MiniLibX(3)

📦 version 0-unstable-2026-06, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 MiniLibX 💅

ok so like, hi bestie 💖 welcome to the MiniLibX page — literally the cutest little library in the Library Functions Manual, no cap. The manual name is MiniLibX and it's giving "Simple X-Window Interface Library for students" — like it says it right there in the title, we're the students, and this thing is our main character moment 🌈

✨ SYNOPSYS ✨

(yeah it's spelled like that, we don't talk about it 🙈)

#include <mlx.h>

void *
mlx_init ();

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

MiniLibX is an easy way to make graphical software, like, without needing any X-Window programming knowledge whatsoever. iykyk. It gives you simple window creation, a drawing tool, and image + basic events management — that's the whole vibe check ✨

🌸 X-WINDOW CONCEPT 🌸

So X-Window is a network-oriented graphical system for Unix, periodt. It's built on two main parts:

  • on one side, your software wants to draw something on the screen and/or get keyboard & mouse entries 🎀
  • on the other side, the X-Server manages the screen, keyboard and mouse (it's often referred to as a "display", and honestly iconic of it)

A network connection must be established between these two entities to send drawing orders (from the software to the X-Server) and keyboard/mouse events (from the X-Server to the software). The way that connection is literally the whole relationship 💀

🧚 INCLUDE FILE 🧚

mlx.h should be included for a correct use of the MiniLibX API. That's it. It only contains function prototypes — no structure is needed, so don't come for me with your structs, bestie 🫶

👑 LIBRARY FUNCTIONS 👑

First of all — and this is the moment, this is the ritual — you need to initialize the connection between your software and the display. Once that connection is established, you'll be able to use other MiniLibX functions to send the X-Server messages, like "I want to draw a yellow pixel in this window" 💛 or "did the user hit a key?" 👀

The mlx_init function will create this connection. No parameters are needed, and it will return a void * identifier, used for further calls to the library routines. She's lowkey just a little pointer and yet she runs everything.

All other MiniLibX functions are described in the following man pages:

  • mlx_new_window — manage windows 🪟
  • mlx_pixel_put — draw inside window 🎨
  • mlx_new_image — manipulate images 🖼️
  • mlx_loop — handle keyboard or mouse events ⌨️🖱️

🔥 LINKING MiniLibX 🔥

To use MiniLibX functions, you'll need to link your software with several libraries, including the MiniLibX library itself. To do this, simply add the following arguments at linking time:

-lmlx -lXext -lX11

You may also need to specify the path to these libraries, using the -L flag 🫶

fr fr do not forget these flags, the linker will absolutely humble you 😭

💜 RETURN VALUES 💜

If mlx_init() fails to set up the connection to the X server, it will return NULL. Otherwise a non-null pointer is returned as a connection identifier. That's the good ending. Slay 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

mlx_new_window(3), mlx_pixel_put(3), mlx_new_image(3), mlx_loop(3) — go read your siblings' pages, they're all iconic 👑

🍓 AUTHOR 🍓

Copyright ol@ - 2002-2014 - Olivier Crouzet

ok bye bestie, ily, go make something pretty 🌸💖✨

copyright vibes handled, page dated September 19, 2002, source MiniLibX, section 3 — mwah 💋

📦 where this page comes from