Using third-party libraries (libusb), how to install and use?

Question

I have never had to use libraries other than ones that I have created, and even then I have simply copied the source files into the same directory as the remainder of the project. What are the steps to install and use libusb? I know that it is required to indicate to your respective IDE the pathway to the library, but to what exactly? To the folder containing the source? Is it necessary to precompile the libraries first?

I am not sure what to download from that link to get this going. There are options to sync via a repository to have the most up-to-date source, but is that necessary? I downloaded the tarball and have the source, but am not sure where to go from here.

Answer 1

Your compiler needs to know the path to the headers (.h), to find them when you #include and know which symbols (functions, structs ..) are available. Your linker needs to know the path to the corresponding compiled libraries (.o/.a/.so) containing the implementation. You don't need the source code (C/C++ implementation code, "private" headers) to use a library.

What you download depends on how you want to install it. If you are using a Linux distribution that already packages it, you can just install it using your package manager. You can get the newest version of libusb throught GitHub too, it is only "necessary" if you want something that is in the newest version. You can compile and install it in your /home or system wide. You can keep the sources in a separate directory next to your project's sources (git submodule can help to manage that), and compile them at the same time as your project. How you install them is your choice, then you just need to configure your IDE/build system accordingly.