undefined reference to WinMain

[prime ferry]

This is my fire time (certainly not first attempt) using any external library in C, and nothing I find seems to make sense. This is the farthest I've been able to get, but I still don't understand what is going on.

[tawny galleon]

When your question is answered use !solved to mark the question as resolved.

Remember to ask specific questions, provide necessary details, and reduce your question to its simplest form. For tips on how to ask a good question use !howto ask.

[prime ferry]

The tutorial I originally followed in installing SDL2 did use C++, but it also said that it was applicable to C.

[vast prairie]

I recommend just using gcc main.c -o main && ./main in your terminal, cause it achieves the same thing and is more readable

Can you send the tutorial?

[prime ferry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08t6gD1Y1E
I just looked through it again, and I guess it didn't actually ever actually explicitly say it worked with C. Also anything after him making the Makefile seemed to be strictly for C++, so I didn't follow that part.

[prime ferry]

I tried that, and it just said that && wasn't a valid argument separator. I removed the && ./main bit, and it gave the same error as in the screenshot.

[vast prairie]

You're using PowerShell I think, since the first line is PS, which might cause general weirdness. If you press this dropdown button you should see the option to open bash or cmd, and then try using gcc main.c -o main && ./main again

The && here basically means "if gcc succeeded, run the program"

[prime ferry]

Same code; very similar error with Git Bash.

[vast prairie]

you need to change directory (cd) into your project first

So specifically cd "GUI Game"

[prime ferry]

ok yeah exact same error as last time

[vast prairie]

Yeah OK, so what you just need to do is watch the full video. It shows how to compile in such a way that SDL is used as a library.

[prime ferry]

I did watch the full thing multiple times, and I honestly just don't understand anything after the Makefile. The Makefile command looks to just be for C++ as it starts with g++, and I don't know how much I'd need to change it to be for C. If I just edit the g++ part to gcc, and replace the .cpp with .c, it still doesn't work.

It gives very similar errors, but instead about being unable to find most of the different arguments. It also says "skipping incompatible" a bunch.

[vast prairie]

Well, you'll want to send that error instead then

[vast prairie]

I recommend forgetting about wanting to write C for a moment, and just following the tutorial exactly first. You can then always come back and change the .cpp to .c later on

[prime ferry]

I did.

That's what I did at first.

[vast prairie]

Again, you are trying to compile your main.c using gcc main.c, but the tutorial shows you that you need a longer command that tells the compiler where to find the SDL2 library

So start by recreating the Makefile, and following every step exactly to the best of your ability, and then come back with how that went

[prime ferry]

I used gcc -Isrc/Include -Lsrc/lib -o main.c -lminw32main -lSDL2main -lSDL2

[vast prairie]

Well, the screenshots you sent didn't show what that printed

[prime ferry]

Well if I follow it exactly, I get this.

Pasting the command exactly makes it say that main.cpp doesn't exist, which would make sense given that it's not a C++ file, and trying to run it via VSC gives the error saying <SDL2/SDL.h> doesn't exist. Replacing that with the actual location of the imported file leads to where I was at the start of the post.

I'm going to recheck if I even have mingw installed. I'm quite confident I do, but I'll check.

[vast prairie]

Make sure to use cmd like you did in the earlier screenshot

This is again PowerShell

[prime ferry]

not too different.

Yeah, I have mingw

[vast prairie]

I'll boot up Windows myself for a minute to check how I did it with mingw

[vast prairie]

So in my case I can do C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/mingw32-make.exe

You may have put it in a different folder, but try it

[prime ferry]

I don't seem to have that file

My C:/msys64/mingw64/bin/ directory doesn't have a mingw32-make.exe file.

[vast prairie]

Try to look for a file with make in it in there

[prime ferry]

I just installed make from the video's decription

[vast prairie]

Ah ok

[prime ferry]

I do have C:/program Files(x86)/GnuWin32/bin/make.exe, which was just downloaded.

This stuff is all over the place, wow.

[vast prairie]

Yeah, I highly recommend switching to Ubuntu asap

[prime ferry]

I do not know what you mean by that.

