C++ Codeblocks + libcurl ends up with link errors

Question

Hi I am a C++ beginner and I wanted to learn about http requests... I picked cURL because I have experience using it before with php. I downloaded this version from cURL website into C:\\libs
Win64 x86_64 7zip 7.51.0 binary SSL SSH Viktor Szakáts 1.81 MB

This is what I've done so far on Codeblocks:

1. Under Global compiler settings/Search directories/Compiler, I added this path: C:\\libs\\curl-7.51.0-win64-mingw\\include\\curl

2. Under Global compiler settings/Search directories/Linker, I added this path: C:\\libs\\curl-7.51.0-win64-mingw\\lib

3. Under Global compiler settings/Linker settings, I added this paths: C:\\libs\\curl-7.51.0-win64-mingw\\lib\\libcurl.a C:\\libs\\curl-7.51.0-win64-mingw\\lib\\libcurldll.a

-Under Global compiler settings/compiler settings, this box is checked from before: Have g++ follow the C++11 standard... (no idea if this matters or not...)

Also, because I was desperate I copied the contents of C:\\libs\\curl-7.51.0-win64-mingw to C:\\Program Files (x86)\\CodeBlocks\\MinGW, this step makes no sense to me, but I found it online so I tried...

Now I am running this code:

#include <cstring>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <curl.h>
#include <easy.h>
using namespace std;

int main(){

CURL* curl = curl_easy_init();
if(!curl){
        cout << "error" << endl;
    }else{
     cout << "good job!" << endl;
     curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
    }
};

I am getting this errors:

undefined reference to `_imp__curl_easy_init'
undefined reference to `_imp__curl_easy_cleanup'
error: ld returned 1 exit status
Build failed: 3 error(s), 0 warning(s) (0 minute(s), 0 second(s)) 

For some reason, including include curl/curl.h does not work, only way it works is including curl.h, same for easy.h

Any advice appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You're linking with a static libcurl (on Windows) without having -DCURL_STATICLIB added to your CFLAGS when you build your application.

That is, you must define CURL_STATICLIB before the curl headers are included.

Described in the curl FAQ item Link errors when building libcurl on Windows