## Compiling GTK+ Applications

Compiling GTK+ Applications — How to compile your GTK+ application

## Compiling GTK+ Applications on UNIX

To compile a GTK+ application, you need to tell the compiler where to find the GTK+ header files and libraries. This is done with the `pkg-config` utility.

The following interactive shell session demonstrates how `pkg-config` is used:

    $ pkg-config --cflags gtk+-2.0
     -I/usr/include/gtk-2.0 -I/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/include -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/X11R6/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/atk-1.0
    $ pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0
     -L/usr/lib -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lgtk-x11-2.0 -lgdk-x11-2.0 -lXi -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lm -lpangox -lpangoxft -lXft -lXrender -lXext -lX11 -lfreetype -lpango -latk -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -ldl -lglib-2.0

The simplest way to compile a program is to use the "backticks" feature of the shell. If you enclose a command in backticks (not single quotes), then its output will be substituted into the command line before execution. So to compile a GTK+ Hello, World, you would type the following:

    $ cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-2.0` hello.c -o hello

To compile a GTK+ program for the framebuffer, use the "gtk+-linux-fb-2.0" package name instead of "gtk+-2.0":

    $ cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-linux-fb-2.0` hello.c -o hello