How do I configure an SDL2 project using CMake in the CLion IDE?

Question

Ryan McCombe · Accepted Answer

CLion is a popular cross-platform IDE that uses CMake as its build system. To set up an SDL2 project in CLion:

Create a new C++ project and select "CMake" as the build system.
Open the CMakeLists.txt file and add the SDL2 configuration:

1cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
2project(MyProject)
3
4set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
5
6find_package(SDL2 REQUIRED)
7find_package(SDL2_image REQUIRED)
8find_package(SDL2_ttf REQUIRED)
9
10add_executable(MyProject main.cpp)
11
12target_link_libraries(
13  MyProject
14  SDL2::SDL2
15  SDL2::SDL2_image
16  SDL2::SDL2_ttf
17)

Step 1: Create a main.cpp file and add a simple SDL2 test program:

1#include <SDL.h>
2#include <SDL_image.h>
3#include <SDL_ttf.h>
4
5#include <iostream>
6
7int main(int argc, char** argv) {
8  if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) != 0) {
9    std::cout << "SDL_Init Error: "
10      << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
11    return 1;
12  }
13
14  std::cout << "SDL2 initialized successfully!"
15    << std::endl;
16
17  SDL_Quit();
18  return 0;
19}

Step 2: Build and run the project. If you see the "SDL2 initialized successfully!" message, your setup is complete!

Note: Make sure you have installed SDL2, SDL2_image, and SDL2_ttf on your system and that CMake can find them. You may need to set the SDL2_DIR, SDL2_IMAGE_DIR, and SDL2_TTF_DIR environment variables to point to the correct locations.

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