Working on GNU Linux

Building Library

To build your raylib game for GNU/Linux you need to download raylib git repository. raylib already comes with ready-to-use makefiles and CMake system to compile source code, examples and templates.

This guide is for all GNU/Linux distros, just note that APT is used as package manager for Debian based distros.

Install required tools

You need a GCC (or alternative C99 compiler), make and git (to download raylib repo).

sudo apt install build-essential git

Optionally, you could use CMake building system.

sudo apt install cmake

Install required libraries

You need to install some required libraries; ALSA for audio, Mesa for OpenGL accelerated graphics and X11 for windowing system.

sudo apt install libasound2-dev mesa-common-dev libx11-dev libxrandr-dev libxi-dev xorg-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev

Build raylib using make

You can compile three different types of raylib library:

• The static library (default method)
• The dynamic shared library (often used on Linux)
• The web library

Download the raylib repository from Github, then compile it with:

git clone https://github.com/raysan5/raylib.git raylib
cd raylib/src/
make PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP # To make the static version.
make PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP RAYLIB_LIBTYPE=SHARED # To make the dynamic shared version. - Recommended
make PLATFORM=PLATFORM_WEB # To make web version.

Warning: if you want to compile a different type of library (static, ...), you must type make clean before the compiling.

Install the library to the standard directories, usr/local/lib and /usr/local/include, or remove it:

sudo make install # Static version.
sudo make install RAYLIB_LIBTYPE=SHARED # Dynamic shared version.

sudo make uninstall
sudo make uninstall RAYLIB_LIBTYPE=SHARED

NOTE: raylib is configurable and can be be built in a variety of ways. Please read src/Makefile, src/config.h and raylib.h itself for a full listing of available options and values.

Build raylib using CMake

Building with cmake on Linux is easy, just use the following:

git clone https://github.com/raysan5/raylib.git raylib
cd raylib
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DSHARED=ON -DSTATIC=ON ..
make
make install

In case any dependencies are missing, cmake will tell you.

NOTE: raylib is configurable and can be be built in a variety of ways. Please read src/CMakeOptions.txt for a full listing of available options and values. Alternatively, you may use the curses UI provided by ccmake(1) for configuring raylib.

Building Examples

If you have installed raylib with make install, Just move to the folder raylib/examples and run:

make PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP

If raylib was installed with make install RAYLIB_LIBTYPE=SHARED

make PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP RAYLIB_LIBTYPE=SHARED

A more detailed command for the OpenGL ES GRAPHICS variant on Ubuntu 16.04 is:

make  PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP  GRAPHICS=GRAPHICS_API_OPENGLES_20 RAYLIB_LIBTYPE=SHARED USE_EXTERNAL_GLFW=TRUE \
    CFLAGS="-fPIC -I/usr/include/GL" LDFLAGS='-L/usr/local/lib/raysan5 -lGLESv2 -lglfw3'

To compile just one specific example, add flags as needed:

make core/core_basic_window PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP

To force recompile one example:

make core/core_basic_window PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP -B

The raylib/games folder can be made the same way as the examples. Have fun!

Link raylib with system GLFW

Instead of using the embedded GLFW, you can download GLFW3 and build it from source (it requires CMake).

wget https://github.com/glfw/glfw/releases/download/3.2.1/glfw-3.2.1.zip
unzip glfw-3.2.1.zip
cd glfw-3.2.1
cmake -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON
sudo make install

Now with GLFW installed, you may build raylib while specifying USE_EXTERNAL_GLFW:

make USE_EXTERNAL_GLFW=TRUE
# or
cmake -DUSE_EXTERNAL_GLFW=ON

If you have any doubt, just let me know.