How to Compile and Link an OpenGL/GLFW Program with Cygwin on Windows?

I struggled with finding documentation on compiling a basic OpenGL/GLFW example Windows using Cygwin-g++ so I decided to post an answer to my own question.

OS: Windows (10)
Compiler: Cygwin g++ (x86_64-pc-cygwin)
Code: GLFW Documentation's Example Code (basic working example shown below. Won't create a window but should output text if everything builds/links correctly):


    #define GLFW_DLL
    #include <GLFW/glfw3.h>
    #include <iostream>
    
    int main(void) {
        std::cout << "Code works" << std::endl;
        if (!glfwInit())
            return -1;
        glfwTerminate();
        return 0;
    }

Compilation: g++ -Wall -Iinclude main.cpp -o main.exe -L<folder glfw3.dll is in> -lglfw3 -lopengl32 -lgdi32

Issues

Code would compile and build but no output window would appear
My current linking is fine, but different combinations would result in undefined reference errors.

Solution

alternative solution building the GLFW for Cygwin

Download glfw-3.3.4.zip and then

$ unzip glfw-3.3.4.zip
$ cd glfw-3.3.4
$ ccmake .

set BUILD_SHARED_LIBS to ON. Configure and generate

$ make
$ make install

Install the project...
-- Install configuration: ""
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/include/GLFW
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/include/GLFW/glfw3.h
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/include/GLFW/glfw3native.h
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/lib/cmake/glfw3/glfw3Config.cmake
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/lib/cmake/glfw3/glfw3ConfigVersion.cmake
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/lib/cmake/glfw3/glfw3Targets.cmake
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/lib/cmake/glfw3/glfw3Targets-noconfig.cmake
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/glfw3.pc
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/lib/libglfw.dll.a
-- Up-to-date: /usr/local/bin/cygglfw-3.dll

So you will have a proper Cygwin build installed under /usr/local
after that, running under X server

$ g++ main.cpp -o main -lglfw -L/usr/local/lib

$ ./main.exe 
Code works