GLFW

Introduction

GLFW is a free, Open Source, multi-platform library for OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan application development. It provides a simple, platform-independent API for creating windows, contexts and surfaces, reading input, handling events, etc.

Version 3.2 adds support for Vulkan surface creation, window mode switching, window maximization, window input focus control, window size and aspect ratio limits, human-readable key names, window icons, joystick connection events, XInput and DirectInput joystick input, event waiting with timeout, 64-bit integer raw timer, context-less window creation, error-less contexts via GL_KHR_no_error (where available), run-time context creation API selection, Windows 8.1 per-monitor DPI and the CMake config-file package system, adds simpler build-time configuration, improved documentation and fixes for a large number of bugs that together affect all supported platforms.

If you are new to GLFW, you may find the tutorial for GLFW 3 useful. If you have used GLFW 2 in the past, there is a transition guide for moving to the GLFW 3 API.

Compiling GLFW

See the Compiling GLFW guide in the GLFW documentation.

Using GLFW

See the Building programs that use GLFW guide in the GLFW documentation.

Reporting bugs

Bugs are reported to our issue tracker. Please always include the name and version of the OS where the bug occurs and the version of GLFW used. If you have cloned it, include the commit ID used.

If it's a build issue, please also include the build log and the name and version of your development environment.

If it's a context creation issue, please also include the make and model of your graphics card and the version of your driver.

This will help both us and other people experiencing the same bug.

Dependencies

GLFW itself needs only the headers and libraries for your window system. It does not need the headers for any context creation API (WGL, GLX, EGL, NSGL) or rendering API (OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan) to enable support for them.

The examples and test programs depend on a number of tiny libraries. These are located in the deps/ directory.

• getopt_port for examples with command-line options
• TinyCThread for threaded examples
• An OpenGL 3.2 core loader generated by glad for examples using modern OpenGL
• linmath.h for linear algebra in examples
• Vulkan headers for Vulkan tests

The Vulkan example additionally requires the Vulkan SDK to be installed, or it will not be included in the build.

The documentation is generated with Doxygen. If CMake does not find Doxygen, the documentation will not be generated.

Changelog

• Added glfwVulkanSupported, glfwGetRequiredInstanceExtensions, glfwGetInstanceProcAddress, glfwGetPhysicalDevicePresentationSupport and glfwCreateWindowSurface for platform independent Vulkan support
• Added glfwSetWindowMonitor for switching between windowed and full screen modes and updating the monitor and desired video mode of full screen windows
• Added glfwMaximizeWindow and GLFW_MAXIMIZED for window maximization
• Added glfwFocusWindow for giving windows input focus
• Added glfwSetWindowSizeLimits and glfwSetWindowAspectRatio for setting absolute and relative window size limits
• Added glfwGetKeyName for querying the layout-specific name of printable keys
• Added glfwWaitEventsTimeout for waiting for events for a set amount of time
• Added glfwSetWindowIcon for setting the icon of a window
• Added glfwGetTimerValue and glfwGetTimerFrequency for raw timer access
• Added glfwSetJoystickCallback and GLFWjoystickfun for joystick connection and disconnection events
• Added GLFW_NO_API for creating window without contexts
• Added GLFW_INCLUDE_VULKAN for including the Vulkan header
• Added GLFW_CONTEXT_CREATION_API, GLFW_NATIVE_CONTEXT_API and GLFW_EGL_CONTEXT_API for run-time context creation API selection
• Added GLFW_CONTEXT_NO_ERROR context hint for GL_KHR_no_error support
• Added GLFW_TRUE and GLFW_FALSE as client API independent boolean values
• Added icons to examples on Windows and OS X
• Relaxed rules for native access header macros
• Removed dependency on external OpenGL or OpenGL ES headers
• Removed _GLFW_USE_OPENGL, _GLFW_USE_GLESV1, _GLFW_USE_GLESV2, _GLFW_WGL, _GLFW_NSGL, _GLFW_GLX and _GLFW_EGL configuration macros
• [Win32] Added support for Windows 8.1 per-monitor DPI
• [Win32] Replaced winmm with XInput and DirectInput for joystick input
• [Win32] Bugfix: Window creation would segfault if video mode setting required the system to be restarted
• [Win32] Bugfix: MinGW import library lacked the lib prefix
• [Win32] Bugfix: Monitor connection and disconnection events were not reported when no windows existed
• [Win32] Bugfix: Activating or deactivating displays in software did not trigger monitor callback
• [Win32] Bugfix: No monitors were listed on headless and VMware guest systems
• [Win32] Bugfix: Pressing Ctrl+Pause would report GLFW_KEY_UNKNOWN
• [Win32] Bugfix: Window size events would be reported in wrong order when restoring a full screen window
• [Cocoa] Made joystick polling more efficient
• [Cocoa] Removed support for OS X 10.6
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: Full screen windows on secondary monitors were mispositioned
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: Connecting a joystick that reports no name would segfault
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: Modifier flags cache was not updated when window became key
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: Dead key character composition did not work
• [Cocoa] Bugfix: The CGL context was not released until the autorelease pool was drained by another function
• [X11] Bugfix: Monitor connection and disconnection events were not reported
• [X11] Bugfix: Decoding of UTF-8 text from XIM could continue past the end
• [X11] Bugfix: An XKB structure was leaked during glfwInit
• [X11] Bugfix: XInput2 XI_Motion events interfered with the Steam overlay
• [POSIX] Bugfix: An unrelated TLS key could be deleted by glfwTerminate
• [Linux] Made joystick polling more efficient
• [WGL] Changed extension loading to only be performed once
• [WGL] Removed dependency on external WGL headers
• [GLX] Added glfwGetGLXWindow to query the GLXWindow of a window
• [GLX] Replaced legacy drawable with GLXWindow
• [GLX] Removed dependency on external GLX headers
• [GLX] Bugfix: NetBSD does not provide libGL.so.1
• [EGL] Added _GLFW_USE_EGLPLATFORM_H configuration macro for controlling whether to use an existing EGL/eglplatform.h header
• [EGL] Added and documented test for if the context is current on the calling thread during buffer swap
• [EGL] Removed dependency on external EGL headers

