# OS X framework installation

**URL:** <https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/os-x-framework-installation/10273>\
**Category:** SDL Development\
**Created:** [March 1, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/os-x-framework-installation/10273 "2004-03-01T18:55:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hollis\_Blanchard](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/35a633/32.png) [@Hollis\_Blanchard](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Hollis_Blanchard)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/os-x-framework-installation/10273/1 "2004-03-01T18:55:16Z")

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I sent a couple mails this weekend, but I guess they’re still waiting  
for moderator approval. Please disregard them, as this should be more  
coherent.

I’m trying to build an SDL app ([http://netpanzer.berlios.de](http://netpanzer.berlios.de)) from the  
shell (i.e. autoconf), using the SDL (and SDL\_net, et al) frameworks  
installed on my system. I’d like to be able to easily compile any SDL  
app I come across, without needing to create Xcode/Project Builder  
projects for it first.

To build an SDL application on OS X, one needs both SDL.framework and  
libSDLmain.a. As far as I can tell, the libSDLmain.a library cannot  
live inside SDL.framework, so it must be installed into /usr/lib or  
/usr/local/lib. It would then need sdl-config --libs to point to that  
location.

SDL.framework can live in a various places, and be moved after  
installation, so sdl-config doesn’t have any hope of knowing where it  
is exactly. But there are a few standard locations:  
~/Library/Frameworks  
/Library/Frameworks  
/Network/Library/Frameworks  
sdl-config could simply test each location in order and return what it  
finds (e.g. “-I/Library/Frameworks/SDL.framework/Headers” for  
–cflags).

I think that no matter what sdl-config is needed, because it seems to  
be the official way of building an SDL app (used in the sdl.m4 autoconf  
script, for example).

-Hollis