Using SDK Dynamic Libraries

6.1. How to Use a Dynamic Library from the SDK in Your Project

Similar to Xcode, you can link your project against any dynamic library (.dylib) provided within the Apple SDK.

Example: Using libxml2

Let's say you want to use the libxml2.dylib library, typically found in the usr/lib subdirectory of the SDK.

1. Edit make.cmd: Open your project's make.cmd file.

2. Modify DBE_LDFLAGS: Add the search path and library name to the DBE_LDFLAGS variable.

   • -L/path/to/libs: (Capital L) Tells the linker to look for dylibs in this directory (relative to the SDK root).

   • -llibraryname: (Lowercase L) Tells the linker to link against a library named liblibraryname.dylib. Do NOT include the "lib" prefix or the ".dylib" suffix here.

   For libxml2.dylib located in /usr/lib of the SDK:

   rem # Define here the compile options and the linker options for your project.
   set DBE_CPPFLAGS=-W -Wall -Wno-unused-parameter -O2
   set DBE_CFLAGS=
   set DBE_CXXFLAGS=
   set DBE_LDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib -lxml2

   This tells the linker to link against /usr/lib/libxml2.dylib.

Linking Multiple Libraries: You can add flags for multiple libraries. For example, to link against libxml2.dylib, libcharset.dylib, libbz2.dylib, and libIOKit.dylib, all from /usr/lib:

set DBE_LDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib -lxml2 -lcharset -lbz2 -lIOKit

Specifying Header File Locations (If Necessary): If you get #include or #import errors during compilation, the compiler might not be finding the header files for these libraries. You need to tell the compiler where to look for them using the -I flag in DBE_CPPFLAGS, DBE_CFLAGS, or DBE_CXXFLAGS.

For example, if libxml2 headers are in SDK_ROOT/usr/include/libxml2/:

Code-Snippet

set DBE_CPPFLAGS=-W -Wall -O2 -I"/usr/include/libxml2"

Or, if using the full path from your Windows system (less portable, but sometimes necessary if variables aren't expanding as expected, ensure paths with spaces are quoted):

Code-Snippet

set DBE_CPPFLAGS=-W -Wall -O2 -I"C:/Users/YourUser/Darwin Build Environment/SDK/usr/include/libxml2"

Important:

• -L/some/path specifies a library search directory.

• -lsomelibrary links against libsomelibrary.dylib.

• -I/some/include/path specifies an include header search directory.