Use C language and GTK4 Msys2 to development lightweight Windows GUI app

calendar Feb 18, 2025 ·  · GTK C GUI  ·
: linkedin copy

Environment Preparing

  • Download and installation the Msys2
    • After install the wsys2 open and create shortcut ucrt64.exe to desktop
    • In ucrt64.exe console shell use pacman to install packages
    1
2pacman -Syu   
3#Repeat this step until all packages are up to date.
4#Follow any given instructions
  • Installation the essential packages 
    1
2        pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk4
3        pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain base-devel
  • Test and verify the packages 
    1    gcc --version
2    #Discovers the directories where the GTK include files are stored.
3    pkg-config gtk4 --cflags 
4    #Discovers the names of the GTK library files.
5    pkg-config gtk4 --libs   
6    #Of course we can combine both commands to receive a bundled output
7    pkg-config gtk4 --cflags --libs

Set system environment variable

  • Open the sysdm.cpl in search bar or press WIN+R key
  • TO Advanced > Environment Variables
  • Add C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin to path environment variable

Write a helloworld-gtk.c gtk c code

 1#include <gtk/gtk.h>
 2
 3static void
 4print_hello (GtkWidget *widget,
 5             gpointer   data)
 6{
 7  g_print ("Hello World\n");
 8}
 9
10static void
11activate (GtkApplication *app,
12          gpointer        user_data)
13{
14  GtkWidget *window;
15  GtkWidget *button;
16
17  window = gtk_application_window_new (app);
18  gtk_window_set_title (GTK_WINDOW (window), "Hello");
19  gtk_window_set_default_size (GTK_WINDOW (window), 200, 200);
20
21  button = gtk_button_new_with_label ("Hello World");
22  g_signal_connect (button, "clicked", G_CALLBACK (print_hello), NULL);
23  gtk_window_set_child (GTK_WINDOW (window), button);
24
25  gtk_window_present (GTK_WINDOW (window));
26}
27
28int
29main (int    argc,
30      char **argv)
31{
32  GtkApplication *app;
33  int status;
34
35  app = gtk_application_new ("org.gtk.example", G_APPLICATION_DEFAULT_FLAGS);
36  g_signal_connect (app, "activate", G_CALLBACK (activate), NULL);
37  status = g_application_run (G_APPLICATION (app), argc, argv);
38  g_object_unref (app);
39
40  return status;
41}

Compile and running in ucrt64.exe shell

  • Change current folder to code’s path
1# change to my code folder
2cd /c/mycode
  • Execute compile and running the program
1# compile the code
2gcc $(pkg-config --cflags gtk4) -o hello-world-gtk helloworld-gtk.c $(pkg-config --libs gtk4)
3# execute
4./hello-world-gtk.exe

Compile and running in cmd.exe windows command prompt

  • the compile arguments can acquire use pkg-config gtk4 --cflags --libs in ucrt64.exe shell
  • please replace the relative path to yourself code and installation path or disk driver name

Caution: the command line compile arguments is in one line, don’t multiple lines

1# exectue the compile in cmd.exe, please use Administrator permission in this cmd.exe indtance window
2D:\msys64\ucrt64\bin\gcc.exe  c:\Users\tom\mygtk-project\main.c -o c:\Users\tom\mygtk-project\main.exe -I"D:/msys64/ucrt64/include" -I"D:/msys64/ucrt64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/14.2.0/include" -I"D:/msys64/ucrt64/include/glib-2.0" -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/gtk-4.0 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/pango-1.0 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/fribidi -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/harfbuzz -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/webp -DLIBDEFLATE_DLL -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/cairo -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/freetype2 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/libpng16 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/pixman-1 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/graphene-1.0 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/lib/graphene-1.0/include -mfpmath=sse -msse -msse2 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/include/glib-2.0 -ID:/msys64/ucrt64/lib/glib-2.0/include -lgtk-4 -lpangowin32-1.0 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lharfbuzz -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lcairo-gobject -lcairo -lvulkan-1.dll -lgraphene-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lintl

Compile and debug in Dev-C++ IDE

  • Please download suit windows 10 above Dev-C++ version in Win10 Dev-C++ version
  • New a C project in Dev-C++
  • Add the main.c source code
  • Setup the project property in Project menu and Project Options -> Parameters tab
  • Paste the C compiler and Linker arguments from above execution the pkg-config gtk4 --cflags and pkg-config gtk4 --libs acquire, must be one line in textbox
    setup the compiler and liner
  • Create a new Compiler use ucrt64 environments refere to Tools -> Compiler options->From folder to create compiler settings button
    create new compiler

Reference