Welcome to version 2.7.2 of the GLFW library. GLFW is a free, Open Source, multi-platform library for OpenGL application development that provides a powerful API for handling operating system specific tasks such as opening an OpenGL window, reading keyboard, mouse, joystick and time input, creating threads, and more.
GLFW 2.7 is expected to be the last major release of the 2.x series, with most development now being done on what will become version 3.0.
This release brings support for OpenGL 3.2 on OS X Lion and adds a number of bug fixes for minor issues in 2.7.1.
A top level makefile can be found in the root directory of the GLFW
distribution that has been designed to work with several compilers. If you
simply enter the GLFW root directory in a shell and type make (or
nmake or gmake, depending on the name of your make
tool), and a list should appear with the currently supported options for
systems and compilers.
For example, one of the options is to compile GLFW for Windows with the LCC-Win32 C compiler, i.e.:
make win32-lccThat will compile the GLFW static link library and the supplied example programs. For Windows compilers, a Win32 DLL will also be compiled.
Currently supported compilers and systems are:
There are also project files available for Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 and
2010 in the support/msvc90 and support/msvc100
directories.
If your compiler/system is not in the list, you may have to create new
makefiles in the lib\win32, lib/x11 or
lib/cocoa directory, and in the examples directory.
If you have any problems, please use our
support forum
and
bug tracker
on SourceForge.net. We would like to support as many systems as possible, so if
you had to make any modifications or additions to the source and/or makefiles
in order to make GLFW compile successfully, we would very much like to know
what you had to do.
When building GLFW as a DLL (dynamic link library), all compilation units
need to have the GLFW_BUILD_DLL macro defined. All build methods
listed below already does this, but you need to do it yourself if you are
making a custom build. Without this macro, the GLFW DLL will not export
functions correctly and code calling the DLL will be incorrectly generated.
Project files for both the static and dynamic versions of the GLFW library
are provided in the support/msvc90 and
support/msvc100 directories.
GLFW can be cross-compiled to native Win32 code using the Cygwin environment. The Cygwin build path will also work on MinGW with MSYS.
Open a Cygwin or MSYS shell, enter the GLFW root directory and run make with
the win32-cygwin target.
GLFW can be compiled using only bare bone MinGW, using the Windows
command-line environment for file management. Open a regular command prompt,
enter the GLFW root directory and run the MinGW make program
mingw32-make with the win32-mingw target.
GLFW can be compiled using OpenWatcom for Windows by running the following in the GLFW root directory:
nmake MAKE=nmake win32-owAlso make sure that you have all your environment variables set up
correctly. It is the default option when installing OpenWatcom to permanently
set up all the required environment variables. If nmake is
unavailable, you probably have to run WATCOM\setvars.bat from the
command prompt first, where WATCOM is the directory in which you
installed OpenWatcom (e.g. C:\Watcom).
Some Unix-like systems have a MinGW cross-compilation package for compiling
native Win32 binaries, for example the mingw32 package on Debian
GNU/Linux and its derivatives. You can use this to build Win32 binaries of
GLFW and all examples without having to run Microsoft Windows. Use the regular
make program with the cross-mgw target. These binaries are also
regularly tested with Wine.
Compiler and link library capabilities are auto-detected with a script
called compile.sh. Note that you don't need to run this script
yourself, as it is run automatically when necessary. It has been tested under
Ubuntu Linux, Slackware Linux, Debian GNU/Linux and others and should
hopefully run on the majority of available Unix-like systems and generate
functional Makefiles. You do not have to run the script manually, since it is
called from the top-level makefile.
If you wish to customize the compilation or link flags for GLFW, set the
CFLAGS or LFLAGS environment variables as needed
before building the library. These flags will be picked up and added to the
generated Makefile.x11 files.
If you wish to use a certain compiler, set the CC environment
variable before building the library. This will also be stored in the
generated Makefile.x11 files.
If you have already configured your source tree, you can reset it to an
un-configured state by running make with the x11-dist-clean
target.
If you are making your own build setup for GLFW, you need to be aware of the
various preprocessor symbols that the bundled makefiles use to enable various
features and code paths. They need to be defined either on the command-line or
at the very beginning for each GLFW source file with an x11_
prefix.
