C Compile Error (No such file or directory, compilation terminated)

Question

I'm on Windows trying to learn some OpenGL. I Installed mingw and have a test file. I put my test.c file in a glut folder, which contains glut files such as the glut32.dll and library file. I used mingw in cmd to run the file using this:

gcc opengl.c -o opengl -lGL -lGLU -lglut

And I got this error:

opengl.c:1:23 fatal error: GLUT/glut.h: No such file or directory
#include <GLUT/glut.h>

compilation terminated.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, anybody know? Thanks!

Solution

First of all you need to check that there is a glut.h file, in a GLUT folder.

Then you tell the compiler where to find it using the -I command-line option (note, it's capital i, not 1 or l):

$ gcc -I/path/to/folder opengl.c -o opengl -lGL -lGLU -lglut

In the command above, replace /path/to/folder to the folder where the GLUT folder is.

You might also need to tell the linker where the libraries are, which is done with the -L option:

$ gcc -I/path/to/folder opengl.c -o opengl -L/path/to/libs -lGL -lGLU -lglut

Comments

[Some programmer dude]

Have you installed the glut development package? Is GLUT/glut.h in the compilers default include search path?

[Don't You Worry Child]

Try specifying path to the directory having the header file using -I option.

[Mauren]

Header names are case-sensitive if you're under *nix systems.

[Ayohaych]

@Mauren I'm running Windows 8. Followed what it says on the site and no luck

[Ayohaych]

@JoachimPileborg could you elaborate on how I do this? I'm running Windows 8 and I'm not sure what to do. I have downloaded GLUT 3.7, not sure what to do with it all though. And how do I add glut.h to default search path, thanks

[Lundin]

@Mauren MinGW is a Windows compiler.

[Ayohaych]

@Lundin Yeah so what am I doing wrong?

[Ayohaych]

@MadHatter I did that and the error went away but now it's saying it cant find the libraries

[Don't You Worry Child]

Try adding the path to directory having shared library files using -L option.

[Ayohaych]

I removed the GL/ and I used include "glut.h" instead of <> and it worked but gave me a load of errors about missing libraries. The .c file is inside the glut folder so I thought it would work. Do I have to specify the -I path and -L path every time I run it or can I set them up ? Also, I tried it just there. I did the -L but it says it can't find any of those extra elements like -lGl and all

[Some programmer dude]

@AndyOHartIf you don't copy the headers/libraries to anywhere the compiler looks at by default, you will have to add those flags.

[Some programmer dude]

@AndyOHart See e.g. here for how to find out the default include search path.

[Ayohaych]

@Okay thanks. It gave me this error on compile: c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/../../../../mingw32/bi‌​n/ld.exe: cannot find -lGL

[Some programmer dude]

@AndyOHart To find out the default search path for libraries, run the command gcc -print-search-dirs | grep libraries

[Ayohaych]

How do I do that using Mingw? Grep didn't seem to be recognized?

[Some programmer dude]

@AndyOHart Skip the pipe and the grep part, it just means you will get some unrelated data.

[Ayohaych]

let us continue this discussion in chat

[Ayohaych]

got this when I did it install: c:\mingw\bin\../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/ programs: =c:/mingw/bin/../libexec/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/;c:/mingw/bin/../‌​libexec/gc c/;c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/../../../../mingw32‌​/bin/mingw32/4.8.1/; c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/../../../../mingw32/bi‌​n/ libraries: =c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/;c:/mingw/bin/../lib/‌​gcc/;c:/m ingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/../../../../mingw32/lib/mi‌​ngw32/4.8.1/;c:/ming w/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.8.1/../../../../mingw32/lib/;c:/m‌​ingw/bin/../lib/gcc/

[msrd0]

I don't think that <GLUT/glut.h> was a user-defied header, and btw all common compilers (like gcc) check for the header file in the current directory if it could not be found elsewhere