GLFW is an Open Source, multi-platform library for OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan application development. It provides a simple, platform-independent API for creating windows, contexts and surfaces, reading input, handling events, etc.
GLFW natively supports Windows, macOS and Linux and other Unix-like systems. Experimental implementations for the Wayland protocol and the Mir display server are available but not yet officially supported.
GLFW is licensed under the zlib/libpng license.
The latest stable release is version 3.2.1.
See the downloads page for details and
files, or fetch the latest
branch, which always points to the latest stable
release. Each release starting with 3.0 also has a corresponding annotated
tag with source and binary archives.
The version history lists all user-visible
changes for every release.
This is a development branch for version 3.3, which is not yet described. Pre-release documentation is available here.
The master
branch is the stable integration branch and should always compile
and run on all supported platforms, although details of newly added features may
change until they have been included in a release. New features and many bug
fixes live in other branches until
they are stable enough to merge.
If you are new to GLFW, you may find the tutorial for GLFW 3 useful. If you have used GLFW 2 in the past, there is a transition guide for moving to the GLFW 3 API.
GLFW itself requires only the headers and libraries for your window system. It does not need the headers for any context creation API (WGL, GLX, EGL, NSGL, OSMesa) or rendering API (OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan) to enable support for them.
GLFW supports compilation on Windows with Visual C++ 2010 and later, MinGW and MinGW-w64, on macOS with Clang and on Linux and other Unix-like systems with GCC and Clang. It will likely compile in other environments as well, but this is not regularly tested.
There are pre-compiled Windows binaries available for all supported compilers.
See the compilation guide for more information about how to compile GLFW yourself.
See the documentation for tutorials, guides and the API reference.
See the contribution guide for more information.
GLFW supports Windows XP and later and macOS 10.7 and later. Linux and other Unix-like systems running the X Window System are supported even without a desktop environment or modern extensions, although some features require a running window or clipboard manager. The OSMesa backend requires Mesa 6.3.
See the compatibility guide in the documentation for more information.
GLFW itself depends only on the headers and libraries for your window system.
The (experimental) Wayland backend also depends on the extra-cmake-modules
package, which is used to generated Wayland protocol headers.
The examples and test programs depend on a number of tiny libraries. These are
located in the deps/
directory.
- getopt_port for examples with command-line options
- TinyCThread for threaded examples
- An OpenGL 3.2 core loader generated by glad for examples using modern OpenGL
- linmath.h for linear algebra in examples
- Nuklear for test and example UI
- stb_image_write for writing images to disk
- Vulkan headers for Vulkan tests
The Vulkan example additionally requires the Vulkan SDK to be installed, or it will not be included in the build. On macOS you need to provide the path to the MoltenVK SDK manually as it has no standard installation location.
The documentation is generated with Doxygen if CMake can find that tool.
Bugs are reported to our issue tracker. Please check the contribution guide for information on what to include when reporting a bug.
- Added
glfwGetError
function for querying the last error code and its description (#970) - Added
glfwUpdateGamepadMappings
function for importing gamepad mappings in SDL_GameControllerDB format (#900) - Added
glfwJoystickIsGamepad
function for querying whether a joystick has a gamepad mapping (#900) - Added
glfwGetJoystickGUID
function for querying the SDL compatible GUID of a joystick (#900) - Added
glfwGetGamepadName
function for querying the name provided by the gamepad mapping (#900) - Added
glfwGetGamepadState
function,GLFW_GAMEPAD_*
andGLFWgamepadstate
for retrieving gamepad input state (#900) - Added
glfwGetWindowContentScale
,glfwGetMonitorContentScale
andglfwSetWindowContentScaleCallback
for DPI-aware rendering (#235,#439,#677,#845,#898) - Added
glfwRequestWindowAttention
function for requesting attention from the user (#732,#988) - Added
glfwGetKeyScancode
