# Translate-C error on 0.17.0-dev.607+456b2ec07 when importing GTK4 libraries **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Tags:** build-system, translate-c\ **Created:** [May 30, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811 "2026-05-30T19:44:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/1 "2026-05-30T19:44:14Z")
Hello all, I recently started a new project to rewrite one of my existing C#/.NET/WPF projects into Zig + GTK 4 (project will be 2-BSD licensed so dynamically linking GTK-4 is a requirement since I don’t want it to become LGPL). I’ve written/released and currently maintain a few other Zig projects, but this will be my first GUI project in Zig and also the first one that I’m starting to link with external C libraries. I ran into the same issue that was described [here](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-16-0/15262) since I first started the project on 0.16.0, after looking at the comments, and the status of the tickets in the upstream translate-c and arocc projects, it seemed like everything was already closed/resolved/merged, so I thought maybe I need to update to latest master for now and then I can chill on 0.17.0 once that gets officially released. However, even on `0.17.0-dev.607+456b2ec07`, I get the same issue. So I wanted to confirm if it’s just me wiring things incorrectly, or if the changes aren’t in the latest master yet. I’m also fine downgrading to 0.16.0, and importing translate-c as an external dependency if that makes things any easier since I normally like to track the latest stable release, and upgrade to the next stable when I get a chance. But if that’s too difficult I’m fine with tracking master for this project and stabilizing on 0.17.0 for now. Thank you! I’m running all of this on FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE. `pkgconf-2.4.3,1` and `gtk4-4.20.3` are already installed on the host and Zig is detecting them correctly. Without pkgconf being installed, I was getting an issue about `gtk/gtk.h` not being found even though the `linkSystemLibrary("gtk-4", .{});` call didn’t fail and found the correct library on FreeBSD. Once I switched to pkgconf, and changed it from “gtk-4” to “gtk4”, then it found the rest of the stuff and that’s when I started getting the multi pragma failure. **zig version** ```zig jon@leslie:~/Projects/App $ zig version 0.17.0-dev.607+456b2ec07 ``` error when attempting to import **gtk/gtk.h** ```zig jon@leslie:~/Projects/App $ zig build install └─ install App └─ compile exe App Debug native └─ translate-c 2 errors error: translation failure /usr/local/include/gtk-4.0/gdk/version/gdkversionmacros.h:19:2: error: \"Only can be included directly.\" #error "Only can be included directly." ^ error: 2 compilation errors failed command: /home/jon/.zig/zig translate-c -lc --cache-dir .zig-cache --global-cache-dir /home/jon/.cache/zig -I/usr/local/include/gtk-4.0 -I/usr/local/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/local/include/fribidi -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/harfbuzz -I/usr/local/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -I/usr/local/include/cairo -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include/libpng16 -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/local/include/graphene-1.0 -I/usr/local/lib/graphene-1.0/include -I/usr/local/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/local/lib/glib-2.0/include -L/usr/local/lib -lgtk-4 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lharfbuzz -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lcairo-gobject -lcairo -lvulkan -lgraphene-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lintl /home/jon/Projects/App/src/c.h --listen=- Build Summary: 0/4 steps succeeded (1 failed) install transitive failure └─ install App transitive failure └─ compile exe App Debug native transitive failure └─ translate-c 2 errors error: the following maker command exited with code 1: /home/jon/.cache/zig/o/201b413da3e9f6d025320505604c88e4/maker --zig /home/jon/.zig/zig --zig-lib-dir /home/jon/.zig/lib --build-root /home/jon/Projects/App --local-cache .zig-cache --global-cache /home/jon/.cache/zig --configuration .zig-cache/c/1efa3748f8b1e0f0168dbc146a0def18 --seed 0xfd57a27f ``` **build.zig** ```zig ... pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void { const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{}); const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{}); // Translate GTK / C Dependencies const translate_c = b.addTranslateC(.