Undefined reference errors when linking GLFW with MinGW

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1

Hello, I am trying to build a super simple test program with GLFW on window 10 with gcc and MinGW using the static libraries, but I keep getting undefined referenced errors.
test.c:

#include <glfw3.h>
int main() {
    glfwInit();
    glfwTerminate();
    return 0;
}

And here is what I want to do:

gcc -c test.c -Iinclude
gcc test.o -lglfw3 -lgdi32 -o test.exe

And here is the error is gives me:

test.o:test.c:(.text+0xc): undefined reference to `glfwInit'
test.o:test.c:(.text+0x11): undefined reference to `glfwTerminate'
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

List of things I have tried:

  • I have tried both the 32bit and 64bit glfw3 static libraries.
  • I have tried also linking other libraries references on the documentation I specified earlier such as kernel32 and user32 with no change to the error.
  • I have tried changing the order in which I link libraries.

I am slightly confused with this error, are the definitions for glfwInit and glfwTerminate not somewhere in the libglfw3.a ? Surely they are? But, if so why does the linker throw undefined reference error?

2

So I understand that this error is happening in the linking stage of the compilation process as the object files compile fine. While reading this post I saw that mmozeiko gave commented a gcc command where the usual link flag -l was ignored so instead of gcc test.c -lglfw3 he wrote gcc test.c libglfw3.a I tried this and below and behold, it fixes my issue. Why is this the case? I understand that this is something to do with gcc and not glfw so I won’t be offended if no one responds.