Here's a piece of my current Makefile:
CFLAGS = -O2 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu++11 `sdl-config --cflags --libs` -lSDL_mixer I have libsdl installed properly, SDL.h is in /usr/include/sdl where it belongs, but it just won't compile. I also have the line #include "SDL.h" in my .h files, but still no go.
Anyone knows why?
For Simple Direct Media Layer 2 (SDL2), after installing it on Ubuntu 16.04 via:
sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev I used the header:
#include <SDL2/SDL.h> and the compiler linker command:
-lSDL2main -lSDL2 Additionally, you may also want to install:
apt-get install libsdl2-image-dev apt-get install libsdl2-mixer-dev apt-get install libsdl2-ttf-dev With these headers:
#include <SDL2/SDL_image.h> #include <SDL2/SDL_ttf.h> #include <SDL2/SDL_mixer.h> and the compiler linker commands:
-lSDL2_image -lSDL2_ttf -lSDL2_mixer 
#include <SDL.h> to #include <SDL2/SDL.h> fixed it, of course on compiling need -lSDL2 flag.
If the header file is /usr/include/sdl/SDL.h and your code has:
#include "SDL.h" You need to either fix your code:
#include "sdl/SDL.h" Or tell the preprocessor where to find include files:
CFLAGS = ... -I/usr/include/sdl ... 
sdl-config --cflags --libs in the command line, which OP did.The header file lives at /usr/include/SDL/SDL.h (SDL1) or /usr/include/SDL2/SDL.h (SDL2).
In your C++ code, pull in this header using
#include <SDL.h> // for SDL1 #include <SDL2/SDL.h> // for SDL2 You have the correct usage of
sdl-config --cflags --libs # sdl1 sdl2-config --cflags --libs # sdl2 which will give you
# SDL1 -I/usr/include/SDL -D_GNU_SOURCE=1 -D_REENTRANT -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -lSDL or
# SDL2 -I/usr/include/SDL2 -D_REENTRANT -lSDL2 At times you may also see this usage which works for a standard install:
pkg-config --cflags --libs sdl # sdl1 pkg-config --cflags --libs sdl2 # sdl2 which supplies you with
-D_GNU_SOURCE=1 -D_REENTRANT -I/usr/include/SDL -lSDL # SDL1 or
-D_REENTRANT -I/usr/include/SDL2 -lSDL2 # SDL2 
Most times SDL is in /usr/include/SDL. If so then your #include <SDL.h> directive is wrong, it should be #include <SDL/SDL.h>.
An alternative for that is adding the /usr/include/SDL directory to your include directories. To do that you should add -I/usr/include/SDL to the compiler flags...
If you are using an IDE this should be quite easy too...
the simplest idea is to add pkg-config --cflags --libs sdl2 while compiling the code.
g++ file.cpp `pkg-config --cflags --libs sdl2`
Having a similar case and I couldn't use StackAttacks solution as he's referring to SDL2 which is for the legacy code I'm using too new.
Fortunately our friends from askUbuntu had something similar:
tar xvf SDL-1.2.tar.gz cd SDL-1.2 ./configure make sudo make install I had this problem today, and SDL2 did not work for me.
If you need SDL1 you can install it with:
sudo apt install libsdl1.2-dev Tetsted on xubuntu 24.04.1
sdl-config --cflags --libsand (b) the actual literal full path toSDL.h.