{ .root_source_file = b.path("src/c.h"), .target = target, .optimize = optimize, }); translate_c.linkSystemLibrary("gtk4", .{}); const mod = b.addModule("App", .{ .root_source_file = b.path("src/root.zig"), .target = target, }); const exe = b.addExecutable(.{ .name = "App", .root_module = b.createModule(.{ .root_source_file = b.path("src/main.zig"), .target = target, .optimize = optimize, .imports = &.{ .{ .name = "App", .module = mod }, .{ .name = "c", .module = translate_c.createModule() }, }, }), }); } ... ``` **src/c.h** ```zig #include ``` ---
**Author:** ![alanza](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/alanza/32/6006_2.png) [@alanza](https://ziggit.dev/u/alanza)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/2 "2026-05-30T21:32:40Z")
Well, it sure does look like the compile error wants your `src/c.h` file to be ```c #include ``` obviously you didn’t need me to tell you that though, so let us know why you’re not doing that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/3 "2026-05-30T21:35:10Z")
From what I can tell from the GTK basic tutorial, their [documentation](https://docs.gtk.org/gtk4/getting_started.html) just mentions that we need to import `gtk/gtk.h` for it to work. ```zig #include static void activate (GtkApplication *app, gpointer user_data) { GtkWidget *window; window = gtk_application_window_new (app); gtk_window_set_title (GTK_WINDOW (window), "Window"); gtk_window_set_default_size (GTK_WINDOW (window), 200, 200); gtk_window_present (GTK_WINDOW (window)); } int main (int argc, char **argv) { GtkApplication *app; int status; app = gtk_application_new ("org.gtk.example", G_APPLICATION_DEFAULT_FLAGS); g_signal_connect (app, "activate", G_CALLBACK (activate), NULL); status = g_application_run (G_APPLICATION (app), argc, argv); g_object_unref (app); return status; } ``` ---
**Author:** ![alanza](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/alanza/32/6006_2.png) [@alanza](https://ziggit.dev/u/alanza)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/4 "2026-05-30T21:36:43Z")
ahh. well, all i’m doing is reading what’s on the screen and offering a suggestion; you don’t have to actually try the suggestion 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/5 "2026-05-30T21:40:33Z")
Haha. I did try it but it lead to another issue which I feel may be going in the wrong direction given the GTK tutorial. If I do switch to `gdk/gdk.h`, it yields the following: ```zig run └─ run exe App └─ install └─ install App └─ compile exe App Debug native 1 errors .zig-cache/o/51b847d0dde74af4b2dcfa5f8e890da7/c.zig:6320:194: error: expected ';' after statement if (__builtin.constant_p(!(@as(c_int, 0) != 0)) != 0) if (!(@as(c_int, 0) != 0)) _ = g_string_free(string, @intFromBool(!(@as(c_int, 0) != 0))) else _ = g_string_free_and_steal(string) else _ = g_string_free(string, @intFromBool(!(@as(c_int, 0) != 0))); ^~~~ error: 1 compilation errors failed command: /home/jon/.zig/zig build-exe -ODebug --dep App --dep c -Mroot=/home/jon/Projects/App/src/main.zig -MApp=/home/jon/Projects/App/src/root.zig -I/usr/local/include/gtk-4.0 -I/usr/local/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/local/include/fribidi -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/harfbuzz -I/usr/local/include/gdk-pixbuf-2.0 -I/usr/local/include/cairo -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include/libpng16 -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/usr/local/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/local/include/graphene-1.0 -I/usr/local/lib/graphene-1.0/include -I/usr/local/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/local/lib/glib-2.0/include -L/usr/local/lib -lgtk-4 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lharfbuzz -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lcairo-gobject -lcairo -lvulkan -lgraphene-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0 -lintl -ODebug -Mc=.zig-cache/o/51b847d0dde74af4b2dcfa5f8e890da7/c.zig -lc --cache-dir .zig-cache --global-cache-dir /home/jon/.cache/zig --name App --zig-lib-dir /home/jon/.zig/lib/ --listen=- Build Summary: 1/6 steps succeeded (1 failed) run transitive failure └─ run exe App transitive failure ├─ compile exe App Debug native 1 errors └─ install transitive failure └─ install App transitive failure └─ compile exe App Debug native (+1 more reused dependencies) error: the following maker command exited with code 1: /home/jon/.cache/zig/o/201b413da3e9f6d025320505604c88e4/maker --zig /home/jon/.zig/zig --zig-lib-dir /home/jon/.zig/lib --build-root /home/jon/Projects/App --local-cache .zig-cache --global-cache /home/jon/.cache/zig --configuration .zig-cache/c/1efa3748f8b1e0f0168dbc146a0def18 --seed 0xf3dc5e45 run jon@leslie:~/Projects/App $ ``` ---
**Author:** ![dimdin](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/dimdin/32/1457_2.png) [@dimdin](https://ziggit.dev/u/dimdin)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/6 "2026-05-30T22:00:18Z")
Currently the only way to correctly include `gtk.h` is to use version 0.15.x with `@cInclude`. Using 0.16.0, both `@cInclude` and translate-c module fail to translate `gtk.h`. 0.17.0-dev with translate-c module have the latest fixes for the `gtk.h` translation problems, but it also fails ~~because the arocc —used in translate-c— is not yet synchronized with the latest zig changes (metadata for struct declarations).~~because the changes in arocc are ahead of the current zig master. The `translate-c` as a module is a great idea because it can have fixes after 0.17.0 is released. So currently what can we do: - Use 0.15.1 - Wait for 0.17.0 - Help fix translate-c/arocc - Donate some money to zig software foundation, so others can fix the problems. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 10:05pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/7 "2026-05-30T22:05:56Z")
Thanks for the info @dimdin. I just wanted to make sure the issue wasn’t me before I go on another rabbit hole. I may downgrade from master to 0.15.1, but I’ll see how far I can get since a good chunk of my logic isn’t UI code. And yes, I’ve donated to ZSF multiple times throughout the years. Another donation will be coming soon :). ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 12:24pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/8 "2026-06-02T12:24:58Z")
Just wanted to provide a small update. I was able to successfully get GTK 4 working with Zig 0.15.2 and get some self written bindings to work and render on the screen (I know there are existing Zig \<\> GTK libraries, but I’m also taking this as a learning experience for Zig\<\>C interop, and I don’t really need all of GTK’s features). However, after playing with GTK, as someone that’s porting an app I wrote about 8 years ago in C#/WPF/XAML (and `I <3 C#/WPF/XAML btw`), and previously after that having re-written it from Java/Swing (IIRC), I have to say GTK is pretty insane (not in a good way). I’m going to be starting again and going to give one of the newer native Zig UI toolkits a try, and learn about this “Immediate UI” type of architecture, which seems interesting to me. I think I’ll have a better experience overall. I think I’ll give @david_vanderson’s DVUI a shot. Since the UI will most likely now be in DVUI, this means my project can start in 0.16.0 again since DVUI is 0.16.0 compatible :). For now, I’ll paste my existing GTK\<\>Zig code I wrote in case anyone needs it or wants to use it as an idea for brainstorming their own stuff. ```zig const std = @import("std"); // const Io = std.Io; const assert = std.debug.assert; // const App = @import("App"); const c = @cImport({ @cInclude("gtk/gtk.h"); }); pub const std_options: std.Options = .