CMake

(www.cmake.org)

The CMake build system is supported on the following platforms:

• FreeBSD
• Linux
• Microsoft Visual C
• MinGW and Msys
• macOS, iOS, and tvOS, with support for XCode
• Android
• Emscripten
• RiscOS
• Playstation 2
• Playstation Vita
• Nintendo 3DS

Building SDL

Assuming the source for SDL is located at ~/sdl.

cmake -S ~/sdl -B ~/build
cmake --build ~/build

This will build SDL in the ~/build directory. Installation can be done using:

cmake --install ~/build --prefix /usr/local        # '--install' requires CMake 3.15, or newer

This will install SDL to /usr/local.

Including SDL in your project

SDL can be included in your project in 2 major ways:

• using a system SDL library, provided by your (*nix) distribution or a package manager
• using a vendored SDL library: this is SDL copied or symlinked in a subfolder.

The following CMake script supports both, depending on the value of MYGAME_VENDORED.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
project(mygame)

# Create an option to switch between a system sdl library and a vendored sdl library
option(MYGAME_VENDORED "Use vendored libraries" OFF)

if(MYGAME_VENDORED)
    add_subdirectory(vendored/sdl EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
else()
    # 1. Look for a SDL3 package, 2. look for the SDL3 component and 3. fail if none can be found
    find_package(SDL3 REQUIRED CONFIG REQUIRED COMPONENTS SDL3)
endif()

# Create your game executable target as usual 
add_executable(mygame WIN32 mygame.c)

# Link to the actual SDL3 library. SDL3::SDL3 is the shared SDL library, SDL3::SDL3-static is the static SDL libarary.
target_link_libraries(mygame PRIVATE SDL3::SDL3)

A system SDL library

For CMake to find SDL, it must be installed in a default location CMake is looking for.

The following components are available, to be used as an argument of find_package.

Component name	Description
SDL3-shared	The SDL3 shared library, available through the SDL3::SDL3-shared target
SDL3-static	The SDL3 static library, available through the SDL3::SDL3-static target
SDL3_test	The SDL3_test static library, available through the SDL3::SDL3_test target
SDL3	The SDL3 library, available through the SDL3::SDL3 target. This is an alias of SDL3::SDL3 or SDL3::SDL3-static. This component is always available.
Headers	The SDL3 headers, available through the SDL3::Headers target. This component is always available.

Using a vendored SDL

This only requires a copy of SDL in a subdirectory.

CMake configuration options for platforms

iOS/tvOS

CMake 3.14+ natively includes support for iOS and tvOS. SDL binaries may be built using Xcode or Make, possibly among other build-systems.

When using a recent version of CMake (3.14+), it should be possible to:

• build SDL for iOS, both static and dynamic
• build SDL test apps (as iOS/tvOS .app bundles)
• generate a working SDL_build_config.h for iOS (using SDL_build_config.h.cmake as a basis)

To use, set the following CMake variables when running CMake's configuration stage:

• CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=<OS> (either iOS or tvOS)
• CMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=<SDK> (examples: iphoneos, iphonesimulator, iphoneos12.4, /full/path/to/iPhoneOS.sdk, appletvos, appletvsimulator, appletvos12.4, /full/path/to/AppleTVOS.sdk, etc.)
• CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=<semicolon-separated list of CPU architectures> (example: “arm64;armv7s;x86_64”)

Examples

• for iOS-Simulator, using the latest, installed SDK:

  cmake ~/sdl -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphonesimulator -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64
  

• for iOS-Device, using the latest, installed SDK, 64-bit only

  cmake ~/sdl -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphoneos -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64
  

• for iOS-Device, using the latest, installed SDK, mixed 32/64 bit

  cmake ~/sdl -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphoneos -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;armv7s"
  

• for iOS-Device, using a specific SDK revision (iOS 12.4, in this example):

  cmake ~/sdl -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphoneos12.4 -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64
  

• for iOS-Simulator, using the latest, installed SDK, and building SDL test apps (as .app bundles):

  cmake ~/sdl -DSDL_TESTS=1 -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphonesimulator -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64
  

• for tvOS-Simulator, using the latest, installed SDK:

  cmake ~/sdl -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=tvOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=appletvsimulator -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64
  

• for tvOS-Device, using the latest, installed SDK:

  cmake ~/sdl -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=tvOS -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=appletvos -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64`