Welcome to version 2.7.9 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 adds fixes for multiple cursor motion bugs on Windows and fixes
support for the LFLAGS environment variable on OS X.
For a full list of changes, see the version history.
Please note that this is the Windows 32-bit binary only distribution of GLFW. It contains static, dynamic and link libraries built with and using the runtimes of a number of common Windows compilers. More specifically, it contains files for the following compilers:
For the full source distribition, go to the GLFW website or to the project page on SF.net.
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 OpenGL and GLU header files, and defines all the necessary constants and types that are necessary for these headers to work on that particular platform.
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.
By default, the regular gl.h OpenGL header is included. If you
wish to include the draft gl3.h header instead, define
GLFW_INCLUDE_GL3 before the inclusion of the GLFW header.
By default, the glu.h GLU header is included. If you wish to
avoid this, define GLFW_NO_GLU before the inclusion of the GLFW
header.
In other words:
gl.h or glu.h
yourself, as GLFW does this for youwindows.h unless you need
direct access to the Windows APIwindows.h, do it
before including GL/glfw.h. The GLFW header will
detect this and act appropriately.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 |
| MinGW and MinGW-w64 | -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 |
| MinGW and MinGW-w64 | -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 when using the GLFW static library may look like this:
cc `pkg-config --cflags libglfw` -o myprog myprog.c `pkg-config --static --libs libglfw`When using the GLFW sharedd library it 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 OpenGL -framework IOKitNote 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.
LFLAGSHere is an overview of the directory structure of the GLFW distribution:
docs | GLFW manuals in PDF format |
include | |
GL | The GLFW C/C++ include file |
lib-mingw | Binaries for MinGW |
lib-msvc90 | Binaries for Visual C++ 2008 release configuration |
lib-msvc100 | Binaries for Visual C++ 2010 release configuration |
lib-msvc110 | Binaries for Visual C++ 2012 release configuration |
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 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 an issue in the issue trackers.
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:
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