How to link to SDL2 libraries under Qt Creator - c++

Question

I have compiled the latest SDL2 libraries, obtained from the 'official' mercurial repository, and followed the instructions for the Ubuntu/Linux build.
But Qt creator fails to link the statically built libraries. Here's the qmake script:
TEMPLATE = app
CONFIG += console
CONFIG -= app_bundle
CONFIG -= qt
unix:!macx: LIBS += -L/usr/local/lib/libSDL2.a
INCLUDEPATH += /usr/local/include
SOURCES += main.cpp
The linker reports several undefined references, including SDL_Init.

Answer 1

You have to change your LIBS line to this:
LIBS += -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2
as -L let you define the path where linker looks for libraries to link, while -l defines which library to link to. On Unix systems the library called ASD is represented by a libASD.so file (in this example .so is for shared library, in your case there is .a as it is static library).
EDIT:
I've prepared very simple main.cpp:
#include <SDL/SDL.h>
int main()
{
SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
return 0;
}
build SDL 2.0.3 as static library with /usr/local prefix and I needed to add 2 other libraries to my .pro file to compile this. Here it is:
TEMPLATE = app
CONFIG += console
CONFIG -= qt
CONFIG -= app_bundle
SOURCES += main.cpp
LIBS += -L/usr/local/lib -lSDL2 -ldl -lpthread
INCLUDES += /usr/local/include
And now it compiles flawlessly.