awesome-c 
A curated list of C good stuff. This list contains only free software for
code, and sellers who aren’t evil for physical resources.
LOOKING FOR MAINTAINERS: This list is currently
pretty much inactive. I’m looking for maintainers that can make it great
again. See #26
for more info, but the process is simple: add or fix a couple of things
in this list and you’ll become a contributor to a 850+ stars list.
This list was previously maintained by @kozross. He decided to switch the list
to a new platform,
so I’ve decided to fork it so we could keep it on GitHub.
Contents
Contents
Build Systems
These are tools to automate the building and testing of projects in
C.
Compilers
Compiler libraries
Libraries for use in compilers, interpreters, and low-level based
projects.
Compression
- libzip - A C library for reading,
creating, and modifying zip archives.
3-clause BSD
- lzo - Very
fast data compression library.
GNU GPL2.1
- zlib - Massively-spiffy yet
delicately-unobtrusive compression library.
3-clause BSD
- bzip2 - Patent free, high quality
data compressor.
3-clause BSD
- lz4 - Fast Compression
algorithm.
- snappy - Fast
compression library (implementation in C++, native bindings to C).
- zstd - Fast real-time
compression algorithm
3-clause BSD
- brotli - Generic
lossless compression algorithm based on LZ77, Huffman coding and 2nd
order context modelling
MIT
- quicklz - Fast
compression library.
GNU GPL2.1
- pixz - Pixz (pronounced
pixie) is a parallel, indexing version of
xz. 2-clause BSD
Crypto
Database
This lists databases and data stores with C APIs.
- BerkeleyDB -
Library for a high-performance embedded database for key-value data.
GNU AGPLv3
- Hiredis -
Minimalistic client library for Redis.
3-clause BSD
- LMDB - Ultra-fast,
ultra-compact key-value embedded data store.
OpenLDAP License
- MariaDB - Robust, scalable and
reliable SQL server, designed to be a drop-in replacement for MySQL.
3-clause BSD
- mongo-c-driver - High-performance
client library for MongoDB.
Apache 2.0
- PostgreSQL - Powerful
object-relational database system.
PostgreSQL licence
- recutils - Set
of tools and a C library for accessing human-editable, plaintext
database files called recfiles.
GNU GPL3 or later
- Redis - Advanced key-value store.
3-clause BSD
- sophia - Modern, embeddable
key-value database.
FreeBSD
- SQLite -
Self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL
database engine with a C interface.
Public Domain
- UnQLite - Self-contained,
serverless, zero-configuration, transactional NoSQL engine with a C
interface.
FreeBSD
Deep Learning
- Darknet - Open source
neural network framework written in C and CUDA. It is fast, easy to
install, and supports CPU and GPU computation.
Documentation Generation
- Cxref -
Generates documentation of C programs in either LaTeX, HTML, RTF or
SGML.
GNU GPL2.1
- DocOnce -
Modestly-tagged markup language that can be used to generate a range of
formats.
3-clause BSD
- Doxygen - The de-facto standard
tool for generating C documentation from annotated sources. Can generate
a large range of formats.
GNU GPL2.1
- GTK-Doc - Tool for
generating C documentation from annotated sources. Has support for the
Autotools.
GNU GPL2.1 (code)
or GNU FDL1.1
Editors
These are specifically fancier, IDE-type editors. If you want a
programmer’s text editor, look elsewhere. Besides, whatever choice you
make most likely supports C anyway.
Embedded Systems
These are projects that allow one to work with microcontrollers and
other resource constrained architectures.
RTOS
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is intended to serve real-time
applications that process data with low latency delay.
- Amazon FreeRTOS -
RTOS for microcontrollers that makes small, low-power edge devices easy
to program.
MIT
- ChibiOS -
RTOS with complete development environment (HAL, drivers, support files,
and tools).
Various Licenses
- Contiki - Connect low-cost,
low power microcontrollers to the Internet.
3-clause BSD
- Zephyr Project -
Scalable real-time RTOS supporting multiple hardware architectures,
optimized for resource constrained devices.
Apache 2.0
- RIOT OS - Real-time
multi-threading operating system that supports a range of devices that
are typically found in the Internet of Things.