{ .log_level = .debug, }; fn print_hello(widget: *c.GtkWidget, data: c.gpointer) callconv(.c) void { _ = widget; _ = data; c.g_print("Hello World\n"); } /// Create application UI and wire signals. fn activate(app: *c.GtkApplication, _: c.gpointer) callconv(.c) void { // Create core application window object. const gtk_window_widget: *c.GtkWidget = Binder.GtkApplicationWindow(app); const window: *c.GtkWindow = Binder.AsWindow(gtk_window_widget); // Window Box const windowBox = Binder.Box.New(c.GTK_ORIENTATION_VERTICAL, 10); c.gtk_window_set_child(window, windowBox); const platformsBox = Binder.Box.New(c.GTK_ORIENTATION_VERTICAL, 10); c.gtk_widget_set_vexpand(platformsBox, 1); Binder.Box.Append(windowBox, platformsBox); // Buttons Box const buttonsBox = Binder.Box.New(c.GTK_ORIENTATION_HORIZONTAL, 10); Binder.Box.Append(windowBox, buttonsBox); // Buttons const oneButton = Binder.Button.New("Button 1", &print_hello); const twoButton = Binder.Button.New("Button 2", &print_hello); // Add buttons to buttons box. Binder.Box.Append(buttonsBox, oneButton); Binder.Box.Append(buttonsBox, twoButton); // Set remaining window properties. c.gtk_window_set_title(window, "App"); c.gtk_window_set_default_size(window, 1150, 650); c.gtk_window_set_resizable(window, 0); c.gtk_window_present(window); } const Binder = struct { // TODO: See if we can consolidate the internal logic between normal and swapped. pub fn connect(widget: *c.GtkWidget, message: [*]const u8, callback: c.GCallback) void { const result = c.g_signal_connect_data( widget, message, callback, null, null, 0, ); // The handler ID (always greater than 0). // https://docs.gtk.org/gobject/func.signal_connect_data.html assert(result > 0); } // Not Currently Used pub fn connectSwapped(widget: *c.GtkWidget, message: [*]const u8, callback: c.GCallback, window: *c.GtkWindow) void { const result = c.g_signal_connect_data( widget, message, callback, window, null, c.G_CONNECT_SWAPPED, ); // The handler ID (always greater than 0). // https://docs.gtk.org/gobject/func.signal_connect_data.html assert(result > 0); } pub fn GtkApplicationWindow(app: *c.GtkApplication) *c.GtkWidget { return c.gtk_application_window_new(app); } pub fn Callback(func: *const fn (*c.GtkWidget, c.gpointer) callconv(.c) void) c.GCallback { return @ptrCast(@alignCast(func)); } // Not Currently Used pub fn WindowDestroyCallback() c.GCallback { return @ptrCast(@alignCast(&c.gtk_window_destroy)); } pub fn AsWindow(widget: *c.GtkWidget) *c.GtkWindow { return @as(*c.GtkWindow, @ptrCast(@alignCast(widget))); } pub fn AsBox(widget: *c.GtkWidget) *c.GtkBox { return @as(*c.GtkBox, @ptrCast(@alignCast(widget))); } // ----------------- Higher Functions ----------------- pub const Button = struct { // Creates a button and optionally connects a signal to it. // // Caller owns memory. pub fn New(label: [*]const u8, func: ?*const fn (*c.GtkWidget, c.gpointer) callconv(.c) void) *c.GtkWidget { const button: *c.GtkWidget = c.gtk_button_new_with_label(label); if (func) |signal| { Binder.connect(button, "clicked", Binder.Callback(signal)); } return button; } }; pub const Box = struct { // c_int = gtk orientation enum pub fn New(orientation: c.GtkOrientation, spacing: u8) *c.GtkWidget { const box: *c.GtkWidget = c.gtk_box_new(orientation, spacing); c.gtk_widget_set_halign(box, c.GTK_ALIGN_CENTER); c.gtk_widget_set_valign(box, c.GTK_ALIGN_CENTER); return box; } pub fn Append(box: *c.GtkWidget, widget: *c.GtkWidget) void { c.gtk_box_append(Binder.AsBox(box), widget); } }; }; pub fn main() !void { var gpa: std.heap.DebugAllocator(.{}) = .init; const allocator = gpa.allocator(); var arena_alloc: std.heap.ArenaAllocator = .init(allocator); const arena = arena_alloc.allocator(); _ = arena; std.log.debug("Starting App ...", .{}); // try App.run(arena); //defer allocator.deinit(); //var arena: std.heap.ArenaAllocator(allocator); //const arena: std.mem.Allocator = init.arena.allocator(); //init: std.process.Init // const io = init.io; // var stdout_buffer: [1024]u8 = undefined; // var stdout_file_writer: Io.File.Writer = .init(.stdout(), io, &stdout_buffer); // const stdout_writer = &stdout_file_writer.interface; // try stdout_writer.flush(); // Don't forget to flush! // Accessing command line arguments: // const args = try init.minimal.args.toSlice(arena); // for (args) |arg| { // std.log.info("arg: {s}", .{arg}); // } const app = c.gtk_application_new( "org.test.app", c.G_APPLICATION_DEFAULT_FLAGS, ); _ = c.g_signal_connect_data( app, "activate", @as(c.GCallback, @ptrCast(@alignCast(&activate))), null, null, 0, ); _ = c.g_application_run( @as(*c.GApplication, @ptrCast(@alignCast(app))), 0, null, ); c.g_object_unref(app); } ``` ---
