How do you link to a library from the software manager on Linux?

Question

So I recently got fed up with Windows and installed Linux Mint. I am trying to get a project to build I have in Code::Blocks. I have installed Code::Blocks but I need glew(as well as a few other libraries). I found it in the software manager and installed it. I've managed to locate and include the header files. But I feel like the next step should be relatively straightforward and all over the internet but (perhaps due to lack of proper terminology) I have been as of yet unable to locate an answer.

Do I need to locate the files on my system and link to each library manually? This is what I did on windows but I just downloaded the binaries and knew where they were. I found one library from the software manager and linked to it manually but it just feels like I'm doing it the wrong way. Since it's "installed" on the system is there some quick way to link?

Answer 1

You should use two flags for linker '-l' and '-L'. You can set these flags somewhere in project properties.

The first one '-l' tells linker to link with particular library. For example glew, probably in /usr/lib is a file named libglew.so, when you link your program with '-lglew' flag, it will link it with glew library. Linker looks for libraries in few standard places: /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib and few extra. If you have your libs in nonstandard place, use '-L' flag to point these dirs.

Many linux distributions provide two kinds of packages with libraries, regular ones just with runtime, and devel ones (usually prefixed or suffixed with dev or devel) with header files and development version of libraries.

Answer 2

use build systems, Luke! the typical way to develop/build software in *nix world is 3 steps:

• configure stage -- before building smth you have to realize in what environment you are going to build your software... is everything that required is installed... it wouldn't be good if at compile stage (after few hours of compilation) you (or user who build your soft) got an error: unable to #include the 'xxx.h' . the most popular build systems are: cmake , my favorite after autotools . yout may try also scons or maybe crazy (b)jam...
• compile stage -- usually just make all
• install stage -- deploy just built software into the system. or other way: build packages for target distro (.deb/.rpm/&etc)

at configuration stage using test scripts (don't worry there are plenty of them for various use cases) you can find all required headers/libraries/programs/compiler options/whatever you need to compile your package... and yes: do not use hardcoded paths in your Makefiles (or whatever you use to make your binaries)

Answer 3

Answer to this question really depends on what you want to achieve. If you want just to build you app by yourself then you can just write path to libraries in your makefile, or your code editor settings. You may not even have to do that as if libraries installed by your linux distribution package manager, headers usually go to /usr/include and libraries to /usr/lib or /urs/lib64 etc. That locations are standard and you do not need to specify them explicitly. Anyway you need to specify libraries you want to link to. If you want to create application that can be build by others, or by you on many different configurations/environments using something like cmake would be very helpful.