LGPL-2.1
Environments
This is a list of technologies designed to bring Windows into the
21st century with respect to support for C.
Frameworks
This section has big libraries that provide data structures and other
stuff you expect of a ‘modern’ standard library.
- APR - Apache Portable Runtime;
another library of cross-platform utility functions.
Apache 2.0
- C Algorithms
- Collection of common algorithms and data structures for C.
ISC
- C Macro
Collections - Header only, macro generated, generic and type-safe
Collections in C.
MIT
- CPL - The Common
Pipeline Library; a set of libraries designed to be a comprehensive,
efficient and robust software toolkit.
GNU GPL2.1
- EFL - Large collection
of useful data structures and functions.
- GLib - Library of
utility functions and structures, designed to be portable, efficient and
powerful.
GNU LGPL2.1
- GIO - Modern and
easy-to-use VFS API.
GNU LGPL2.1
- GObject -
Object-oriented system and object model for C.
GNU LGPL2.1
- libnih - Lightweight
library of C functions and structures.
GNU GPL2.1
- libU - Small library of
basic utilities, including memory allocation, string manipulation and
logging.
3-clause BSD
- PBL - Large
library of utilities, featuring data structures, among other things.
GNU LGPL2.1 or later (library)
or GNU GPL2.1 or later (test code)
- qlibc - Simple and
powerful C library, designed as a replacement for GLib while focusing on
being small and light.
qLib license
(similar to FreeBSD)
- stb - Range of
single-file libraries for C.
Public Domain
- libsrt - Safe
Real-Time library for C.
3-clause BSD
Game Programming
Engines
These are provided as examples of C game programming code.
Resources
These are libraries of all sorts that are useful for game
programming.
- Allegro - Cross-platform, video
game development and multimedia library.
zlib
- Chipmunk2D - Fast and
lightweight 2D game physics library.
Expat
- CSFML -
Binding for SFML in C.
zlib
- FreeGLUT -
Alternative to the OpenGL Utility Toolkit. Allows the creation and
management of windows with OpenGL contexts.
X11
- GLFW - Multi-platform library
for creating windows with OpenGL contexts.
zlib
- libao - Cross-platform audio
library with a wide variety of outputs.
GNU GPL2.1 or later
- RetroArch - The reference
frontend for libretro.
GNU GPL3
- SDL and SDL2 - Cross-platform
development library designed to provide low-level access to audio,
keyboard, mouse, joystick and graphics hardware via OpenGL. SDL2 is the
most current version.
zlib
- raylib - Simple and
easy-to-use library to learn videogames programming.
zlib
Generic Programming
- klib -
Small and lightweight implementations of common algorithms and data
structures.
MIT
Graphics
Graphic APIs
- OpenGL - Industry adopted 2D
and 3D graphics API. More resources at awesome-opengl.
- OpenGL ES - Industry
adopted 2D and 3D graphics API for mobile and embedded devices.
- OpenGL SC - Graphic
and compute standard for industry requiring system safety
certification.
- Vulkan - Explicit
graphic and compute API for modern cross-platform development. More
resources at awesome-vulkan.
Graphical User Interface
These are specifically widget
toolkits.
Hashing
All hashing related libraries, cryptographic or not.
Image Processing
JSON
Learning, Reference and
Tutorials
This is a list of resources for learning C programming in general, or
something useful relating to C programming.
Online
Reference
Language Standards
Beginner
Advanced
Self-study courses
Physical
Reference
Beginner
Advanced
Macros
- P99 - Suite of macros to
implement advanced features like default function arguments, scope-bound
resources, etc. (Requires C99)
Q Public License
Memory Allocators
Implementations of memory allocators for various systems and
platforms.
- jemalloc - General purpose
malloc(3) implementation that emphasizes fragmentation avoidance and
scalable concurrency support, commonly used in production systems.
FreeBSD
- dlmalloc - Doug
Lea’s malloc(3) implementation, useful for academic and research
purposes.
Public Domain
- Hoard - A Fast, Scalable, and
Memory-efficient Malloc for Linux, Windows, Mac, and Solaris.
