SDL under Mac OS X

SDL Development
7

I want to build my game for OS X. SDL shouldn’t be statically linked
because my program isn’t GPL. Should I use the “framework” or the
UNIX-style shared lib system ?

I’d like to be able to keep SDL in my game’s directory, too.

I googled and looked at the os x faq on libsdl.org but didn’t find the
answer.

Here’s how I did it for ut2004 (which may not be the best way, but it
was the cleanest in the long run, in my opinion):

Build SDL “the unix way”…unpack the source, and from a Terminal:

cd /where/i/unpacked/SDL-1.2.8
./configure
cd src
make

Let the thing compile for awhile. When it finishes, one of the last
things in there should be the link command line…it starts something
like this…

gcc -dynamiclib  -o .libs/libSDL-1.2.0.7.1.dylib  .libs/SDL.o

…and runs for 35 lines or so.

Cut and paste that command, making a small change:

Find:

  -install_name  /usr/local/lib/libSDL-1.2.0.dylib

Change that to:

  -install_name @executable_path/libSDL-1.2.0.dylib

Take the library (.libs/libSDL-1.2.0.7.1.dylib, on my system) and put it
into your project. Link against that file. Now the program when run will
look for “libSDL-1.2.0.dylib” in the same directory as the program.

This is a pain to set up, but is dead simple thereafter, in terms of
packaging and distribution. Real Mac programmers are probably cringing
right now and can offer a better solution, but this worked great for me.

–ryan.