How to Install graphics.h C/C++ library on Ubuntu

In this post we are going to install graphics.h library on Ubuntu and to use it with gcc or g++ compiler. graphics.h provides access to a simple graphics library that makes it possible to draw lines, rectangles, ovals, arcs, polygons, images, and strings on a graphical window. To know about functions in graphic.h library in C/C++ visit here.

To use graphics.hon Ubuntu platform we need to compile and install libgraph. libgraph is an implementation of the TurboC graphics API (graphics.h) on GNU/Linux using SDL.

1. First we need to add the Universe repository because some packages are not available in main repository.

   sudo add-apt-repository universe
   sudo apt-get update
   

2. Now we will install build-essential and some additional packages. For versions prior to 18.4

   sudo apt-get install libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-image1.2-dev guile-1.8 \
   guile-1.8-dev libsdl1.2debian libart-2.0-dev libaudiofile-dev \
   libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libdirectfb-extra libfreetype6-dev \
   libxext-dev x11proto-xext-dev libfreetype6 libaa1 libaa1-dev \
   libslang2-dev libasound2 libasound2-dev build-essential
   

   For 18.04 we need to add repositories of xenial in sources.list.

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   

   Now add these lines

   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main universe
   deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main universe
   

   Run sudo apt-get update and then install packages using

   sudo apt-get install libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-image1.2-dev guile-2.0 \
   guile-2.0-dev libsdl1.2debian libart-2.0-dev libaudiofile-dev \
   libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libdirectfb-extra libfreetype6-dev \
   libxext-dev x11proto-xext-dev libfreetype6 libaa1 libaa1-dev \
   libslang2-dev libasound2 libasound2-dev
   

3. Download libgraph from here and extract libgraph-1.0.2.tar.gz file.
   

4. Go to the extracted folder and run following commands.

   ./configure
   make
   sudo make install
   sudo cp /usr/local/lib/libgraph.* /usr/lib
   

Now we can use graphics.h library after adding following lines to the code.

int gd = DETECT, gm; 
initgraph(&gd, &gm, NULL);

Here is a program of Simple Pendulum Animation on Ubuntu.