GNU GPL2
- nedmalloc
- An EXTREMELY FAST portable thread caching malloc(3) implementation
written in C.
GNU GPL2
- rpmalloc -
Cross platform, lock-free memory allocator.
Public Domain
Networking and Internet
- asnlc -
Compiler of ASN.1 specifications into C source code.
FreeBSD
- czmq - High-level binding for
ZeroMQ.
MPL2.0
- GNU adns -
Advanced, easy-to-use, asynch-capable DNS client library and utilities.
GNU GPL3 or later
- GNU SASL -
Implementation of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer and a few
common SASL mechanism.
GNU GPL3 or later
- GnuTLS - Secure communication
library, implementing SSL, TLS and DTLS.
GNU LGPL2.1 or later
- gumbo-parser -
HTML5 parsing library in C99.
Apache 2.0
- http-parser -
HTTP request/response parser.
Expat
- ldns
- Library to simplify DNS programming.
3-clause BSD
- libcurl - Client-side
URL transfer library, supporting a wide range of formats.
curl license
- LibEtPan - Mail library
providing an efficient network for IMAP, SMTP, POP and NNTP.
3-clause BSD
- libev - Yet
another event loop.
FreeBSD
- libuv - Cross-platform asynchronous
I/O.
Expat
- libevent - Event loop replacement
for network servers.
3-clause BSD
- libgss - Generic
Security Service.
GNU GPL3 or later
- libhttpd -
Library to add basic web server capabilities to an application or
embedded device.
GNU GPL2
- libidn -
Implementation of the Stringprep, Punycode and IDNA specifications.
GNU GPL3 or later
- libmicrohttpd -
Small C library that makes it easy to run an HTTP server as part of
another application.
GNU LGPL2.1 or later
- libsagui - Sagui
is a cross-platform C library which helps to develop web servers or
frameworks.
GNU LGPL3
- libvldmail -
Your friendly e-mail address validation library.
WTFPLv2
- lwan - Experimental, scalable,
high-performance HTTP server.
GNU GPL2.1
- mongoose - Embedded web server
for C.
GNU GPL2.1
- MQTT-C - Portable
MQTT C client for embedded systems and PCs alike.
MIT
- nanomsg - C-based
implementation of ZeroMQ.
Expat
- OpenSSL - Implementation of
the SSL and TLS protocols, and also includes a cryptography library.
Dual Licensed under the OpenSSL License and the SSLeay License
- oSip - SIP
implementation in C without additional dependencies.
GNU LGPLv2.1 or later
- pig - Linux
packet crafting tool.
GPL2
- s2n - C99
implementation of the TLS/SSL protocols, designed to be simple, fast and
with security as a priority.
Apache 2.0
- socket99 -
C99 wrapper for the BSD sockets API.
ISC
- Tox - Communication platform,
designed to be a Skype-killer.
GNU GPL3
- twitc - Mini C
library for interacting with the Twitter OAuth API.
Expat
- librg - Library for
building simple and elegant cross-platform mmo client-server solutions.
Apache 2.0
- dyad - Asynchronous
networking library.
MIT
- h2o - Optimized HTTP/1,
HTTP/2 high performance server/library.
MIT
Web Frameworks
- balde - Microframework for C
based on GLib.
GNU LGPLv2.1
- onion - C library
to create simple HTTP servers and Web Applications.
Apache 2.0
- kore - Easy to use, scalable and
secure web application framework for writing web APIs in C.
- klone - KLone is a
fully-featured, multiplatform, web application development
framework.
- duda - Duda I/O is an event-driven and
high performant web services framework written in C.
Apache 2.0
Numerical
- apophenia - Library for
statistical and scientific computing.
GNU GPL2.1
- ATLAS -
Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software.
3-clause BSD
- BLAS - Basic Linear
Algebra Subprograms; a set of routines that provide vector and matrix
operations.
BLAS license
- CDFLIB
- Library with routines to evaluate cumulative density functions fo a
variety of standard probability distributions. Also can compute one
parameter of the CDF given the others. (No license given)
- cmathl - Pure-C
Math library with a great variety of mathematical functions and CMake
build support. Seeks to be close to C89/C90 compliant for portability.
