It depends. Some "single-file" libraries only have the one header, so you can use that one file. Though they often require a bit of trickery to be compiled cor

It depends. Some "single-file" libraries only have the one header, so you can use that one file. Though they often require a bit of trickery to be compiled correctly, so I prefer those with two file, one .h header and one .c source. Some libraries are popular enough that they’re distributed in your package manager of choice: whatever your Linux/BSD distribution uses, Nix, a Cargo-like repository in some cases… In this case you can download that package and depend on it. All working libraries can be built from source, one way or another. They each have their own preferred build system though. Most can be installed from source, so you don’t need to be aware of their build system to use it. But if you take on the dependency like that now your users will depend on the library so it’s not exactly free. Some libraries offer several or all of the above. Managing updates depend on how you integrate the library. If you use it as a system dependency, your users need to download and update the correct version themselves. Package managers can help there (use Ubuntu/Nix/Ports, get security updates for free… if you trust them to be quick enough, which they will be if the library is popular). The alternative is to ship your own copy of the library yourself, either by building it at home with their build system and manually importing headers & .so/.dll, or absorb their source code into your own build system (you’re on your own but you have full control). Which is best is… up to who you’re speaking to. To oversimplify the issue, I’d say distro maintainers don’t trust developers to deliver security updates in time, so they want everyone to use .so and dynamic linking everywhere so security updates can happen in a timely manner. On the other hand developers don’t trust distro maintainers to do regular updates in a timely manner, so they’re stuck to old versions of their favourite libraries. Those who do both… maybe have gone insane from the cognitive dissonance?