function that allows retrieving platform dependent scancodes for keys (#830) - Added
glfwSetWindowMaximizeCallback
andGLFWwindowmaximizefun
for receiving window maximization events (#778) - Added
glfwSetWindowAttrib
function for changing window attributes (#537) - Added
glfwGetJoystickHats
function for querying joystick hats (#889,#906,#934) - Added
glfwInitHint
for setting initialization hints - Added
glfwWindowHintString
for setting string type window hints (#893,#1139) - Added
glfwGetWindowOpacity
andglfwSetWindowOpacity
for controlling whole window transparency (#1089) - Added
glfwSetMonitorUserPointer
andglfwGetMonitorUserPointer
for per-monitor user pointers - Added
glfwSetJoystickUserPointer
andglfwGetJoystickUserPointer
for per-joystick user pointers - Added
glfwGetX11SelectionString
andglfwSetX11SelectionString
functions for accessing X11 primary selection (#894,#1056) - Added headless OSMesa backend (#850)
- Added definition of
GLAPIENTRY
to public header - Added
GLFW_TRANSPARENT_FRAMEBUFFER
window hint and attribute for controlling per-pixel framebuffer transparency (#197,#663,#715,#723,#1078) - Added
GLFW_HOVERED
window attribute for polling cursor hover state (#1166) - Added
GLFW_CENTER_CURSOR
window hint for controlling cursor centering (#749,#842) - Added
GLFW_JOYSTICK_HAT_BUTTONS
init hint (#889) - Added
GLFW_LOCK_KEY_MODS
input mode andGLFW_MOD_*_LOCK
mod bits (#946) - Added macOS specific
GLFW_COCOA_RETINA_FRAMEBUFFER
window hint - Added macOS specific
GLFW_COCOA_FRAME_NAME
window hint (#195) - Added macOS specific
GLFW_COCOA_GRAPHICS_SWITCHING
window hint (#377,#935) - Added macOS specific
GLFW_COCOA_CHDIR_RESOURCES
init hint - Added macOS specific
GLFW_COCOA_MENUBAR
init hint - Added X11 specific
GLFW_X11_CLASS_NAME
andGLFW_X11_INSTANCE_NAME
window hints (#893,#1139) - Added
GLFW_INCLUDE_ES32
for including the OpenGL ES 3.2 header - Added
GLFW_OSMESA_CONTEXT_API
for creating OpenGL contexts with OSMesa (#281) - Added
GenerateMappings.cmake
script for updating gamepad mappings - Deprecated window parameter of clipboard string functions
- Deprecated charmods callback
- Removed
GLFW_USE_RETINA
compile-time option - Removed
GLFW_USE_CHDIR
compile-time option - Removed
GLFW_USE_MENUBAR
compile-time option - Bugfix: Calling
glfwMaximizeWindow
on a full screen window was not ignored - Bugfix:
GLFW_INCLUDE_VULKAN
could not be combined with the corresponding OpenGL and OpenGL ES header macros - Bugfix:
glfwGetInstanceProcAddress
returnedNULL
forvkGetInstanceProcAddr
when_GLFW_VULKAN_STATIC
was enabled - Bugfix: Invalid library paths were used in test and example CMake files (#930)
- Bugfix: The scancode for synthetic key release events was always zero
- Bugfix: The generated Doxyfile did not handle paths with spaces (#1081)
- [Win32] Added
glfwAttachWin32Window
for wrapping an existingHWND
(#25) - [Win32] Added system error strings to relevant GLFW error descriptions (#733)
- [Win32] Moved to
WM_INPUT
for disabled cursor mode motion input (#125) - [Win32] Removed XInput circular deadzone from joystick axis data (#1045)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Undecorated windows could not be iconified by the user (#861)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Deadzone logic could underflow with some controllers (#910)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Bitness test in
FindVulkan.cmake
was VS specific (#928) - [Win32] Bugfix:
glfwVulkanSupported
emitted an error on systems with a loader but no ICD (#916) - [Win32] Bugfix: Non-iconified full sreeen windows did not prevent screen blanking or password enabled screensavers (#851)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Mouse capture logic lost secondary release messages (#954)
- [Win32] Bugfix: The 32-bit Vulkan loader library static was not searched for
- [Win32] Bugfix: Vulkan libraries have a new path as of SDK 1.0.42.0 (#956)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Monitors with no display devices were not enumerated (#960)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Monitor events were not emitted (#784)
- [Win32] Bugfix: The Cygwin DLL was installed to the wrong directory (#1035)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Normalization of axis data via XInput was incorrect (#1045)
- [Win32] Bugfix:
glfw3native.h
would undefine a foreignAPIENTRY
(#1062) - [Win32] Bugfix: Disabled cursor mode prevented use of caption buttons (#650,#1071)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Returned key names did not match other platforms (#943)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Undecorated windows did not maximize to workarea (#899)
