Compiling CTK+ Applications: CTK+ 3 Reference Manual

## Compiling CTK+ Applications Compiling CTK+ Applications — How to compile your CTK+ application |

## Compiling CTK+ Applications on UNIX

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

The following interactive shell session demonstrates how `pkg-config` is used (the actual output on your system may be different):

    $ pkg-config --cflags ctk+-3.0
     -pthread -I/usr/include/ctk-3.0 -I/usr/lib64/ctk-3.0/include -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng12
    $ pkg-config --libs ctk+-3.0
     -pthread -lctk-3 -lcdk-3 -latk-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lpangoft2-1.0 -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lcairo -lpango-1.0 -lfreetype -lfontconfig -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -lgthread-2.0 -lrt -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 CTK+ Hello, World, you would type the following:

    $ cc `pkg-config --cflags ctk+-3.0` hello.c -o hello `pkg-config --libs ctk+-3.0`

Deprecated CTK+ functions are annotated to make the compiler emit warnings when they are used (e.g. with gcc, you need to use the -Wdeprecated-declarations option). If these warnings are problematic, they can be turned off by defining the preprocessor symbol `CDK_DISABLE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS` by using the commandline option `-DCDK_DISABLE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS`

CTK+ deprecation annotations are versioned; by defining the macros `CDK_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED` and `CDK_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED`, you can specify the range of CTK+ versions whose API you want to use. APIs that were deprecated before or introduced after this range will trigger compiler warnings.

Here is how you would compile hello.c if you want to allow it to use symbols that were not deprecated in 3.2:

    $ cc `pkg-config --cflags ctk+-3.0` -DCDK_VERSION_MIN_REQIRED=CDK_VERSION_3_2 hello.c -o hello `pkg-config --libs ctk+-3.0`

And here is how you would compile hello.c if you don't want it to use any symbols that were introduced after 3.4:

    $ cc `pkg-config --cflags ctk+-3.0` -DCDK_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED=CDK_VERSION_3_4 hello.c -o hello `pkg-config --libs ctk+-3.0`

The older deprecation mechanism of hiding deprecated interfaces entirely from the compiler by using the preprocessor symbol CTK_DISABLE_DEPRECATED is still used for deprecated macros, enumeration values, etc. To detect uses of these in your code, use the commandline option `-DCTK_DISABLE_DEPRECATED`. There are similar symbols CDK_DISABLE_DEPRECATED, GDK_PIXBUF_DISABLE_DEPRECATED and G_DISABLE_DEPRECATED for CDK, GdkPixbuf and GLib.

Similarly, if you want to make sure that your program doesn't use any functions which may be problematic in a multidevice setting, you can define the preprocessor symbol CDK_MULTIDEVICE_SAFE by using the command line option `-DCTK_MULTIDEVICE_SAFE=1`.

### Useful autotools macros

CTK+ provides various macros for easily checking version and backends supported. The macros are

AM_PATH_CTK_3_0([minimum-version], [if-found], [if-not-found], [modules]) | This macro should be used to check that CTK+ is installed and available for compilation. The four arguments are optional, and they are: minimum-version, the minimum version of CTK+ required for compilation; if-found, the action to perform if a valid version of CTK+ has been found; if-not-found, the action to perform if a valid version of CTK+ has not been found; modules, a list of modules to be checked along with CTK+.
CTK_CHECK_BACKEND([backend-name], [minimum-version], [if-found], [if-not-found]) | This macro should be used to check if a specific backend is supported by CTK+. The minimum-version, if-found and if-not-found arguments are optional.