Contact

The official website for GLFW is glfw.org. There you can find the latest version of GLFW, as well as news, documentation and other information about the project.

If you have questions related to the use of GLFW, we have a support forum, and the IRC channel #glfw on Freenode.

If you have a bug to report, a patch to submit or a feature you'd like to request, please file it in the issue tracker on GitHub.

Finally, if you're interested in helping out with the development of GLFW or porting it to your favorite platform, join us on GitHub or IRC.

Acknowledgements

GLFW exists because people around the world donated their time and lent their skills.

• Bobyshev Alexander
• artblanc
• arturo
• Matt Arsenault
• Keith Bauer
• John Bartholomew
• Niklas Behrens
• Niklas Bergström
• Doug Binks
• blanco
• Martin Capitanio
• Chi-kwan Chan
• Lambert Clara
• Andrew Corrigan
• Noel Cower
• Jarrod Davis
• Olivier Delannoy
• Paul R. Deppe
• Michael Dickens
• Роман Донченко
• Mario Dorn
• Jonathan Dummer
• Ralph Eastwood
• Siavash Eliasi
• Michael Fogleman
• Gerald Franz
• GeO4d
• Marcus Geelnard
• Eloi Marín Gratacós
• Stefan Gustavson
• Sylvain Hellegouarch
• Matthew Henry
• heromyth
• Lucas Hinderberger
• Paul Holden
• IntellectualKitty
• Aaron Jacobs
• Toni Jovanoski
• Arseny Kapoulkine
• Osman Keskin
• Cameron King
• Peter Knut
• Christoph Kubisch
• Eric Larson
• Robin Leffmann
• Glenn Lewis
• Shane Liesegang
• Eyal Lotem
• Дмитри Малышев
• Martins Mozeiko
• Tristam MacDonald
• Hans Mackowiak
• Zbigniew Mandziejewicz
• Kyle McDonald
• David Medlock
• Bryce Mehring
• Jonathan Mercier
• Marcel Metz
• Jonathan Miller
• Kenneth Miller
• Bruce Mitchener
• Jack Moffitt
• Jeff Molofee
• Jon Morton
• Pierre Moulon
• Julian Møller
• Kamil Nowakowski
• Ozzy
• Andri Pálsson
• Peoro
• Braden Pellett
• Arturo J. Pérez
• Orson Peters
• Emmanuel Gil Peyrot
• Cyril Pichard
• Pieroman
• Jorge Rodriguez
• Ed Ropple
• Aleksey Rybalkin
• Riku Salminen
• Brandon Schaefer
• Sebastian Schuberth
• Matt Sealey
• SephiRok
• Steve Sexton
• Systemcluster
• Yoshiki Shibukawa
• Dmitri Shuralyov
• Daniel Skorupski
• Bradley Smith
• Julian Squires
• Johannes Stein
• Justin Stoecker
• Elviss Strazdins
• Nathan Sweet
• TTK-Bandit
• Sergey Tikhomirov
• A. Tombs
• Ioannis Tsakpinis
• Samuli Tuomola
• urraka
• Jari Vetoniemi
• Ricardo Vieira
• Nicholas Vitovitch
• Simon Voordouw
• Torsten Walluhn
• Patrick Walton
• Xo Wang
• Jay Weisskopf
• Frank Wille
• yuriks
• Santi Zupancic
• Jonas Ådahl
• Lasse Öörni
• All the unmentioned and anonymous contributors in the GLFW community, for bug reports, patches, feedback, testing and encouragement