- [Win32] Bugfix: Window was resized twice when entering full screen (#1085)
- [Win32] Bugfix: The HID device notification was not unregistered (#1170)
- [Win32] Bugfix:
glfwCreateWindow
activated window even withGLFW_FOCUSED
hint set to false (#1179,#1180) - [X11] Moved to XI2
XI_RawMotion
for disable cursor mode motion input (#125) - [X11] Replaced
_GLFW_HAS_XF86VM
compile-time option with dynamic loading - [X11] Bugfix:
glfwGetVideoMode
would segfault on Cygwin/X - [X11] Bugfix: Dynamic X11 library loading did not use full sonames (#941)
- [X11] Bugfix: Window creation on 64-bit would read past top of stack (#951)
- [X11] Bugfix: XDND support had multiple non-conformance issues (#968)
- [X11] Bugfix: The RandR monitor path was disabled despite working RandR (#972)
- [X11] Bugfix: IM-duplicated key events would leak at low polling rates (#747)
- [X11] Bugfix: Gamma ramp setting via RandR did not validate ramp size
- [X11] Bugfix: Key name string encoding depended on current locale (#981,#983)
- [X11] Bugfix: Incremental reading of selections was not supported (#275)
- [X11] Bugfix: Selection I/O reported but did not support
COMPOUND_TEXT
- [X11] Bugfix: Latin-1 text read from selections was not converted to UTF-8
- [X11] Bugfix: NVidia EGL would segfault if unloaded before closing the display
- [Linux] Moved to evdev for joystick input (#906,#1005)
- [Linux] Bugfix: Event processing did not detect joystick disconnection (#932)
- [Linux] Bugfix: The joystick device path could be truncated (#1025)
- [Linux] Bugfix:
glfwInit
would fail if inotify creation failed (#833) - [Linux] Bugfix:
strdup
was used without any required feature macro (#1055) - [Cocoa] Added support for Vulkan window surface creation via MoltenVK (#870)
- [Cocoa] Added support for loading a
MainMenu.nib
when available - [Cocoa] Bugfix: Disabling window aspect ratio would assert (#852)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Window creation failed to set first responder (#876,#883)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Removed use of deprecated
CGDisplayIOServicePort
function (#165,#192,#508,#511) - [Cocoa] Bugfix: Disabled use of deprecated
CGDisplayModeCopyPixelEncoding
function on macOS 10.12+ - [Cocoa] Bugfix: Running in AppSandbox would emit warnings (#816,#882)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Windows created after the first were not cascaded (#195)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Leaving video mode with
glfwSetWindowMonitor
would set incorrect position and size (#748) - [Cocoa] Bugfix: Iconified full screen windows could not be restored (#848)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Value range was ignored for joystick hats and buttons (#888)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Full screen framebuffer was incorrectly sized for some video modes (#682)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: A string object for IME was updated non-idiomatically (#1050)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: A hidden or disabled cursor would become visible when a user notification was shown (#971,#1028)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Some characters did not repeat due to Press and Hold (#1010)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Window title was lost when full screen or undecorated (#1082)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Window was resized twice when entering full screen (#1085)
- [Cocoa] Bugfix: Duplicate size events were not filtered (#1085)
- [WGL] Added support for
WGL_EXT_colorspace
for OpenGL ES contexts - [WGL] Added support for
WGL_ARB_create_context_no_error
- [GLX] Added support for
GLX_ARB_create_context_no_error
- [GLX] Bugfix: Context creation could segfault if no GLXFBConfigs were available (#1040)
- [EGL] Added support for
EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses
(#871) - [EGL] Added support for
EGL_KHR_context_flush_control
- [EGL] Bugfix: The test for
EGL_RGB_BUFFER
was invalid
On glfw.org you can find the latest version of GLFW, as well as news, documentation and other information about the project.
If you have questions related to the use of GLFW, we have a
forum, and the #glfw
IRC channel on
Freenode.
If you have a bug to report, a patch to submit or a feature you'd like to request, please file it in the issue tracker on GitHub.
Finally, if you're interested in helping out with the development of GLFW or porting it to your favorite platform, join us on the forum, GitHub or IRC.
