What are specific steps to be able to use a library like sdl2?

[opaque elm]

I am not really familiar with Zig's package manager,
I looked up online and there is a "build.zig.zon" you need to use, correct but every online post has their own method, and am not sure wethere I am suposed to manually add this build.zig.zon to my project folder.
Some very specific steps would be appreciated.

[worldly finch]

idk either, but iirc there small projects that do this on github that may be just enough of an example to get it done. Havent watched it yet but Dude the Builder has been pretty useful and he has a videos on the general subject:

https://youtu.be/dHmw-424CMY?si=YkZ_g9OlY6ecX-6E

https://youtu.be/OQLZxserr70?si=gplsokZVSz9e4m6X

https://youtu.be/GHwKVf5Idq4?si=u9hbM58E-l50LcwB

[digital cloud]

I have not tested it, but you don't have to use the package manager. If you initialized your project with zig init-exe:
-> build.zig

// [...]
  exe.linkSystemLibrary("SDL2");
// [...]

-> main.zig

const sdl = @cImport({
  @cInclude("SDL2/SDL.h");
});
// [...]

this assumes you have the headers(I think they are called this way?)/package installed on your system. I'm very new to zig or C, and you might need to adjust the paths, but this worked with raylib for me.

[plush torrent]

I tried both importing sdl manually and using zsdl. The latter worked much better for me

[opaque elm]

zsdl?

[opaque elm]

SDL2 is already installed on my system but I still am getting issues saying
zig build-exe hello-zig Debug native: error: error: unable to find Dynamic system library 'sdl2' using strategy 'paths_first'. searched paths: none

[digital cloud]

try all capital letters "SDL2"

this is how my build.zig looks
tried SDL_GETPLATFORM() and it returned Linux so I guess it works

[opaque elm]

tried
:/

on rust as a dependency it works fine, so sdl2 is deffo correctly installed
Dont know what could be wrong...

[signal current]

https://github.com/zig-gamedev/zig-gamedev/tree/main/libs/zsdl
it's not yet packaged for use with the zig package manager and instead expects you to vendor the library files directly, but currently it's probably the least painful option for depending on SDL2

[opaque elm]

hmmm interestingly painful

[signal current]

you're trying to clone a subdirectory of the repo, the repository url should be http://github.com/zig-gamedev/zig-gamedev.git

[digital cloud]

Wait... searched pathes: none?

Something is very wrong - it gives me the pathes it searched there when I had a typo or something... VERY weird