MIT
- Cuba - Library for
multidimensional numerical integration.
GNU LGPLv3
- FFTW - The Fastest Fourier
Transform in the West; a highly-optimized fast Fourier transform
routine.
GNU GPL2.1 or later
- FLINT - Fast Library for Number
Theory; a library supporting arithmetic with numbers, polynomials, power
series and matrices, among others.
GNU GPL2.1 or later
- GLPK - GNU Linear
Programming Kit; a package designed for solving large-scale linear
programming, mixed integer programming and other related problems.
GNU GPL3 or later
- GMP - GNU Multple Precision
Arithmetic Library; a library for arbitrary-precision arithmetic.
GNU GPL2.1
and GNU LGPLv3
- GNU MPC - Library
for complex number arithmetic.
GNU LGPL3 or later
- GNU MPFR - Library for
arbitrary-precision floating-point arithmetic.
GNU LGPL3 or later
or GNU LGPL2.1 or later (until version 2.4.x)
- GNU MPRIA -
Portable mathematics library for multi-precision rational interval
arithmetic.
GNU GPL3 or later
- GSL - The GNU
Scientific Library; a sophisticated numerical library.
GNU GPL3
- igraph - Library for creating and
manipulating large graphs.
GNU GPL2
- KISS FFT -
Very simple fast Fourier transform library.
3-clause BSD
- LAPACKE - C
interface to LAPACK.
3-clause BSD
- PARI/GP - Computer
algebra system for number theory; includes a compiler to C.
GNU GPL2.1 or later
- PETSc - Suite of data
structures and routines for scalable parallel solution of scientific
applications modelled by partial differential equations.
FreeBSD
- PROB
- Library that handles various discrete and continuous probability
density functions.
GNU LGPL3
- Yeppp! - Very
fast, SIMD-optimized mathematical library.
3-clause BSD
Parallel Programming
- cchan - Small library
for channel constructs for inter-thread communication.
Public Domain
- ck - Concurrency
primitives, safe memory reclamation mechanisms and non-blocking data
structures.
FreeBSD
- mill - Go-style concurrency in C.
X11
- libdill - Structured concurrency
in C.
X11
- MPICH - Another implementation
of MPI.
MPICH licence
- OpenMP - Set of C pragmas
designed to allow for easy parallelization of code.
3-clause BSD
- OpenMPI - Message
passing interface implementation.
3-clause BSD
- pth - Portable
implementation for non-preemptive priority-based scheduling for multiple
threads of execution.
GNU GPL3 or later
- pthreads -
The POSIX thread library.
- SLEPc - Software
library for the solution of large, sparse eigenvalue problems on
parallel computers.
GNU LGPL3
- TinyCThread - Portable,
small implementation of the C11 threads API.
zlib
Parsers
Regex
“Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I’ll use
regular expressions’. Now they have two problems.” - Jamie Zawinski.
- PCRE - Implementation of regexes
identical to that of Perl 5.
3-clause BSD
- regexp4
- Simple and complete implementation of regular expressions with its own
sintax.
GNU GPL3 or later
- SLRE - Super Light
Regular Expression library; a very small implementation of a subset of
Perl regex syntax.
GNU GPL2.1
- sregex -
Non-backtracking NFA/DFA-based Perl-compatible regex engine library.
3-clause BSD
- TRE -
POSIX-compliant, feature-full regex library.
FreeBSD
Serialization
Check also: JSON, XML
Source Code Collections
This contains collections of small source code. If you want something
big and integrated, check the Frameworks section.
Standard Libraries
This contains standard C libraries.
- Bionic
- Google’s C standard library, developed for Android.
3-clause BSD
- dietlibc - C standard
library designed for the smallest possible binaries.
GNU GPL2.1
- glibc - The GNU C
Library; an implementation of the C standard library.
GNU LGPL2.1
- musl - Standard C library,
compatible with POSIX 2008 and C11. Designed for static linking.
Expat
String Manipulation
Testing
Text Editor Extensions
While practically any decent programmer’s text editor supports C,
there are some extensions that make it more pleasant. This is
categorized by editor.
