SDL/SDL_image.h: No such file or directory

Question

I'm trying to follow Lazy Foo's tutorials. But when I try to run one of his examples I get this compiler error:

error: SDL/SDL_image.h: No such file or directory

The compiler/linker is set up correctly, I'm using Code::Blocks on Windows XP.

However, the problem is simply that there are no SDL_image.h. I've checked in the folder that it supposedly should have been. I tried to download the SDL library again and checked again, still no SDL_image.h file. Where did the SDL_image.h file go?

The library I dowloaded was the 'SDL-devel-1.2.14-mingw32.tar.gz' under 'Development Libraries' for Win32 from this link: http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php

AFAIK the "official" way to include SDL related headers is via #include "SDL.h" — trenki, Jul 27 '11 at 11:44
@trenki: Though it is usally located under `/usr/include/SDL` on unixlike boxery — Sebastian Mach, Jul 27 '11 at 14:59
@phresnel: I know, that is why `sdl-config --cflags --libs` contains `-I/usr/include/SDL` — trenki, Jul 27 '11 at 17:42

score 63 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '11 at 11:34

63

You need to install SDL_image separately. It's not shipped with SDL.

answered Jul 27 '11 at 11:34

Piotr Praszmo

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3

For those who are using SDL2, the file name has changed to "SDL2_image.h". See documentation: http://wiki.libsdl.org/MigrationGuide#line-435 – Bit Fracture Aug 20 '15 at 02:28
3

On my box, the file is located at /usr/local/include/SDL2/SDL_image.h. Essentially, requiring an import from "SDL2/SDL_image.h" and linking with -lSDL_image. – alok Oct 24 '16 at 06:59
@BitFracture it probably depends, for me it's still `SDL_image.h`, to be exact it's `SDL2/SDL_image.h`. – Hi-Angel Nov 10 '17 at 04:57
@Hi-Angel The important point here is that it might not be in the same place for everyone. Hopefully knowing this will prevent some face-palms. – Bit Fracture Dec 23 '17 at 03:08
1

On macOS, you can get this with `brew install sdl2 sdl2_image`, at least for when building Brogue CE. – Phoenix Nov 10 '21 at 23:46

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '16 at 14:01

12

You need to install SDL_image library like mentioned in the other answers, if you are on a Debian based systems you can simply install with the following command:

sudo apt-get install libsdl-image1.2-dev

answered May 23 '16 at 14:01

razz

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 25 '12 at 21:29

In your case as you are using windows, then you should first install sdl_image and then

#include <SDL_image.h>

not

#include <SDL/SDL_image.h>

If you were using linux and your sdl-image package is installed to /usr/include/SDL then you need to use

#include <SDL_image.h>

In most cases when you install from source in linux. Your package may not be resident in /usr/include/SDL

In these kind of situation, I use

#include <SDL/SDL_image.h>

and it works

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 26 '11 at 07:26

3

In the third tutorial of lazyfoo is completely explained.

Basically, you must add "-lSDL_image" to the compilation line.

edited Oct 26 '11 at 07:26

GMD

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answered Oct 25 '11 at 12:58

Alavro

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 21 '17 at 17:40

For anyone who tries this, an update would be to actually add "-lSDL2_image" to your compilation line. Everyone else simply has -lSDL_image" which changed when SDL2 released. After that just go to the bin and add all of your .dll files to System32 and you should be all set!

NadiR_Troubleshooter · Answer 6 · 2013-04-18T06:11:08.650

You have to Download "SDL_image-devel-1.2.4-VC6.zip" For code blocks download link » http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release/SDL_image-devel-1.2.4-VC6.zip

copy the files present in the include folder that you will find inside the zip file after extraction.And paste it to the C:\SDL\include\SDL in my case or to the directory where your other SDL *.h are present.

Similary, Copy the files present in the lib folder of the zip file and paste it to C:\SDL\lib or to the folder where other lib files are present.. Then copy all the *.dll files present in the archive to the C:\windows\system32 Further you have to add "-lSDL_image" to the compilation line by openning settings > compiler& debugger > linker.

Then open a empty file project and add empty file to the project then #include "SDL\SDL_image.h" Hope it works for you !!

Or

First download SDL_image-devel-1.2.4-VC6.zip from above given link and Goto link >> http://www.lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/lesson03/windows/codeblocks/index.php for more detailed explaination.

