GLFW

Introduction

GLFW is a free, Open Source, portable library for OpenGL and OpenGL ES application development. It provides a simple, platform-independent API for creating windows and contexts, reading input, handling events, etc.

Version 3.0.2 is not yet described. As this is a patch release, there are no API changes.

If you are new to GLFW, you may find the introductory tutorial for GLFW 3 useful. If you have used GLFW 2 in the past, there is a transition guide for moving to the GLFW 3 API.

Compiling GLFW

To compile GLFW and the accompanying example programs, you will need the CMake build system.

Dependencies

X11 dependencies

To compile GLFW for X11 and GLX, you need to have the X and OpenGL header packages installed. For example, on Ubuntu and other distributions based on Debian GNU/Linux, you need to install the xorg-dev and libglu1-mesa-dev packages. The former pulls in all X.org header packages and the latter pulls in the Mesa OpenGL and GLU packages. Note that using header files and libraries from Mesa during compilation will not tie your binaries to the Mesa implementation of OpenGL.

CMake options

There are a number of CMake build options for GLFW, although not all are available on all supported platforms. Some of these are de facto standards among CMake users and so have no GLFW_ prefix.

Shared options

BUILD_SHARED_LIBS determines whether GLFW is built as a static library or as a DLL / shared library / dynamic library.

LIB_SUFFIX affects where the GLFW shared /dynamic library is installed. If it is empty, it is installed to $PREFIX/lib. If it is set to 64, it is installed to $PREFIX/lib64.

GLFW_BUILD_EXAMPLES determines whether the GLFW examples are built along with the library.

GLFW_BUILD_TESTS determines whether the GLFW test programs are built along with the library.

OS X specific options

GLFW_USE_CHDIR determines whether glfwInit changes the current directory of bundled applications to the Contents/Resources directory.

GLFW_USE_MENUBAR determines whether the first call to glfwCreateWindow sets up a minimal menu bar.

GLFW_BUILD_UNIVERSAL determines whether to build Universal Binaries.

Windows specific options

USE_MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY_DLL determines whether to use the DLL version or the static library version of the Visual C++ runtime library.

GLFW_USE_DWM_SWAP_INTERVAL determines whether the swap interval is set even when DWM compositing is enabled. This can lead to severe jitter and is not usually recommended.

EGL specific options

GLFW_USE_EGL determines whether to use EGL instead of the platform-specific context creation API. Note that EGL is not yet provided on all supported platforms.

GLFW_CLIENT_LIBRARY determines which client API library to use. If set to opengl the OpenGL library is used, if set to glesv1 for the OpenGL ES 1.x library is used, or if set to glesv2 the OpenGL ES 2.0 library is used. The selected library and its header files must be present on the system for this to work.

Installing GLFW

A rudimentary installation target is provided for all supported platforms via CMake.

Using GLFW

See the GLFW documentation.

Changelog

• Bugfix: The -Wall flag was not used with Clang and other GCC compatibles
• Bugfix: The default for GLFW_ALPHA_BITS was set to zero
• [Win32] Added _GLFW_USE_DWM_SWAP_INTERVAL for forcing the swap interval to be set even when DWM compositing is enabled
• [Win32] Bugfix: The clipboard string was not freed on terminate
• [Win32] Bugfix: Entry points for OpenGL 1.0 and 1.1 functions were not returned by glfwGetProcAddress
• [Win32] Bugfix: The user32 and dwmapi module handles were not freed on library termination
• [Cocoa] Added support for precise scrolling deltas on OS X 10.7 and later
• [Cocoa] Enabled explicit creation of OpenGL 3.x and 4.x contexts as supported by OS X 10.9
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: The clipboard string was not freed on terminate
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: Selectors were used that are not declared by the 10.6 SDK
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: The position set by glfwSetWindowPos was incorrect
• [X11] Bugfix: Override-redirect windows were resized to the desired instead of the actual resolution of the selected video mode
• [X11] Bugfix: Screensaver override for full screen windows had a possible race condition
• [X11] Bugfix: The reported window position did not account for the size of the window frame on some WMs
• [X11] Bugfix: The original video mode of a monitor was overwritten by calls to glfwSetWindowSize

Contact

The official website for GLFW is glfw.org. There you can find the latest version of GLFW, as well as news, documentation and other information about the project.

If you have questions related to the use of GLFW, we have a support forum, and the 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 the issue tracker on GitHub.

Finally, if you're interested in helping out with the development of GLFW or porting it to your favorite platform, we have an occasionally active developer's mailing list, or you could join us on #glfw.

Acknowledgements

GLFW exists because people around the world donated their time and lent their skills.

• Bobyshev Alexander
• artblanc
• arturo
• Matt Arsenault
• Keith Bauer
• John Bartholomew
• Niklas Behrens
• Niklas Bergström
• blanco
• Lambert Clara
• Noel Cower
• Jarrod Davis
• Olivier Delannoy
• Paul R. Deppe
• Jonathan Dummer
• Ralph Eastwood
• Gerald Franz
• GeO4d
• Marcus Geelnard
• Stefan Gustavson
• Sylvain Hellegouarch
• heromyth
• Paul Holden
• Toni Jovanoski
• Osman Keskin
• Cameron King
• Peter Knut
• Robin Leffmann
• Glenn Lewis
• Shane Liesegang
• Дмитри Малышев
• Martins Mozeiko
• Tristam MacDonald
• Hans Mackowiak
• Kyle McDonald
• David Medlock
• Jonathan Mercier
• Marcel Metz
• Kenneth Miller
• Bruce Mitchener
• Jeff Molofee
• Jon Morton
• Julian Møller
• Ozzy
• Peoro
• Braden Pellett
• Arturo J. Pérez
• Jorge Rodriguez
• Ed Ropple
• Riku Salminen
• Sebastian Schuberth
• Matt Sealey
• SephiRok
• Steve Sexton
• Dmitri Shuralyov
• Daniel Skorupski
• Bradley Smith
• Julian Squires
• Johannes Stein
• Justin Stoecker
• Nathan Sweet
• TTK-Bandit
• Sergey Tikhomirov
• Samuli Tuomola
• Jari Vetoniemi
• Simon Voordouw
• Torsten Walluhn
• Jay Weisskopf
• Frank Wille
• yuriks
• Santi Zupancic
• Lasse Öörni
• All the unmentioned and anonymous contributors in the GLFW community, for bug reports, patches, feedback, testing and encouragement