Atom
Emacs
Vim
This is a list of useful programs to help you write and debug C code
which are not editors, libraries or compilers.
Utilities
This is a ‘catch-all’ category for anything that doesn’t fit well
anywhere else.
- ApeTagLibs
- C library for working with APEv2 tags.
Expat
- bfd - Library
for manipulating binary object files. Part of GNU binutils.
GNU GPL3 or later
- cf4ocl - The C
Framework for OpenCL; a cross-platform object-oriented framework for
developing and benchmarking OpenCL projects.
GNU LGPL3 (library)
or GNU GPL3 (project code)
- CommonMark - C
implementation of the CommonMark spec.
Various Licenses
- CException - C
implementation of exceptions.
Expat
- docopt.c - C
implementation of a command-line option parser.
Expat
- dyncall - Another foreign
function interface library.
Expat
- FANN - Fast Artifical
Neural Network library; an implementation of neural networks.
GNU GPL2.1
- Firm - C library that
provides a graph-based intermediate representation, optimizations and
assembly code generation suitable for use in compilers. Comes with an
example C front-end under the same license.
GNU LGPLv2.1
- Genann - Simple
neural network library in C.
Zlib
- gjrand -
Library of random-number generation routines.
GNU GPL2.1
or GNU GPLv3
- GNU
FreeIPMI - In-band and out-of-band IPMI implementation.
GNU GPL3
- GNU gperf -
Perfect hash function generator, given a list of strings. Outputs C
code.
GNU GPL3 or later
- GNU Libffcall
- Collection of libraries for building foreign function interfaces.
GNU GPL3 or later
- gperftools -
Collection of utilities for measuring and improving performance.
3-clause BSD
- huffandpuff -
Minimal Huffman encoder and decoder.
Public Domain
- kdtree - Simple
library for working with KD-trees.
3-clause BSD
- Kitsune - Efficient,
general-purpose framework for dynamic software updating.
GNU LGPL3 or later
- libavl -
Library containing a range of self-balancing binary trees.
GNU GPL3 or later
- libbson - BSON
utility library.
Apache 2.0
- libCello - Library introducing
higher-level programming to C.
3-clause BSD
- libffi - Portable
foreign-function interface library.
Expat
- libgit2 - Pure C implementation
of Git.
GNU GPL2 only, with a linking exception
- libimobiledevice
- Cross-platform protocol library to communicate with iThings.
GNU LGPLv2.1 or later (library)
or GNU GPL2.1 or later (tools)
- libnfc -
Platform-independent Near-Field Communication library.
GNU LGPL3
- libPhenom
- Deprecated, here for archival purposes. Eventing framework for
building high-scalability and high-performance systems.
Apache 2.0
- ncurses -
Coloured terminal UI library.
GNU GPL3 or later
- nope.c -
C-language-based, ultra-light software platform for scalable server-side
and networking applications (think node.js for C programmers).
GNU GPL2.1
- pbc - Protocol buffers
library.
Expat
- rabbitmq-c -
Client library for RabbitMQ.
Expat
- Ragel - DSL for
state machines that compiles to C.
GNU GPL2.1
- Tinyexpr - Tiny
recursive-descent parser, compiler and evaluation engine for simple
mathematical expressions.
zlib
- uthash - Hash
table implementation, allowing existing structures to be stored in a
hash table easily.
1-clause BSD
- cpu_features -
A cross platform C99 library to get cpu features at runtime.
Apache 2.0
- pblog - Small, low
overhead, structured logging library intended for logging formware
events.
Apache 2.0
- libelf - ELF
object file access library in C.
GNU GPL2.1
- mcpp - Portable C
preprocessor.
2-clause BSD
- libusb - Generic access to USB
devices.
LGPL2.1
- alsa-lib
- Userspace library to interact with ALSA.
LGPL2.1
- Capstone -
Dissasembly/disassembler framework.
BSD 3-clause
XML
“XML is crap. Really. There are no excuses. XML is nasty to parse for
humans, and it’s a disaster to parse even for computers. There’s just no
reason for that horrible crap to exist.” - Linus Torvalds
c.md Github