**Author:** ![david\_vanderson](https://ziggit.dev/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@david\_vanderson](https://ziggit.dev/u/david_vanderson)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/9 "2026-06-02T15:40:11Z")
That sounds very similar to my story as well! A good place to start is watching the zig showtime episode: [Zig SHOWTIME](https://zig.show/episodes/39/) It’s old enough that the code samples aren’t exact, but it’s a good introduction to immediate-mode vs. retained-mode. ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:46pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/10 "2026-06-02T15:46:32Z")
Thanks @david_vanderson. I’ll take a look and will probably reach out to you in the future privately. I’m currently in the early stages of fully rewriting my Diablo II version switcher / mod manager / character isolator, [Cactus](https://codeberg.org/fearedbliss/Cactus), into Zig from scratch, fully built for only FreeBSD/Linux, no Windows support anymore, and fully integrating Wine into it to launch Diablo II (original, not Resurrected). So for the MVP all of the current functionality, safety checks, and UI design is the goal. I think the most complicated component in this app is the list view. ---
**Author:** ![ccc](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/ccc/32/9469_2.png) [@ccc](https://ziggit.dev/u/ccc)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/11 "2026-07-09T15:40:20Z")
Wanted to post a reply here because I was able to compile with GTK4 on the current master branch of Zig. To do it, I added translate-c as a dependency, passed an option to link it to GTK4, and then added the module to the exe. Run this in your build directory: ```zig zig fetch --save git+https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c ``` As of writing this post, the current commit hash was: `ba4288f6c0e8054d7894266949d4fa08bfc0212a` This is my `build.zig` ```zig const std = @import("std"); pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void { // Allows user to pick target const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{}); // Allows user to pick optimization mode const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{}); // add translate-c as a dep const translate_c = b.dependency("translate_c", .{}); // Import the Translator wrapper const Translator = @import("translate_c").Translator; // c.h contains #include // we link gtk4 by passing it as an option here const t: Translator = .init(translate_c, .{ .c_source_file = b.path("src/c.h"), .target = target, .optimize = optimize, .link_system_libs = &.{ .{ .name = "gtk4" }, } }); // builds the actual exe const exe = b.addExecutable(.{ .name = "gtk_app", .root_module = b.createModule(.{ .root_source_file = b.path("src/main.zig"), .target = target, .optimize = optimize, .link_libc = true, .imports = &.{.{ .name = "c", .module = t.mod, }}, }), }); b.installArtifact(exe); } ``` Then you can import it in your `main.zig` like so: `const c = @import("c");` This doesn’t work with Zig 16.0, you have to use the master branch. I compiled with `zig-x86_64-linux-0.17.0-dev.1275+59a628c6d` Give it a shot, @fearedbliss ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 4:13pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/12 "2026-07-09T16:13:02Z")
Thanks @ccc, although I already finished writing the [whole project](https://codeberg.org/fearedbliss/Cactus) using DVUI for the UI layer instead so I won’t be using GTK anymore. ---
**Author:** ![dimdin](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/dimdin/32/1457_2.png) [@dimdin](https://ziggit.dev/u/dimdin)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/13 "2026-07-11T18:11:05Z")
Yes, it is great that `arocc` and `translate-c` evolved to handle `gtk.h` Unfortunately zig `pkgconfig` is still broken. On debian translate-c cannot find `gtk.h` because the zig code cannot handle arbitary pkg-config cflags: ```zig warning: pkg-config package gtk4 unknown flag: -mfpmath=sse warning: pkg-config package gtk4 unknown flag: -msse warning: pkg-config package gtk4 unknown flag: -msse2 warning: skipping pkg-config for package gtk4 due to unknown flags ./.zig-cache/o/40e134bea1adcfed61b64a55a615a22e/c.h:1:10: fatal error: 'gtk/gtk.h' not found #include ^ error: process exited with code 1 ``` ---