Note that the X11 port of GLFW compiles on Mac OS X, but is currently unable to open a window when running against X11.app, due to Apple's incomplete implementation of GLXFBConfigs.
| _GLFW_USE_LINUX_JOYSTICKS | Use the Linux joystick API. This is the only supported API for the X11 port. Without it, joystick input will be unavailable. |
| _GLFW_HAS_XRANDR | Use the X Resize and Rotate extension for display mode changes. This is the preferred method. |
| _GLFW_HAS_XF86VIDMODE | Use the Xf86VidMode extension for display mode changes. This is a fall-back method. |
| _GLFW_HAS_PTHREAD | Use the POSIX Threads API for threading. This is the only supported API for the X11 port. Without it, threading will be disabled. |
| _GLFW_HAS_SCHED_YIELD | Call the sched_yield function inside glfwPlatformSleep. |
| _GLFW_HAS_GLXGETPROCADDRESS | Use the glXGetProcAddress function to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. |
| _GLFW_HAS_GLXGETPROCADDRESSARB | Use the glXGetProcAddressARB function to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. |
| _GLFW_HAS_GLXGETPROCADDRESSEXT | Use the glXGetProcAddressEXT function to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. |
| _GLFW_HAS_DLOPEN | Use dlopen on the OpenGL shared library to retrieve OpenGL
entry point addresses. This is a fall-back method. |
| _GLFW_HAS_SYSCONF | Use the sysconf API to find the number of processors. |
| _GLFW_HAS_SYSCTL | Use the sysctl API to find the number of processors. |
To compile GLFW for Mac OS X, you will need to have installed the Developer Tools. A version of these tools can be found on your Mac OS X disc, with newer versions available from the Apple Developer Connection site. When they are installed, simply open Terminal and go to the root GLFW directory. From there, you can build the library and all the examples by running make with the appropriate target, i.e.:
make cocoaThe default compiler for the Cocoa port of GLFW is cc, which as
of Mac OS X 10.6 still defaults to GCC, but you can override this using the
CC environment variable. For example, to build GLFW using Clang,
use:
env CC=clang make cocoaThere is also a deprecated Carbon port of GLFW, which is limited to 32-bit code and only runs well on Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4. However, if you need to build applications for those systems, it is a better choice than the Cocoa port, which uses APIs unavailable on systems older than 10.5.
After compiling GLFW with MinGW or Cygwin, three files of interest should
have appeared in the lib\win32 directory. They are:
libglfw.a (the static link version of GLFW), glfw.dll
(the DLL version of GLFW) and libglfwdll.a (the DLL import
library).
To install GLFW on Cygwin (and possibly MinGW), run make with the
cygwin-install target. This will generate the pkg-config file and
copy it, the header file and the library to the correct locations of your
Cygwin installation. If you wish to change the installation location from its
default, set the desired prefix path with the environment variable
PREFIX.
If you used Borland C++ Builder, LCC-Win32, Microsoft Visual C++ or
OpenWatcom, the files are named glfw.lib (the static link version
of GLFW), glfw.dll (the DLL version of GLFW) and
glfwdll.lib (the DLL import library).
The static link library and the DLL import library should be copied to your
compiler's LIB directory (where all other link libraries are
located). The DLL can be copied either to your Windows system directory (where
opengl32.dll is located), or to the project directory of your GLFW-based
projects (where you place your executable files).
You should also copy the GLFW include file, include\GL\glfw.h,
to the GL directory of your compiler's include directory (i.e.
where gl.h, glu.h etc. are located).
After compiling GLFW, three files named libglfw.pc.in,
libglfw.a and libglfw.so should have appeared in the
lib/x11 directory. This is the pkg-config template file, the GLFW
static link library and the GLFW shared library, respectively.
To install GLFW onto your system, run make as root with the
x11-install make target. This will install the pkg-config file, the
static library and the header. By default, the files will be installed under
/usr/local. If you wish to install to a different location, set the
PREFIX environment variable appropriately when running make.
Note that the shared library is not installed by default, as you really should think twice before using it. GLFW is very small and shared library distribution on Unix outside of packaging systems is quite tricky. The GLFW license also allows static linking without requiring you to share your code.
However, if you're a *nix distribution packager, use a language binding or
for some other reason wish to install the shared library along with the rest,
run make with the x11-distro-install target.
After compiling GLFW, three files named libglfw.pc.in,
libglfw.a and libglfw.dylib should appear in the
lib/cocoa directory. This is the pkg-config template file, the GLFW
static link library and the GLFW dynamic library, respectively.
To install GLFW onto your system, run make with sudo and the
cocoa-install build target, i.e.:
sudo make cocoa-installThis will install the pkg-config file, the static library and the header. By
default, the files will be installed under /usr/local. If you wish
to install to a different location, set the environment variable
PREFIX appropriately when running make.