Softmixt · Answer 7 · 2020-11-18T21:47:27.373

SDL2 Windows Setup for (32b) that worked for me (C language):

download SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-mingw.tar.gz and SDL2_image-2.0.5-win32-x86.zip (32 chose other for 64) from here: https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/.
copy "SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-mingw\SDL2_image-2.0.5\i686-w64-mingw32\include\SDL2\SDL_image.h" to you SDL folder where all your headers are my case "MinGW\include\SDL2".
copy content from "SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-mingw\SDL2_image-2.0.5\i686-w64-mingw32\bin" to "\MinGW\bin".
copy content of : "SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-mingw\SDL2_image-2.0.5\i686-w64-mingw32\lib" to "MinGW\lib"
include header like this :
```
    #include <SDL2/SDL_image.h>
```
link it in your makefile (see this '... -llibSDL2_image ...'):

        build:
            gcc -Wfatal-errors \
            -std=c99 \
            ./*.c \
            -I"C:\libsdl\include" \
            -L"C:\libsdl\lib" \
            -lmingw32 \
            -lSDL2main \
            -lSDL2 \
            -lSDL2 \
            -llibSDL2_image \
            -o example.exe

Dummy CodeExample.c

     #include <SDL2/SDL.h>
     #include <SDL2/SDL_image.h>
     #include <SDL2/SDL_timer.h>
     #include <stdio.h>
    
    int main(int argc, char *args[])
    {
    
        // attempt to initialize graphics and timer system
        if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO | SDL_INIT_TIMER) != 0)
        {
            printf("Error initializing SDL: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
        }
    
        // Declare pointers
        SDL_Window *window;
        SDL_Renderer *renderer;
        SDL_Texture *bitmapTex = NULL;
        SDL_Surface *bitmapSurface = NULL;
    
        // Create an application window with the following settings:
        window = SDL_CreateWindow(
            "An SDL2 window",       // window title
            SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED, // initial x position
            SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED, // initial y position
            840,                    // width, in pixels
            480,                    // height, in pixels
            SDL_WINDOW_OPENGL       // flags - see below
        );
    
        // Check that the window was successfully created
        if (!window)
        {
            // In the case that the window could not be made...
            printf("Could not create window: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
            SDL_Quit();
            return 1;
        }
    
        // create renderer which sets up graphics hardware
        Uint32 render_flags = SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED | SDL_RENDERER_PRESENTVSYNC;
        renderer = SDL_CreateRenderer(window, -1, render_flags);
        if (!renderer)
        {
            printf("error creating renderer: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
            SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
            SDL_Quit();
            return 1;
        }
    
        // Load theimage into memory using SDL_Image library function
        bitmapSurface = IMG_Load("image.png");
        bitmapTex = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(renderer, bitmapSurface);
    
        SDL_FreeSurface(bitmapSurface);
        if (!bitmapTex)
        {
            // In the case that the window could not be made...
            printf("Error creating texture: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
            SDL_DestroyRenderer(renderer);
            SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
            SDL_Quit();
            return 1;
        }
    
        // The window is open: could enter program loop here (see SDL_PollEvent())
        while (1)
        {
            SDL_Event e;
            if (SDL_PollEvent(&e))
            {
                if (e.type == SDL_QUIT)
                {
                    break;
                }
            }
    
            // Clear the window
            SDL_RenderClear(renderer);
            SDL_RenderCopy(renderer, bitmapTex, NULL, NULL);
            SDL_RenderPresent(renderer);
        }
    
        SDL_DestroyTexture(bitmapTex);
        SDL_DestroyRenderer(renderer);
        SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
    
        SDL_Quit();
    
        return 0;
    }

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 29 '22 at 23:00

The SDL library is modular and only the core is distributed, by default, when you acquire the library. For SDL 1, this includes SDL, itself, and (for those writing SDL applications) SDL-devel; for SDL 2, the libraries are SDL2 and SDL2-devel. The corresponding include files in developer's applications are <SDL/SDL.h> and <SDL2/SDL.h>, with the include files having been installed in whatever location is standard for your system, when the *-devel libraries are acquired and installed.

The modules all follow a similar pattern, SDL_X, SDL_X-devel for SDL 1 and SDL2_X and SDL2_X-devel for SDL 2, for module X, with the corresponding developers' include files being <SDL/SDL_X.h> and <SDL2/SDL_X.h>. For instance, for the image module, X = image, the libraries are SDL_image, SDL_image-devel, SDL2_image, SDL2_image-devel, and the include files are <SDL/SDL_image.h> and <SDL2/SDL_image.h>.

The modules are: "image" (as just mentioned) for handling images in the different standard formats (e.g. PNG); "mixer", for handling the different audio file formats, "gfx" for graphics drawing primitives, "net" for networked applications, "rtf" for Rich Text Format, "ttf" for the font-handling (ttf stands for "TrueTypeFont").

The Source Code for SDL is over here:

https://github.com/orgs/libsdl-org/repositories?type=all

SDL/SDL_image.h: No such file or directory

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