GLFW exists because people around the world donated their time and lent their skills.
- Bobyshev Alexander
- Matt Arsenault
- David Avedissian
- Keith Bauer
- John Bartholomew
- Niklas Behrens
- Niklas Bergström
- Denis Bernard
- Doug Binks
- blanco
- Kyle Brenneman
- Rok Breulj
- Martin Capitanio
- David Carlier
- Arturo Castro
- Chi-kwan Chan
- Ian Clarkson
- Michał Cichoń
- Lambert Clara
- Yaron Cohen-Tal
- Omar Cornut
- Andrew Corrigan
- Bailey Cosier
- Noel Cower
- Jason Daly
- Jarrod Davis
- Olivier Delannoy
- Paul R. Deppe
- Michael Dickens
- Роман Донченко
- Mario Dorn
- Wolfgang Draxinger
- Jonathan Dummer
- Ralph Eastwood
- Fredrik Ehnbom
- Robin Eklind
- Siavash Eliasi
- Felipe Ferreira
- Michael Fogleman
- Gerald Franz
- Mário Freitas
- GeO4d
- Marcus Geelnard
- Stephen Gowen
- Kovid Goyal
- Eloi Marín Gratacós
- Stefan Gustavson
- Jonathan Hale
- Sylvain Hellegouarch
- Matthew Henry
- heromyth
- Lucas Hinderberger
- Paul Holden
- Warren Hu
- IntellectualKitty
- Aaron Jacobs
- Erik S. V. Jansson
- Toni Jovanoski
- Arseny Kapoulkine
- Cem Karan
- Osman Keskin
- Josh Kilmer
- Cameron King
- Peter Knut
- Christoph Kubisch
- Yuri Kunde Schlesner
- Konstantin Käfer
- Eric Larson
- Robin Leffmann
- Glenn Lewis
- Shane Liesegang
- Eyal Lotem
- Tristam MacDonald
- Hans Mackowiak
- Дмитри Малышев
- Zbigniew Mandziejewicz
- Célestin Marot
- Kyle McDonald
- David Medlock
- Bryce Mehring
- Jonathan Mercier
- Marcel Metz
- Liam Middlebrook
- Jonathan Miller
- Kenneth Miller
- Bruce Mitchener
- Jack Moffitt
- Jeff Molofee
- Pierre Morel
- Jon Morton
- Pierre Moulon
- Martins Mozeiko
- Julian Møller
- ndogxj
- Kristian Nielsen
- Kamil Nowakowski
- Denis Ovod
- Ozzy
- Andri Pálsson
- Peoro
- Braden Pellett
- Christopher Pelloux
- Arturo J. Pérez
- Anthony Pesch
- Orson Peters
- Emmanuel Gil Peyrot
- Cyril Pichard
- Keith Pitt
- Stanislav Podgorskiy
- Alexandre Pretyman
- przemekmirek
- Philip Rideout
- Eddie Ringle
- Jorge Rodriguez
- Ed Ropple
- Aleksey Rybalkin
- Riku Salminen
- Brandon Schaefer
- Sebastian Schuberth
- Christian Sdunek
- Matt Sealey
- Steve Sexton
- Arkady Shapkin
- Yoshiki Shibukawa
- Dmitri Shuralyov
- Daniel Skorupski
- Bradley Smith
- Patrick Snape
- Erlend Sogge Heggen
- Julian Squires
- Johannes Stein
- Pontus Stenetorp
- Michael Stocker
- Justin Stoecker
- Elviss Strazdins
- Paul Sultana
- Nathan Sweet
- TTK-Bandit
- Sergey Tikhomirov
- Arthur Tombs
- Ioannis Tsakpinis
- Samuli Tuomola
- Matthew Turner
- urraka
- Elias Vanderstuyft
- Stef Velzel
- Jari Vetoniemi
- Ricardo Vieira
- Nicholas Vitovitch
- Simon Voordouw
- Torsten Walluhn
- Patrick Walton
- Xo Wang
- Jay Weisskopf
- Frank Wille
- Ryogo Yoshimura
- Andrey Zholos
- Santi Zupancic
- Jonas Ådahl
- Lasse Öörni
- All the unmentioned and anonymous contributors in the GLFW community, for bug reports, patches, feedback, testing and encouragement