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.
This is released under the GNU Free Documentation License - its text is provided in the LICENSE file.
Compilers
- Clang - A C compiler for LLVM. Supports C11. NCSA.
- CompCert - A fully-verified C compiler. Supports almost all of C89. GNU GPL2.1.
- GCC - Provides a C compiler as part of its compiler set. Supports C11 and OpenMP. GNU GPL3.
- PCC - A venerable C compiler. Supports C99. Various licenses, all free.
- TCC - Tiny C Compiler; a small, fast C compiler. Supports C99 (except complex types). GNU GPL2.1.
Crypto
Database
This lists databases and data stores with C APIs.
- Hiredis - A minimalistic client library for Redis. 3-clause BSD.
- LMDB - An ultra-fast, ultra-compact key-value embedded data store. newOpenLDAP.
- MariaDB - A robust, scalable and reliable SQL server, designed to be a drop-in replacement for MySQL. 3-clause BSD.
- mongo-c-driver - A high-performance client library for MongoDB. Apache2.0.
- PostgreSQL - A powerful object-relational database system. PostgreSQL licence
- Redis - An advanced key-value store. 3-clause BSD.
- sophia - A modern, embeddable key-value database. FreeBSD.
- SQLite - A self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine with a C interface. Public domain.
- UnQLite - A self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional NoSQL engine with a C interface. FreeBSD.
Editors
These are specifically fancier, IDE-type editors. If you want a programmer's text editor, and yours doesn't support C, I'd be quite surprised.
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. Apache2.0.
- C Algorithms - A collection of common algorithms and data structures for C. ISC.
- EFL - A large collection of useful data structures and functions. Various licenses, all free.
- GLib - A library of utility functions and structures, designed to be portable, efficient and powerful. GNU LGPL3.
- GIO - A modern and easy-to-use VFS API. GNU LGPL3.
- GObject - An object-oriented system and object model for C. GNU LGPL3.
- libnih - A lightweight library of C functions and structures. GNU GPL2.1.
- libU - A small library of basic utilities, including memory allocation, string manipulation and logging. 3-clause BSD.
- qlibc - A simple and powerful C library, designed as a replacement for GLib while focusing on being small and light. qLib license (similar to FreeBSD).
- stb - A range of single-file libraries for C. Public domain.
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 - A cross-platform, video game development and multimedia library. zlib.
- CSFML - A binding for SFML in C. zlib.
- FreeGLUT - An alternative to the OpenGL Utility Toolkit. Allows the creation and management of windows with OpenGL contexts. X11.
- GLFW - A multi-platform library for creating windows with OpenGL contexts. zlib.
- RetroArch - The reference frontend for libretro. GNU GPL3.
- SDL - A cross-platform library designed to provide low-level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick and graphics hardware via OpenGL. zlib.
Generic Programming
- klib - Small and lightweight implementations of common algorithms and data structures. Expat.
- SGLIB - Simple Generic Library; an implementation of a range of generic programming structures and idioms in C. GNU GPL3.
Graphics
- Cogl - A GPU graphics and utilities API. GNU LGPL2.1.
- Clutter - A UI library based on OpenGL. GNU LGPL2.1.
- libjpeg - A library for reading and writing JPEG files. Free software license (check the source).
- libjpeg-turbo - A faster library for reading and writing JPEG files. Various licences.
- libxmi - A function library for rasterizing 2D vector graphics. GNU GPL3.
- mozjpeg - An improved JPEG encoder. 3-clause BSD.
- OpenGL - The industry standard for high-performance graphics, with a native C binding. Various licenses.
- SDL2 - Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D. zlib
Graphical User Interface
These are specifically widget toolkits.
JSON
- Jansson - A C library for encoding, decoding and manipulating JSON. Expat.
- jsmn - A minimalistic JSON parser. Expat.
- json-c - A library for working with JSON. Expat.
- WJElement - Advanced JSON manipulation library, with support for JSON Schema. GNU GPL3.
- YAJL - A fast C JSON streaming parser library. ISC
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
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Self-study courses
Physical
Reference
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Multimedia
Networking and Internet
- asnlc - A compiler of ASN.1 specifications into C source code. FreeBSD.
