Install raylib 6.0 on Linux from the official prebuilt tarball

install_raylib_ubuntu.md

Install raylib 6.0 on Linux from the official prebuilt tarball

These steps install the official prebuilt raylib-6.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz release under /usr/local.

The prebuilt archive contains the raylib headers and libraries, but does not include a raylib.pc file for pkg-config, so we create one manually.

1. Extract raylib

cd ~/Downloads

tar -xzf raylib-6.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
cd raylib-6.0_linux_amd64

Optional: inspect the archive:

ls

You should have at least:

include/
lib/

2. Install the headers

Copy the raylib headers to /usr/local/include:

sudo cp -r include/* /usr/local/include/

Verify:

ls /usr/local/include/raylib.h

3. Install the libraries

Copy the prebuilt raylib libraries to /usr/local/lib:

sudo cp -a lib/libraylib* /usr/local/lib/

Refresh the dynamic linker cache:

sudo ldconfig

Verify that the files were installed:

ls /usr/local/lib/*raylib*

Check that the dynamic linker can find raylib:

ldconfig -p | grep raylib

You should see entries pointing to /usr/local/lib, such as:

libraylib.so.600
libraylib.so

4. Check for pkg-config metadata

The raylib 6.0 prebuilt Linux archive does not include raylib.pc.

You can confirm with:

find . -name 'raylib.pc'

Or inspect all relevant raylib files:

find . -name 'raylib.pc' -o -name 'libraylib*' -o -name 'raylib.h'

The archive should contain something similar to:

./include/raylib.h
./lib/libraylib.a
./lib/libraylib.so.600
./lib/libraylib.so.6.0.0
./lib/libraylib.so

5. Create raylib.pc

Create the system-local pkg-config directory:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

Create /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/raylib.pc:

sudo tee /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/raylib.pc >/dev/null <<'EOF'
prefix=/usr/local
exec_prefix=${prefix}
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include

Name: raylib
Description: A simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programming
Version: 6.0
Libs: -L${libdir} -lraylib
Libs.private: -lm -lpthread -ldl -lrt -lX11
Cflags: -I${includedir}
EOF

6. Verify pkg-config

Check that pkg-config can now find raylib:

pkg-config --modversion raylib

Expected output:

6.0

Check the compiler and linker flags:

pkg-config --cflags --libs raylib

Expected output should look similar to:

-I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib -lraylib

Complete installation script

The whole installation can also be reduced to:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -e

RAYLIB_VERSION="6.0"
ARCHIVE="raylib-${RAYLIB_VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz"
DIR="raylib-${RAYLIB_VERSION}_linux_amd64"

cd ~/Downloads

tar -xzf "$ARCHIVE"
cd "$DIR"

sudo cp -r include/* /usr/local/include/
sudo cp -a lib/libraylib* /usr/local/lib/

sudo ldconfig

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

sudo tee /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/raylib.pc >/dev/null <<'EOF'
prefix=/usr/local
exec_prefix=${prefix}
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include

Name: raylib
Description: A simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programming
Version: 6.0
Libs: -L${libdir} -lraylib
Libs.private: -lm -lpthread -ldl -lrt -lX11
Cflags: -I${includedir}
EOF

echo
echo "raylib installed successfully."
echo

echo "Installed version:"
pkg-config --modversion raylib

echo
echo "Compiler/linker flags:"
pkg-config --cflags --libs raylib

echo
echo "Dynamic linker entries:"
ldconfig -p | grep raylib

Save that as, for example:

install-raylib-6.0.sh

Then make it executable and run it:

chmod +x install-raylib-6.0.sh
./install-raylib-6.0.sh