Question

I need to use a C library to access and older file format used by a legacy application. The library I installed was libdbf. (Did ./configure && make && make install). It was installed under /usr/local/lib:

libdbf.0.0.1.dylib
libdbf.0.dylib
libdbf.a
libdbf.dylib
libdbf.la

I’m loosely familiar with C syntax and have done some very trivial things in C and C++, but don’t know how to include the library.

How can I include this library in my project? Sorry for the noobie question.

Answer 1

When you compile your project use -ldbf

The -l means link, and the dbf is the name of the library (you don’t need to include the lib part of the name).

Edit:

I haven’t used Qt, but it looks like you can add

unix:LIBS += -ldbf

To your .pro file. Sources 1, 2

By default, gcc will look in /usr/local/include for the headers and in /usr/local/lib for the library. In case it you need to make it explicit, you can also add:

-I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib