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LWXGL is distributed as source code and must be compiled into a shared library (libLWXGL.so) before use. The build process is a single make invocation that produces the library from src/main.cc using g++. Installation copies the library and its public header to the standard system locations so that any C or C++ project on the machine can link against it.

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Prerequisites

You need g++ (GCC C++ compiler), the Xlib development headers, and a running X11 display on the build machine. The exact package name for the Xlib headers differs by distribution:
  • Debian / Ubuntu: libx11-dev
  • Fedora / RHEL: libX11-devel
Install the required packages for your distribution: 
# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install build-essential libx11-dev

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install gcc-c++ libX11-devel

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Build

From the root of the LWXGL source tree, run: 
make build
This executes the following command internally: 
g++ -fPIC -shared -O2 -o libLWXGL.so src/main.cc -lX11 -fvisibility=hidden
  • -fPIC and -shared produce position-independent code suitable for a shared library.
  • -O2 enables standard optimizations.
  • -fvisibility=hidden ensures only symbols explicitly marked for export are visible in the resulting .so, keeping the public surface clean.
On success, libLWXGL.so appears in the current directory.

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Install

Copy the library and its header to system-wide locations: 
sudo make install
This runs three steps:
  1. Copies libLWXGL.so to /usr/local/lib.
  2. Copies src/libLWXGL.h to /usr/local/include.
  3. Runs ldconfig to rebuild the dynamic linker cache so the new library is immediately discoverable by the runtime linker.

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Verify

Confirm that the dynamic linker cache recognises the installed library: 
ldconfig -p | grep LWXGL
You should see a line such as: 
libLWXGL.so (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/lib/libLWXGL.so
If the command produces no output, see the tip below.
If the runtime linker cannot find libLWXGL.so after installation (e.g. you see a “cannot open shared object file” error when running your program), add /usr/local/lib to your library search path and retry:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
To make the change permanent, add that line to your shell profile (e.g. ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile), or create a file under /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ containing /usr/local/lib and run sudo ldconfig again.

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Using in your project

Once installed, compile any C or C++ source file against LWXGL by adding -lLWXGL to your compiler invocation: 
# C
gcc my_app.c -lLWXGL -lX11 -o my_app

# C++
g++ my_app.cc -lLWXGL -lX11 -o my_app
The -lX11 flag is included explicitly here as a safety measure. Although libLWXGL.so itself was linked against libX11 at build time, making the transitive dependency available to the linker, specifying -lX11 directly avoids potential link-order issues on systems with strict symbol resolution.

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