Note that the shared library is not installed by default, as you really should think twice before using it. GLFW is very small and very suitable for static linking. The GLFW license also allows static linking without requiring your to share your code.
There are two aspects to using GLFW:
The first point is covered in the GLFW Users Guide and the GLFW Reference Manual, and we suggest that you read at least the Users Guide, since it's a good introduction to the GLFW API.
Designing and compiling programs that use GLFW is not very difficult. A few rules for successfully designing GLFW-based programs are presented in the following sections.
In the files of your program where you use OpenGL or GLFW, you should
include the GL/glfw.h header file, i.e.:
#include <GL/glfw.h>This defines all the constants, types and function prototypes of the GLFW
API. It also includes the gl.h and GL/glu.h header
files, and - this is very important - it defines all the necessary
constants and types that are necessary for the OpenGL headers to work on
different platforms.
For example, under Microsoft Windows you are normally required to include
windows.h before you include GL/gl.h. This would
however make your code dependent on the Windows platform, or at least require
your program to check which platform it is being compiled on.
The GLFW header file takes care of this for you, not by including
windows.h, but rather by itself duplicating the necessary parts of
it. This way, the namespace won't be cluttered by the entire Windows API.
In other words:
GL/gl.h or GL/glu.h
yourself, as GLFW does this for youwindows.h unless you actually need
direct access to the Windows APIwindows.h, do it
before including GL/glfw.h and the GLFW header will
detect this.
Also note that if you are using an OpenGL extension loading library such as
GLEW, you should include the GLEW
header before the GLFW one. The GLEW header defines macros that
disable any gl.h that the GLFW header includes and GLEW will work
as expected.
If you link with the static version of GLFW, it is also necessary to link with some system libraries that GLFW uses.
When linking a program under Windows that uses the static version of GLFW,
you must also link with the following libraries: opengl32,
user32 and kernel32. Some of these libraries may be
linked with by default by your compiler. In the table below you can see the
minimum required link options for each supported Windows compiler (you may want
to add other libraries as well, such as glu32):
| Compiler | Link options |
| Borland C++ Builder | glfw.lib opengl32.lib |
| Cygwin | See Unix static library below |
| LCC-Win32 | glfw.lib opengl32.lib |
| Microsoft Visual C++ | glfw.lib opengl32.lib user32.lib |
| MinGW32 | -lglfw -lopengl32 |
| OpenWatcom | glfw.lib opengl32.lib user32.lib |
To compile a program that uses the DLL version of GLFW, you need to
define the GLFW_DLL constant. This can either be done with a
compiler switch, typically by adding -DGLFW_DLL to the list of
compiler options. You can also do it by adding the following line to all your
source files before including the GLFW header file:
#define GLFW_DLLWhen linking a program under Windows that uses the DLL version of GLFW,
the only library you need to link with for GLFW to work is glfwdll.
In the table below you can see the minimum required link options for each
supported Windows compiler (you may want to add other libraries as well,
such as opengl32 and glu32):
| Compiler | Link options |
| Borland C++ Builder | glfwdll.lib |
| Cygwin | -lglfwdll |
| LCC-Win32 | glfwdll.lib |
| Microsoft Visual C++ | glfwdll.lib |
| MinGW32 | -lglfwdll |
| OpenWatcom | glfwdll.lib |
GLFW supports
pkg-config,
and a libglfw.pc file is generated and installed when you install
the library. For systems that do not provide pkg-config, you should look in
this file for the proper compile and link flags for your system, as determined
by compile.sh at compile time.
A typical compile and link command-line may look like this:
cc `pkg-config --cflags libglfw` -o myprog myprog.c `pkg-config --libs libglfw`If you use GLU functions in your program you should also add
-lGLU to your link flags.
When compiling and linking a program under Mac OS X that uses GLFW, you must also link with Cocoa and OpenGL frameworks.
If you are using Xcode, you simply add the GLFW library libglfw.a and
these frameworks to your project. If, however, you are building your program
from the command-line, there are two methods for correctly linking your GLFW
program.