- czmq - A high-level binding for ZeroMQ. MPL2.0
- GNU adns - An advanced, easy-to-use, asynch-capable DNS client library and utilities. GNU GPL3.
- GNU SASL - An implementation of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer and a few common SASL mechanism. GNU GPL3.
- GnuTLS - A secure communication library, implementing SSL, TLS and DTLS. GNU LGPL2.1.
- gumbo-parser - An HTML5 parsing library in C99. Apache2.0.
- http-parser - An HTTP request/response parser. Expat.
- libcurl - A client-side URL transfer library, supporting a wide range of formats. curl license
- LibEtPan - A mail library providing an efficient network for IMAP, SMTP, POP and NNTP. 3-clause BSD.
- libev - Yet another event loop. FreeBSD.
- libevent - An event loop replacement for network servers. 3-clause BSD.
- libgss - Generic Security Service. GNU GPL3.
- libhttpd - A library to add basic web server capabilities to an application or embedded device. GNU GPL3.
- libidn - An implementation of the Stringprep, Punycode and IDNA specifications. GNU LGPL2.1.
- libmicrohttpd - A small C library that makes it easy to run an HTTP server as part of another application. GNU LGPL2.1.
- libsoup - A GNOME HTTP client/server library. Uses GObject. GNU LGPL2.1.
- LibreSSL - A BSD fork of OpenSSL. Various licenses, all semi-free.
- lwan - An experimental, scalable, high-performance HTTP server. GNU GPL2.1.
- mihl - A library for implementing an embedded HTTP server. FreeBSD.
- mongoose - Embedded web server for C. GNU GPL2.1.
- nanomsg - A C-based implementation of ZeroMQ. Expat.
- neon - An HTTP and WebDAV client library with a C interface. GNU LGPL3.
- onion - HTTP server library, designed to be easy to use. Apache2.0.
- 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 - A SIP implementation in C without additional dependencies. GNU GPL3.
- socket99 - A wrapper library for the BSD sockets API.
- Tox - A communication platform, designed to be a Skype-killer. GNU GPL3.
- twitc - A mini C library for interacting with the Twitter OAuth API. GNU GPL3.
- ZeroMQ - High-performance message passing networking library. Implemented in C++, but has a C interface. GNU LGPL3.
Numerical
- apophenia - A library for statistical and scientific computing. GNU GPL2.1 with some exceptions.
- 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
- CRlibm - Correctly Rounded mathematical library; a modern implementation of a range of numeric routines. GN LGPL3.
- FFTW - The Fastest Fourier Transform in the West; a highly-optimized fast Fourier transform routine. GNU GPL2.1.
- FLINT - Fast Library for Number Theory; a library supporting arithmetic with numbers, polynomials, power series and matrices, among others. GNU GPL2.1.
- GLPK - GNU Linear Programming Kit; a package designed for solving large-scale linear programming, mixed integer programming and other related problems. GNU GPL3.
- GMP - GNU Multple Precision Arithmetic Library; a library for arbitrary-precision arithmetic. GNU GPL2.1 and GNU LGPL2.1.
- GNU MPC - A library for complex number arithmetic. GNU LGPL3.
- GNU MPFR - A library for arbitrary-precision floating-point arithmetic. GNU LGPL2.1.
- GNU MPRIA - A portable mathematics library for multi-precision rational interval arithmetic. GNU GPL3.
- GSL - The GNU Scientific Library; a sophisticated numerical library. GNU GPL3.
- KISS FFT - A very simple fast Fourier transform library. 3-clause BSD.
- LAPACKE - A C interface to LAPACK. 3-clause BSD.
- PARI/GP - A computer algebra system for number theory; includes a compiler to C. GNU GPL3.
- PETSc - A suite of data structures and routines for scalable parallel solution of scientific applications modelled by partial differential equations. FreeBSD.
- SLEPc - A software library for the solution of large, sparse eigenvalue problems on parallel computers. GNU LGPL3.
- Yeppp! - Very fast, SIMD-optimized mathematical library. 3-clause BSD.
