List of C software and tools

Last updated October 28, 2025

This is a list of software and programming tools for the C programming language, including libraries, debuggers, compilers, integrated development environments (IDEs), and other related development tools and utilities.

Libraries and tools

Adns — asynchronous DNS resolver library^[1]
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture — API for sound card device drivers ^[2]
Allegro — cross-platform software library for video game development^[3]
Apache Portable Runtime — Apache web server tool set of APIs that map to the underlying operating system^[4]
Argon2 — memory-hard password hashing library^[5]
Berkeley DB — embedded database software library for key/value data^[6]
Binary File Descriptor library — binary file manipulation library in the GNU toolchain
Boehm garbage collector – conservative garbage collector
Borland Graphics Interface — graphics library for Borland compilers
BSAFE — FIPS 140-2 validated cryptography library
Chipmunk — 2D real-time rigid body physics engine
C POSIX library — specification of a C standard library for POSIX systems
C standard library – standard library for the C programming language
Cairo – vector graphics library API for software developers
CFD General Notation System (CGNS) — data format and library for computational fluid dynamics
cJSON — lightweight JSON parser
CLIPS — public-domain software tool for building expert systems
Core Audio — low-level API for dealing with sound in Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems
Core Foundation — API for macOS and iOS and other Apple operating systems
Core Image — GPU accelerated image processing technology for Apple operating systems with Quartz graphics rendering layer.
Core Text — text layout and font rendering API for macOS and iOS.
Cryptlib — portable cryptography library
cURL / libcurl — CLI app for uploading and downloading individual files, such as a URL from a web server over HTTP.
DevIL — cross-platform image library for loading and converting file formats
DirectFB — graphics acceleration and input device handling library
Dld — dynamic loading library
Expat — stream-oriented XML 1.0 parser library, written in C99.
FFmpeg — multimedia framework for audio/video processing
Fontconfig — font customization and configuration library
FreeTDS — database library for Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server
FreeType — render text onto bitmaps with a font rasterization engine
GD Graphics Library — image creation and manipulation library
GDK — graphics abstraction layer for GTK
GEGL — graph-based image processing framework
GIO — I/O and virtual file system library in GLib
GLib — utility library providing data structures, event loops, and portability functions.
glibc — GNU implementation of the C standard library
GLFW — library for OpenGL contexts, windows, and input device handling
GNet — networking library for GLib
GNU Libtool — Library management tool
GNU portability library — collection of portability routines for GNU software
GNU Portable Threads — POSIX/ANSI-C based user space thread library for UNIX for scheduling multithreading
GNU Readline — command-line editing library
GnuTLS — secure communications (TLS/SSL) library
GObject — object system library for GNOME
GTK — widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces
GTK Scene Graph Kit (GSK) — scene graph and rendering toolkit for GTK
HDF — file format and library for managing large datasets
Integrated Performance Primitives — Intel library of optimized multimedia and data processing routines
IUP — portable GUI toolkit
J2K-Codec — JPEG 2000 image codec
JasPer — reference implementation of the codec specified in the JPEG-2000 Part-1 standard
LDAP API — API for interacting with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LZO — lossless compression library
Liba52 — decoder for A/52 (AC-3) audio streams
libarchive — reading and writing various archive and compression formats
Libart — 2D graphics library
Libavcodec — codec library from FFmpeg
Libavdevice — library for handling multimedia devices
Libavfilter — audio and video filter library
Libavformat — library for muxing and demuxing multimedia
Libpcap — packet capture library
Libdca — decoder for DTS audio
Libdvdcss — access to encrypted DVD-Video discs
libevent — asynchronous event notification callbacks
libffi — foreign function interface
libfuse — userspace filesystem
Libgegl — programming interface to GEGL image processing
libgcrypt — cryptography
Libgimp — plug-in development library for GIMP
Libhybris — compatibility layer for running Android libraries on Linux
