OpengGL segmentation fault

Question

I am following a tutorial, from which I got the following code. I followed the code provided and got a segmentation fault. I don't understand why. I tried looking it up, but found out that the case mostly occurs when a function is called before the Init() function, but this does not follow the same. What could be the problem ?

#include <GL/glew.h>
#include <GLFW/glfw3.h>
#include <glm/glm.hpp>
using namespace glm;
#include <iostream>

void framebuffer_size_callback(GLFWwindow* window, int width, int height);
void processInput(GLFWwindow *window);

// settings
const unsigned int SCR_WIDTH = 800;
const unsigned int SCR_HEIGHT = 600;

const char *vertexShaderSource = "#version 330 core\n"
    "layout (location = 0) in vec3 aPos;\n"
    "void main()\n"
    "{\n"
    "   gl_Position = vec4(aPos.x, aPos.y, aPos.z, 1.0);\n"
    "}\0";
const char *fragmentShaderSource = "#version 330 core\n"
    "out vec4 FragColor;\n"
    "void main()\n"
    "{\n"
    "   FragColor = vec4(1.0f, 0.5f, 0.2f, 1.0f);\n"
    "}\n\0";

int main()
{
    // glfw: initialize and configure
    // ------------------------------
    glfwInit();
    glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MAJOR, 3);
    glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MINOR, 3);
    glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE, GLFW_OPENGL_CORE_PROFILE);

#ifdef __APPLE__
    glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_FORWARD_COMPAT, GL_TRUE); // uncomment this  statement to fix compilation on OS X
#endif
// glfw window creation
    // --------------------
    GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(SCR_WIDTH, SCR_HEIGHT,        "LearnOpenGL", NULL, NULL);
    if (window == NULL)
    {
        std::cout << "Failed to create GLFW window" << std::endl;
        glfwTerminate();
        return -1;
    }
    glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);
    glfwSetFramebufferSizeCallback(window, framebuffer_size_callback);
    // build and compile our shader program
    // ------------------------------------
    // vertex shader
    int vertexShader = glCreateShader(GL_VERTEX_SHADER);
    glShaderSource(vertexShader, 1, &vertexShaderSource, NULL);
    glCompileShader(vertexShader);
    // check for shader compile errors
    int success;
    char infoLog[512];
    glGetShaderiv(vertexShader, GL_COMPILE_STATUS, &success);
    if (!success)
    {
        glGetShaderInfoLog(vertexShader, 512, NULL, infoLog);
        std::cout << "ERROR::SHADER::VERTEX::COMPILATION_FAILED\n" << infoLog << std::endl;
    }
    // fragment shader
    int fragmentShader = glCreateShader(GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER);
    glShaderSource(fragmentShader, 1, &fragmentShaderSource, NULL);
    glCompileShader(fragmentShader);
    // check for shader compile errors
    glGetShaderiv(fragmentShader, GL_COMPILE_STATUS, &success);
    if (!success)
    {
        glGetShaderInfoLog(fragmentShader, 512, NULL, infoLog);
        std::cout << "ERROR::SHADER::FRAGMENT::COMPILATION_FAILED\n" << infoLog << std::endl;
    }
    // link shaders
    int shaderProgram = glCreateProgram();
    glAttachShader(shaderProgram, vertexShader);
    glAttachShader(shaderProgram, fragmentShader);
    glLinkProgram(shaderProgram);
// check for linking errors
    glGetProgramiv(shaderProgram, GL_LINK_STATUS, &success);
    if (!success) {
        glGetProgramInfoLog(shaderProgram, 512, NULL, infoLog);
        std::cout << "ERROR::SHADER::PROGRAM::LINKING_FAILED\n" << infoLog << std::endl;
    }

    // set up vertex data (and buffer(s)) and configure vertex attributes
    // ------------------------------------------------------------------
    float vertices[] = {
        -0.5f, -0.5f, 0.0f, // left  
         0.5f, -0.5f, 0.0f, // right 
         0.0f,  0.5f, 0.0f  // top   
    };

    unsigned int VBO, VAO;
    glGenVertexArrays(1, &VAO);
    glGenBuffers(1, &VBO);
    // bind the Vertex Array Object first, then bind and set vertex buffer(s), and then configure vertex attributes(s).
    glBindVertexArray(VAO);

    glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, VBO);
    glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(vertices), vertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW);

    glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 3 * sizeof(float), (void*)0);
    glEnableVertexAttribArray(0);

    // note that this is allowed, the call to glVertexAttribPointer registered VBO as the vertex attribute's bound vertex buffer object so afterwards we can safely unbind
    glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);

    // You can unbind the VAO afterwards so other VAO calls won't accidentally modify this VAO, but this rarely happens. Modifying other
    // VAOs requires a call to glBindVertexArray anyways so we generally don't unbind VAOs (nor VBOs) when it's not directly necessary.
    glBindVertexArray(0);


    // uncomment this call to draw in wireframe polygons.
    //glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_LINE);

    // render loop
    // -----------
while (!glfwWindowShouldClose(window))
    {
        // input
        // -----
        processInput(window);

        // render
        // ------
        glClearColor(0.2f, 0.3f, 0.3f, 1.0f);
        glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);

        // draw our first triangle
        glUseProgram(shaderProgram);
        glBindVertexArray(VAO); // seeing as we only have a single VAO there's no need to bind it every time, but we'll do so to keep things a bit more organized
        glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 3);
        glBindVertexArray(0); // no need to unbind it every time 

        // glfw: swap buffers and poll IO events (keys pressed/released, mouse moved etc.)
        // -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        glfwSwapBuffers(window);
        glfwPollEvents();
    }

    // optional: de-allocate all resources once they've outlived their purpose:
    // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    glDeleteVertexArrays(1, &VAO);
    glDeleteBuffers(1, &VBO);
    glDeleteShader(vertexShader);
    glDeleteShader(fragmentShader);

    // glfw: terminate, clearing all previously allocated GLFW resources.
    // ------------------------------------------------------------------
    glfwTerminate();
    return 0;
}
// process all input: query GLFW whether relevant keys are pressed/released this frame and react accordingly
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I compiled the code as follows:

g++ practice1.cpp -lGL -lGLU -lglfw3 -lGLEW -lX11 -lXi -lXrandr -lXxf86vm -lXinerama -lXcursor -lrt -lm -pthread -ldl

Note: The tutorial uses glad.h, which I did not include and utilized glew and glm.
Edit: The segmentation fault occurs at the glGenVertexArrays(1, &VAO); in the program.

Answer 1

OpenGL commands beyond those of version 1.1 need to be retrieved first from the driver (this is not true on Apple machines). For this task you are using Glew. Good. But you have to initialize it. Something like

  glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);

  //Now we have a valid context as current, let's allow glew to do its job                                
  glewExperimental = GL_TRUE; //Ensure it get all pointers
  if ( GLEW_OK != glewInit() )
  {
      //glewInit failed, something is seriously wrong.
     return false; //or any handling here
  }

And then you can continuing creating shaders and like.