[vast prairie]

Writing C and C++ on Windows is a pain in the ass

Linux distributions like Ubuntu make it significantly easier

[prime ferry]

So far it hasn't been so bad if you ignore this library stuff.

Library stuff is actually why this isn't my first attempt. I keep trying for hours and giving up. This has to be like #7 in the last year.

[vast prairie]

You can ignore the Makefile for now, just using the command that he puts inside of it, that should work fine

[prime ferry]

I am ok with that

[vast prairie]

Just put the command in a README.md in your project so it's easy to find

Or a simple run.sh

[prime ferry]

A run.sh is a good idea. I'll just do that.

[vast prairie]

It is basically the same as a Makefile here, yeah

A Makefile is intelligent in the sense that it easily allows you to only recompile the program whenever its code changes, rather than doing it every single time you run it, but it should compile super fast anyways

[prime ferry]

This isn't too complicated of a program.

I still have that issue from the very beginning. WinMain has an undeclared reference.

[vast prairie]

Show a screenshot of your files in VS Code, where you expanded all of the subfolders

And a screenshot of that undeclared reference error again

[prime ferry]

Not opening construction because it's irrelevant, and src/include has a ton of header files that would cover up the screenshot. The Bash screenshot is when the command is pasted directly into the terminal, and the PS screenshot is when the debug run button is clicked.

[vast prairie]

You didn't screenshot your main.c in the filetree, but rename that to main.cpp for now

The command here also looks different from the one you used, so use this exact one

the PS screenshot is when the debug run button is clicked.
Don't use that for now

[prime ferry]

What's a main.c filetree?

[vast prairie]

You didn't screenshot your main.c in the filetree
So your main.c is just saying "your main.c file"

File tree is this

Or file explorer or whatever other name you like

But when people say file explorer they usually mean this thing on Windows

[prime ferry]

That's what I thought it was. I did send that screenshot.

[vast prairie]

So rename main.c to main.cpp, and run this exact command

[prime ferry]

I have to go do something. brb.

[prime ferry]

(I'm still doing that other thing, so I'm oing to be replying quite slow)

[scenic shale]

for the undefined reference to winmain, do

int main(int argc, char** argv){}

if it still pops up, add -DSDL_MAIN_HANDLED to your compiler args

or #define it in the same file you have main

[vast prairie]

Pretty sure they already have a main function, since they sent this screenshot

But that -DSDL_MAIN_HANDLED might very well be it

[scenic shale]

yeah my bad i dont really check screenshots

they are a pain to read without vencord

[scenic shale]

yeah SDL uses a macro for main that calls stuff from their API first and then calls WinMain on windows

[vast prairie]

You're getting cannot find -lmingw32main: No such file or directory as the first error, so can you show a screenshot of where you think it should be found in your file tree?

Cause the YTer did -lmingw32 there

[scenic shale]

they probably dont need to link mingw32main anyways

you only need to link against SDL2 and SDL2main (if you link statically)

and I think order matters and SDL2 should be before SDL2main

but using sdl2 is kinda obsolete now no

[vast prairie]

I'd personally use something like raylib

[prime ferry]

It's what I was told to use by a lot of people. Is there a better GUI library for C?

[scenic shale]

SDL isn't a GUI library

it's a windowing/event API

but it's fine

[prime ferry]

That's what I meant.

[scenic shale]

it's just that there is SDL3 if you are willing to build it

[prime ferry]

Building SDL2 is already being a pain. How much worse is SDL3? What are its advantages?

[vast prairie]

I'd just stick with SDL2 for now, rather than switching

[scenic shale]

i mean sure

[vast prairie]

Doesn't really matter what a beginner uses, but it's just a shame that it always takes so much effort to set this stuff up

[scenic shale]

idk
git clone
open VS solution
press ctrl+b
done

[scenic shale]

it shouldn't be

but that's the curse of not using a build system

[vast prairie]

And Windows

[scenic shale]

premake/cmake can work wonders

or even MSBuild and VS

<#memes message>

[vast prairie]

I was just about to say, I really just want to work in VS Code and not VS

And every time it's annoying on Windows

[scenic shale]

VSC is just as bloated and bad in performance as VS was for me

i use neither anyways

[vast prairie]

Fair, but I mostly mean in terms of feel and looks

[scenic shale]

but the amount of boilerplate c++ requires, I can't live without an IDE

[prime ferry]

There was a reason I chose VS Code and not VS because I remember originally downloading VS not knowing the difference, trying to do something, then finding out that I had to use VS Code for it. I don't remember what I was trying to do or why I couldn't on VS.

