Static build of SDL2 on Ubuntu linux

I am using this version 22.04 of linux Ubuntu, some things can differ with other version

Installation of some tools in a linux terminal

sudo apt install git sudo apt install cmake sudo apt install cmake-curses-gui sudo apt install build-essential

Download the last version on the github repository of SD2
If you want to have the last version of SDL2 you can pull the master with git:
In a terminal, create a directory where you want to download SDL, with mkdir then :

git clone https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL.git

After the code is cloned you need to navigate inside the SDL directory :

cd SDL

and change the branch because if you stay on the master you will build SDL3 instead of SDL2:

git checkout SDL2

mkdir build cd build ccmake .. press c (for configure) You'll need to set the line SDL_STATIC to ON and CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE to Release. press c (for configure) press g (for Generate) make You can install the library on your system with : sudo make install If the make is successful you should have the static file :

libSDL2.a
libSDL2main.a
libSDL2_test.a

Copy the file SDL/cmake/sdlfind.cmake inside the build directory of SDL (SDL/build) Copy the folder include in the parent folder of SDL inside this directory include you should have an SDL2 directory. Thiis SDL2 directory is not complete it's missing the SDL_config.h generated with make you should find it in the SDL/build/include-config-release directory, copy this file inside the other include/SDL2 folder with all the files.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)
project(StaticProject)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED True)

find_package(SDL2 REQUIRED)

add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} main.cpp)

message(STATUS "SDL2 include directories: ${SDL2_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE ${SDL2_INCLUDE_DIRS})

message(STATUS "SDL2 libraries path: ${SDL2_LIBRARIES}")
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} ${SDL2_LIBRARIES})

set(CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES ".a")
set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF)

set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "${CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS} -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -static")

To explain more thiis config we create a project named StaticProject, we use the prrevious build of SDL2 by requiring the user to set the path of the package. Then this path allows to find the SDL2_INCLUDE_DIRS wiith all the headers. We display a message to be sure if the path is correct. In this project we simply have one file main.cpp a simple SDL App displaying a green sqaure. The more complex step step when static linking is when linking the dependencies of libSDL2.a in Ubuntu linux.

After creating this will we need an example of main.cpp to execute :

#include <SDL.h>
#include <iostream>
        
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) != 0) {
        std::cerr << "SDL_Init Error: " << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
        return 1;
    }
    
    SDL_Window *win = SDL_CreateWindow("Hello SDL", 100, 100, 640, 480, SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN);
    if (win == nullptr) {
        std::cerr << "SDL_CreateWindow Error: " << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
        SDL_Quit();
        return 1;
    }
    
    SDL_Renderer *renderer = SDL_CreateRenderer(win, -1, SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED | SDL_RENDERER_PRESENTVSYNC);
    if (renderer == nullptr) {
        std::cerr << "SDL_CreateRenderer Error: " << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
        SDL_DestroyWindow(win);
        SDL_Quit();
        return 1;
    }
    
    bool running = true;
    SDL_Event event;
    
    while (running) {
        while (SDL_PollEvent(&event)) {
            if (event.type == SDL_QUIT) {
                running = false;
            }
        }
    
        SDL_SetRenderDrawColor(renderer, 0, 0, 0, 255);
        SDL_RenderClear(renderer);
    
        SDL_Rect greenSquare = { 270, 190, 100, 100 }; 
        SDL_SetRenderDrawColor(renderer, 0, 255, 0, 255); 
        SDL_RenderFillRect(renderer, &greenSquare);
    
        SDL_RenderPresent(renderer);
    }
    
    SDL_DestroyRenderer(renderer);
    SDL_DestroyWindow(win);
    SDL_Quit();

    return 0;
}