Parallel Programming
- cchan - A small library for channel constructs for inter-thread communication. Public domain.
- ck - Concurrency primitives, safe memory reclamation mechanisms and non-blocking data structures. FreeBSD.
- MPICH - Another implementation of MPI. MPICH licence.
- OpenMP - A set of C pragmas designed to allow for easy parallelization of code. Standard (licensing not applicable).
- OpenMPI - A message passing interface implementation. 3-clause BSD.
- PETSc - A suite of data structures and routines for scalable parallel solution of scientific applications modelled by partial differential equations. FreeBSD.
- pth - A portable implementation for non-preemptive priority-based scheduling for multiple threads of execution. GNU GPL3.
- pthreads - The POSIX thread library. Standard (no license applicable).
- SLEPc - A software library for the solution of large, sparse eigenvalue problems on parallel computers. GNU LGPL3.
- TinyCThread - A portable, small implementation of the C11 threads API. zlib.
Regex
"Some people, when confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use regular expressions'. Now they have two problems." - Jamie Zawinski.
- PCRE - An implementation of regexes identical to that of Perl 5. 3-clause BSD.
- SLRE - Super Light Regular Expression library; a very small implementation of a subset of Perl regex syntax. GNU GPL2.1.
- TRE - A POSIX-compliant, feature-full regex library. FreeBSD.
- T-Rex - Another tiny regex library. zlib.
Serialization
- c-capnproto - An implementation of the Cap'n Proto serialization protocol. Expat.
- libavro - A C implementation of the Avro data serialization system. Apache2.0.
- msgpackalt - A simple, light and fast binary serialization library. 3-clause BSD.
- protobuf-c - An implementation of Google Protocol Buffer in C. FreeBSD.
- xdr - External Data Representation; a standard for data serialization. Standard (no license applicable).
Source Code Collections
This contains collections of small source code. If you want something big and integrated, check the Frameworks section.
- CCAN - Modelled after Perl's CPAN, this is a big collection of C code that does stuff. The full list is here. Various licenses (all free software).
- clib - Something of a package manager for C. Comes with a bunch of libraries of its own. Expat.
- gnulib - A collection of common GNU code. GNU GPL3.
- libdjb - A collection of libraries doing various things. (Apparently) public domain.
- ulib - Another collection of source code. Expat.
Standard Libraries
This contains standard C libraries.
- Bionic - Google's C standard library, developed for Android. 3-clause BSD
- dietlibc - A 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 LGPL3.
- musl - A 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.
Emacs
- CEDET - Collection of Emacs Development Environment Tools; designed to provide IDE-like features to Emacs. Built-in. GNU GPL2.1.
- Flycheck - Modern syntax checking. For C, it can use either GCC or Clang as a back-end. GNU GPL3.
- Yasnippet - A template system, with C templates for common code snippets. GNU GPL3.
Vim
Tools
This is a list of useful programs to help you write and debug C code which are not editors, libraries or compilers.
- aimake - A build tool designed to avoid complex configurations. GNU GPL3.
- address-sanitizer - A fast memory error detector. Apache2.0.
- c - Compile and execute C "scripts" in one go on the command line. Also has shebang support. Expat.
- c99sh - Run C files using hash-bang. FreeBSD.
- cinclude2dot - Graphs include dependencies in a C project using Graphviz. GNU GPL3.
- GDB - The GNU Project debugger; a debugger for C. GNU GPL3.
- gprof - A performance analysis tool. Part of GNU binutils. GNU GPL3.
- include-what-you-use - Helps find unecessary inclusions and make suggestions for fixing them. Based on LLVM/Clang (and only works with it). NCSA.
- libtool - A generic library support script. GNU GPL3.
- qo - A build system that works without a separate config file. Expat.
- rr - A debugger that records non-deterministic executions to allow for deterministic debugging. FreeBSD.
- unifdef - Removes #ifdef and #if directives with their delimited text without touching any other part of the file. 3-clause BSD and FreeBSD.
- Valgrind - A range of dynamic analysis tools, including a leak checker. GNU GPL2.1.
Utilities
This is a 'catch-all' category for anything that doesn't fit well anywhere else.
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