[vast prairie]

I recommend just using what you have right now, cause you're almost at the finish line

[prime ferry]

I'm at the same place I was two hours ago.

[vast prairie]

You're getting cannot find -lmingw32main: No such file or directory as the first error, so can you show a screenshot of where you think it should be found in your file tree?

Cause the YTer did -lmingw32 there

[vast prairie]

Well yeah, but you're just missing something small now

[scenic shale]

you should try just not adding that anyways

[prime ferry]

Huh, weird. I don't know why that extra main is there.

[scenic shale]

and then if there is a problem you add it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[vast prairie]

What nevemlaci said, try removing -lmingw32main entirely for a moment

[scenic shale]

it might just link it implicitly

for me i just needed -lSDL2

when using SDL

[prime ferry]

Same issue

[vast prairie]

At least you don't have that error anymore at the top

[scenic shale]

hmm

[prime ferry]

Well yeah but that's because it's near the bottom

[scenic shale]

do you by any chance use the 32 bit version of sdl

and build for 64 bit?

[prime ferry]

That's what the guy in the tutorial did, so I think so.

[vast prairie]

I am saying the error that used to show up as the first one at the top about mingw32main is now gone

[scenic shale]

try the 64 bit one

[prime ferry]

Ok, I'll do that.

[vast prairie]

I am wondering why this happens

[scenic shale]

it skipped

look above

[prime ferry]

So do I just delete lib, include, and SDL2.dll then readd?

[vast prairie]

Right, yeah then probably 32 vs 64 bit issue

[scenic shale]

use critical thinking sometimes
tutorials are usually shit

[scenic shale]

yes

everything related to sdl

[prime ferry]

win32-x64, right?

[scenic shale]

no clue how they named it

this one

[prime ferry]

That's not on here

This is the github page for SDL2.30.4

[scenic shale]

i just downloaded the lib for mingw from the releases on github

this

and itll be in this one

[prime ferry]

That's the one I used previously

[scenic shale]

yes but there are 2 versions in this

and

u need the x86_64 one

[prime ferry]

Ah.

[scenic shale]

but you really should be using a build system like CMake

[prime ferry]

I tried that, but I couldn't understand how.

It was just as confusing as this

[scenic shale]

add_library(SDL3 SHARED IMPORTED ${LIBRARY_DIR}/mingw/SDL3.dll)
set_target_properties(SDL3 PROPERTIES
        IMPORTED_LOCATION "${LIBRARY_DIR}/mingw/SDL3.dll"
        IMPORTED_IMPLIB "${LIBRARY_DIR}/mingw/SDL3.dll"
        INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/include"
)

target_link_libraries(my_project PRIVATE SDL3)

this is how I linked SDL3 in cmake(dynamically)

[prime ferry]

Yup, none of that makes any sense to me.

[scenic shale]

you dont need the IMPLIB property for statics

[scenic shale]

add a library
set its properties(where the library file is, where its includes are)
link it to the build target(named my_project in this case)

[vast prairie]

But before you jump down this rabbit hole, just try to use this x86_64 version of SDL2

It's almost certainly the exact issue

[scenic shale]

saw this problem a few dozen times

someone follows a 10 year old tutorial where the guy builds on 32 bits

doesnt tell the viewer

[prime ferry]

Ok I'm back for a bit. I did install the 64 bit version and seems to be working, but the resulting exe file doesn't seem to do anything, even after inserting the line printf("test");

[vast prairie]

Try g++ main.cpp -o main and then ./main with this:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
  printf("Hello, World!\n");
}

To make sure it's not SDL being fucky

[prime ferry]

It's not SDL.

