(0) Compiling libcwidget Compiling cwidget requires a C++ compiler and the ncurses library in its wide-character form (libncursesw). To generate API documentation, you will also need doxygen (see http://www.doxygen.org). To compile the library, run "./configure && make". If doxygen is installed, you can build documentation in the directory "doc" by running "make doc". (1) Installing libcwidget To install the library, run "make install". (2) Writing software that uses cwidget. To include cwidget headers, you should use include paths starting with cwidget: #include See the headers and the generated documentation for more information. (3) Compiling software that uses cwidget. (pkg-config) The canonical way to retrieve the include and link flags for programs using cwidget is through pkg-config. By hand, the commands: pkg-config --cflags cwidget pkg-config --libs cwidget will give you compile and linker flags for a program using cwidget. You can also include the following line in your configure.ac: PKG_CHECK_MODULES([CWIDGET], [cwidget]) See pkg-config(1) for more details. (4) Compiling software that uses cwidget. (manual) Using pkg-config is recommended, as this will insulate you against any changes in the layout of the library. However, if you do not wish to use pkg-config, you can find the cwidget headers in $(includedir) and $(libdir)/cwidget, and the libraries in $(libdir). Typically this will mean /usr/include and /usr/local/lib. (the configuration header is placed under $(libdir) because it is system-dependent data)