**Author:** ![ccc](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/ccc/32/9469_2.png) [@ccc](https://ziggit.dev/u/ccc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/14 "2026-07-11T21:32:08Z")
@dimdin I actually forgot to mention the fix for this because I ran into the same issue myself. As we can tell, since the compiler doesn’t know how to deal with these flags, it rejects the output of pkg-config for gtk4. I’m not an expert on how pkg-config works but it retrieves the flags and includes needed to compile via .pc files. If you look at the config for gtk4, you’ll see a dependency on a library called graphene (unrelated to GrapheneOS) and that includes the options `-mfpmath=see`, `-msse`, and `msse2`. So if you go into the file and just delete it from there, You’ll be able to compile it successfully. A quick google search will tell you these flags are related to SIMD. On my machine, the files were in `/usr/lib64/pkgconfig`. This is definitely a hacky way and if there isn’t an issue opened already, it should be brought to the developers attention. ---
**Author:** ![vancluever](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/vancluever/32/4911_2.png) [@vancluever](https://ziggit.dev/u/vancluever)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2026, 3:07am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/15 "2026-07-12T03:07:14Z")
Hey folks, those with issues that want to use translate-c on 0.16.0 might want to check out the backport fork we’ve been maintaining for Ghostty: > [@An up-to-date backport of translate-c for 0.16.0](https://ziggit.dev/t/an-up-to-date-backport-of-translate-c-for-0-16-0/16667): > > Hey folks, I’ve noticed a few people posting here about having issues with translate-c since 0.16.0. I’ve been actively working on resolving some of the outstanding issues with Aro and translate-c as we work to port Ghostty to 0.16.0. I’m currently maintaining a branch with mostly up-to-date versions of both that you can try out [here](https://codeberg.org/vancluever/translate-c/src/branch/vancluever-0.16.x). This is the version that powers the in-flight [update PR](https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/12726) (almost done!). Feel free to check it out, with the caveat that it might change at any time (fetch again… This backport _does_ translate GTK (let me know if you have issues though!) WRT the pkg-config argument issues, I understand that a fix is likely coming soon for upstream. My backport does have a workaround, but it swaps out `--cflags` for `--cflags-only-I`, and is likely only a temporary fix until something more permanent is done. ---
**Author:** ![dimdin](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/dimdin/32/1457_2.png) [@dimdin](https://ziggit.dev/u/dimdin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2026, 8:15am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/16 "2026-07-12T08:15:32Z")
> [@vancluever](#): > > it swaps out `--cflags` for `--cflags-only-I` This is not acceptable, because is is ignoring other important flags (e.g. `-pthread`) I believe, the correct solution is to handle the `-m` cpu features. Currently I comment out the last `return` statement in translate-c `runPkgConfig`; and this is also an unacceptable solution. ---
**Author:** ![vancluever](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/vancluever/32/4911_2.png) [@vancluever](https://ziggit.dev/u/vancluever)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/translate-c-error-on-0-17-0-dev-607-456b2ec07-when-importing-gtk4-libraries/15811/17 "2026-07-12T15:04:03Z")
I’ve gone ahead and submitted [https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c/pulls/434](https://codeberg.org/ziglang/translate-c/pulls/434) as Veikka was mentioning that as the possible solution for the time being. This is in the backport as well.