[vast prairie]

So did you try the main.cpp with the command I gave that you say that?

[prime ferry]

I did gcc main.c -o main

[vast prairie]

What does the main.c look like

[prime ferry]

I switched the file to a c file

[vast prairie]

Okay cool, yeah then it's not SDL

Though try the same thing with g++ instead of gcc

[prime ferry]

Same thing

[scenic shale]

wdym "not doing anything"

does it return 0?

or crash?

did you put SDL2.dll in the same folder as the executable?

Is it the 64bit one?

[vast prairie]

In order to check what happened you can run echo $?, which prints 0 if your program exited successfully

[prime ferry]

It creates the executable file, but running it seemingly does nothing.
probably, but I can't tell as nothing pops up.
No crash message
Yes
Yes

[vast prairie]

Try echo $?

[scenic shale]

why?

no point.

[vast prairie]

Cause I have had the exact same issue before, and it was due to having several versions of compilers on my computer

[scenic shale]

but yes, do echo $?

idk if it works on windows but try it xd

[vast prairie]

Try echo %ERRORLEVEL% otherwise

[prime ferry]

Yeah it looks to be returning 0

wait no

I misread

It says bash: echo: command not found despite sill saying wefg when I type echo "wefg"

[vast prairie]

You'll probably need this on Windows

[prime ferry]

so what does this do?

[vast prairie]

Prints what your program returned

[vast prairie]

You wrote return 0;, so it should print 0

[prime ferry]

Oh, gcc main.c -o main && ./main did print Test like it should

[vast prairie]

bruh

forgot to save or smth?

[prime ferry]

So running the file via GUI didn't work, but through command line it did. I expected this button to run the code.

[vast prairie]

We both have absolutely no clue what that button actually does under the hood, so please stop using it

[prime ferry]

That is funny. I really thought it would just execute the executable file, but I guess not.

[vast prairie]

We had no clue you were using that LOL

See if you can get SDL working now

[prime ferry]

fair enough, but at least hopefully you can see where my misunderstanding sprang from. I'll try SDL now.

[vast prairie]

yeah no worries, easy beginner mistake to make. The main lesson to take away from it is that if someone is telling you to execute a command, you do that exact thing :P

[prime ferry]

What's some very simple SDL function I can run to test things?

[vast prairie]

probably some sort of init call that you can glean from his video

or just copy his code if he published it

[prime ferry]

woo

(Ignore the return value. That was a random number to test things.)

Finally. It took four hours, but I finally got it loaded. This is the reason I gave up all those other times. I can rest. Finally.

[vast prairie]

Haha, great job!

Now to draw something on the screen

Just copy this main.cpp and see if it works:
https://github.com/HerbGlitch/SDL2-Setup/blob/master/main.cpp

btw, C and C++ have the rule that main() implicitly returns 0, so you can just get rid of that weird return 65678; at the end of your main()

[prime ferry]

Yeah, I know.

It was for the echo bit

[vast prairie]

Any non-zero return code is what is causing the red dot here, indicating failure btw

[prime ferry]

That is helpful to know, thanks.

[vast prairie]

So no need for echo $? since you have this dot indicating whether it's 0 or not

[prime ferry]

Also the show window part worked.

[vast prairie]

ayy

[prime ferry]

This was such a pain.

[vast prairie]

yeah, from this point on you're free from having to do any setting up

just coding now

[prime ferry]

So, in conclusion: To get it working, download SDL2, and from the 64 bit version indicated by the text x64, move/copy the lib and include folders into the src folder, move/copy the SDL2.dll from bin into the main folder, make a build.sh file with the text gcc -Isrc/Include -Lsrc/lib -o main main.c -lmingw32 -lSDL2main -lSDL2 in it, then open the Git Bash terminal, and finally run bash build.sh to build the executable file and ./main to run it. Do not use a run button; we do not know what they do.

[vast prairie]

So !solved time?

[prime ferry]

!solved

[tawny galleon]

Thank you and let us know if you have any more questions!

This thread is now set to auto-hide after an hour of inactivity