How to include needed C library using gcc?

Question

I am trying to compile the simple C example from this Tutorial on Ubuntu using gcc. What do I have to use as argument for gcc to include the needed libraries for #include <libappindicator/app-indicator.h>?

score 86 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 14 '20 at 15:04

86

-I<search path to include files>
-L<search path to the lib file>
-l<libname>

edited Jan 14 '20 at 15:04

Community

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answered May 16 '11 at 11:42

Kristofer

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This should be the elected answer – debuti Dec 22 '17 at 08:52
indeed @debuti ... furthermore, seems that one can omit the space between the `I` or `L` and the `searchpath`, and put it all together like: `-I` – DarkCygnus Jul 04 '18 at 21:07

Vijay Mathew · Answer 2 · 2011-05-16T11:48:34.780

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Use the -l command line option. You can specify the library search path with the -L option. E.g:

gcc -o myprogram -lfoo -L/home/me/foo/lib myprogram.c

This will link myprogram with the static library libfoo.a in the folder /home/me/foo/lib.

edited May 16 '11 at 11:48

answered May 16 '11 at 11:42

Vijay Mathew

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score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 02 '12 at 07:34

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gcc example.c -o example  `pkg-config --cflags --libs appindicator-0.1`

pkg-config will fetch the required include and lib flags for libappindicator and it's dependencies. This assumes libappindictaor-dev package is already installed.

answered Oct 02 '12 at 07:34

lijo

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score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 06 '11 at 12:41

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What I do is:

pkg-config --list-all | grep indicator

answered Sep 06 '11 at 12:41

hytromo

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score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 09 '12 at 13:36

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If you used apt-get, Synaptic Package Manager, etc. to get the appindicator library (vs. building it from source), did you only install the libappindicator1 package or did you also install libappindicator-dev to get the libappindicator header files? Linux packages very often have split the runtime libraries from the compile-time headers. That way people who only need the libraries to satisfy a dynamic link don't have to install unneeded headers. But since you're doing development you need those headers and therefore need the libappindicator-dev package as well.

edited Nov 09 '12 at 13:36

mah

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answered May 16 '11 at 11:47

QuantumMechanic

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I added the libappindictaor-dev package. What do I have to use with gcc as -l argument? – multiholle May 16 '11 at 11:52
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According to http://packages.ubuntu.com/hu/natty/i386/libappindicator-dev/filelist you need to use `-I/usr/include/libappindicator-0.1/libappindicator` – QuantumMechanic May 16 '11 at 12:39

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 16 '11 at 12:03

What you are trying to do here is making a gtk app, the above solutions are as applicable anywhere like using the -l option and -I option,

However for GTK apps you may also use pkg-config which make it easier as your paths can be predefined

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/pkg-config

An interesting example can be found here http://developer.gnome.org/gtk/2.24/gtk-compiling.html

How to include needed C library using gcc?

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