Getting freeglut library to work with opengl - c++

Question

I am trying to learn opengl for a class but am having trouble with getting setup. I am using Windows, with the IDE CLion, and cygwin64. So far I have been able to compile and run Gl.h and Glu.h but I am having trouble getting the static library for freeglut.
Right now programs error on the last line in the CMakeLists.txt file:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
project(OpenGLAugust)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(OpenGLAugust ${SOURCE_FILES})
target_link_libraries(OpenGLAugust libopengl32.a libglu32.a libfreeglut.a)
with error
cannot find -lfreeglut
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
I looked into it and it appears that after downloading freeglut I need to create the library files (specifically the .a file libfreeglut32.a) from the source code. I have tried looking for an explanation on how it is done but haven't found an answer. Would anyone be able to help explain how to do this?

Answer 1

Unlike OpenGL, which availability in a compiler toolchain is mandated by the Windows ABI, FreeGLUT is an optional 3rd party library that must be installed separately.
Most simple course of action would be to simply drop FreeGLUT sources into a subdirectory of your project and just add it to your CMakeLists.txt; FreeGLUT comes with a ready to use CMake configuration, so that will "just work".
On a side note, you should not use
target_link_libraries(OpenGLAugust libopengl32.a libglu32.a …)
but
find_package(OpenGL)
target_link_libraries(OpenGLAugust
${OPENGL_gl_LIBRARY}
${OPENGL_glu_LIBRARY}
… )
I.e. in total you should extract FreeGLUT sources into a subdirectory of your project and change your CMakeLists to
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
project(OpenGLAugust)
find_package(OpenGL)
add_subdirectory(freeglut)
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp)
add_executable(OpenGLAugust ${SOURCE_FILES})
target_link_libraries(OpenGLAugust
${OPENGL_gl_LIBRARY}
${OPENGL_glu_LIBRARY}
freeglut_static )