you download the x64 SDL2 version. You also need to statically link it with -lSDL2 flag.

Answer 3

You are failing to link with libSDL2.{a,dylib}.

You want:

gcc -o main main.c -lSDL2

or perhaps:

gcc -o main main.c -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2

Answer 4

You need to run

• sdl2-config --cflags which will give you the compile flags, and
• sdl2-config --libs which will give you the linker flags

needed for using SDL2.

The flags will vary by platform which is why you should use sdl2-config instead of hardcoding some specific flags into your Makefile or other build script.