GLFW supports pkg-config, and a libglfw.pc file is generated and installed when you install the library. You can find pkg-config in most packaging systems, such as Fink and MacPorts, so if you have one of them installed, simply install pkg-config. Once you have pkg-config available, the command-line for compiling and linking your program is:
cc `pkg-config --cflags libglfw` -o myprog myprog.c `pkg-config --libs libglfw`If you do not wish to use pkg-config, you will need to add the required
frameworks and libraries to your command-line using the -l and
-framework switches, i.e.:
cc -o myprog myprog.c -lglfw -framework Cocoa -framework OpenGLNote that you do not add the .framework extension to a framework when adding it from the command-line.
These frameworks contain all OpenGL and GLU functions, so there is no need to add additional libraries or frameworks when using GLU functionality. Also note that even though your machine may have Unix-style OpenGL libraries, they are for use with the X Window System, and will not work with the Mac OS X native version of GLFW.
CFLAGS overridableglfwGetProcAddress failversion test was set to 1.1GL_ARB_multisampleglfwGetWindowSize did not check whether GLFW was initialized or whether the window was openlibglfw.pc filedlopen fallback method for glfwGetProcAddress had been broken by unrelated editsglXCreateContextAttribsARB with an unavailable OpenGL version caused the application to terminate with a BadMatch Xlib errorGLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE was honored in fullscreen modesupport/msvc100 directory_GLFW_NO_DLOAD_GDI32 and _GLFW_NO_DLOAD_WINMM for the DLL buildcompile.bat used Unix-style line endingsWGLSWAPINTERVALEXT_T, WGLGETEXTENSIONSSTRINGARB_T and WGLGETEXTENSIONSSTRINGEXT_T typedefs were declared under WGL_ARB_pixel_formatWGL_ARB_create_context_profileglfwInconifyWindowGLFW_OPENGL_VERSION_MAJOR and GLFW_OPENGL_VERSION_MINOR
hints for versioned context creationGLFW_OPENGL_FORWARD_COMPAT hint for forward compatible context creationGLFW_OPENGL_DEBUG_CONTEXT hint for debug context creationGLFW_OPENL_PROFILE hint for context creation using profilesGLFW_NO_GLU macro for disabling the inclusion of the GLU header by the GLFW headerglfwOpenWindowHintglfwSwapBuffers to call glfwPollEvents after buffer swapkeytest example program, as it was superseded by the events testx11-dist-install install target, intended for packagers of GLFWx11-dist-clean build target, intended for developers of GLFWGLX_SGIX_fbconfigCFLAGSGLFW_SYSTEM_KEYSglfwCloseWindowBadMatch error_NET_WM_PING events was malformed_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW_NET_WM_STATE client message-m32 flag caused build failure on 10.6 Snow Leopard-mmacosx-version-min flag caused build failure on 10.5 LeopardglfwOpenWindow did not call glClearWM_SYSCOMMANDGetExtensionsStringARB was not initializedDllMain performed a number of forbidden actions (by calling glfwTerminate)GLFW_FSAA_SAMPLES multisampling hintGLFW_WINDOW_NO_RESIZE hint for non-resizable windowsglfwReadMemoryImage function for creating a GLFWImage object from an image file in a memory bufferglfwLoadMemoryTexture2D function for decoding an image file in a memory buffer into a textureglfwLoadTextureImage2D function for loading a GLFWImage object into a texture_NET_WM_PING protocolgettimeofdayglfwSetMousePos for windowed modesupport folder to the distribution, which includes
support for various languagesHere is an overview of the directory structure of the GLFW distribution:
docs | GLFW manuals in PDF format | |
examples | Several example programs in C | |
include | ||
GL | Here is the GLFW C/C++ include file | |
lib | The source code for GLFW | |
cocoa | Mac OS X/Cocoa specific implementation | |
win32 | Windows specific implementation | |
x11 | Unix/X11 specific implementation | |
support | ||
d | D support | |
msvc90 | Project files for Visual C++ 2008 | |
msvc100 | Project files for Visual C++ 2010 | |
pascal | Pascal support | |
tests | Several test programs in C |
The official website for GLFW is glfw.org. It contains the latest version of GLFW, news and other information that is useful for OpenGL development.
If you have questions related to the use of GLFW, we have a
user's web forum,
and a
user's mailing list
on SF.net, and the registered IRC channel #glfw on
Freenode.
If you have a bug to report, a patch to submit or a feature you'd like to request, please file it in one of the GLFW trackers on SF.net.
Finally, if you're interested in helping out with the development of GLFW or porting it to your favorite platform, we have a developer's mailing list, or you could join us on#glfw.
GLFW exists because people around the world donated their time and lent their skills. Special thanks go out to:
_NET_WM_PING response