Libinput — input device library for Wayland and X.Org
libjpeg — JPEG image library
libLAS — reading and writing geospatial data encoded in the ASPRS laser (LAS) file format
libmicrohttpd — small C library for embedding HTTP server functionality
Libmpcodecs — media player codec library from MPlayer
Libmpdemux — demultiplexing library from MPlayer
libpng — PNG image format
Libpostproc — video post-processing library from FFmpeg
libpq — PostgreSQL client
LibreSSL — fork of OpenSSL for TLS
Librsb — parallel library for sparse matrix computations
Librsvg — SVG rendering library
libsndfile — reading and writing audio files
libsodium — easy-to-use cryptography library
Libswscale — image scaling and colorspace conversion library
LibTIFF — TIFF image handling library
Libusb — USB device access library
Libuv — asynchronous I/O and event loop library
LibVLC — media player engine from VLC
LibVNCServer — implementation of the VNC server protocol
Libvpx — VP8 and VP9 video codec library
Libwww — early World Wide Web protocol library from W3C
libxml2 — XML parsing
Libxslt — XSLT library for the GNOME Project
libzip — ZIP archives
Lightning Memory-Mapped Database — fast key–value database engine
LittleCMS — open-source color management system
LZ4 — fast lossless compression algorithm
LZFSE — compression library developed by Apple
MatrixSSL — lightweight TLS implementation
Mbed TLS — portable cryptography and TLS library
MediaLib — Sun Microsystems library for multimedia processing
Mesa — OpenGL and Vulkan graphics library
Microwindows — small windowing system for embedded devices
Ming — library for generating SWF (Flash) files
Mongoose — embedded web server and networking library
Mpg123 — MP3 audio decoding library
MPIR — multiple-precision arithmetic library
MsQuic — Microsoft implementation of the QUIC transport protocol
MuJoCo — physics engine for robotics and control
Mustache — logic-less templating library
Ncurses — terminal control library
Nettle — low-level cryptography library
Newt — text-based user interface library
Netpbm — graphics conversion and processing library
Nghttp2 — implementation of the HTTP/2 protocol
Oniguruma — regular expression library
Open Asset Import Library — library to import/export 3D model formats
OpenCL — parallel computing API/library
OpenCV — computer vision
OpenGL — API for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics
OpenGL Utility Library — OpenGL utility functions
OpenJPEG — JPEG 2000 image codec
OpenSSL — SSL and TLS protocols and cryptography library
Pango — layout engine library which works with the HarfBuzz shaping engine for displaying multi-language text
perf (Linux) — performance analyzing tool
PCRE — regular expression library
PROJ — library for map projections and coordinate transforms
Quartz 2D — 2D graphics rendering API for macOS and iOS platforms, part of the Core Graphics framework.
Raylib — simple library for games and multimedia
Redland RDF Application Framework — RDF data storage library
S2n-tls — TLS implementation from AWS
Setcontext — context switching library functions
SDL — Simple DirectMedia Layer
systemd — system and service manager libraries for Linux
Tk — GUI widgets for building graphical user interfaces
VDPAU — video decoding acceleration API
Vorbis — audio compression codec library
VTD-XML — high-performance XML parser
Wimlib — library for handling Windows Imaging Format disk images
Windows.h — base Windows API header file
WolfSSH — lightweight SSH library
WolfSSL — lightweight SSL/TLS library
X Toolkit Intrinsics — toolkit library for the X Window System
x264 — H.264 video codec library
XCB — C binding for the X Window System protocol
Xft — font rendering library using FreeType
Xlib — low-level X Window System API
XMDF — eXtensible Model Data Format for scientific data
XMLStarlet — XML command-line toolkit
zlib — data compression
Zopfli — data compression library that performs deflate, gzip and zlib data encoding.
Zstd — fast data compression library

Integrated development environments

Anjuta — GNOME IDE
CLion — cross-platform commercial IDE from JetBrains
Code::Blocks — cross-platform open-source IDE
CodeLite — open-source IDE
Dev-C++
Eclipse CDT
Geany — text editor with IDE features
KDevelop — KDE IDE
NetBeans
Qt Creator
SlickEdit
Visual Studio
Xcode

Online IDEs

CodeSandbox — online IDE primarily for web development with some C support via containers
GitHub Codespaces — cloud-based online IDE developed by GitHub
Google Cloud Shell — browser-based shell and editor that can compile and run C programs
Replit — browser-based IDE

Compilers

Clang — compiler front end for C, C++, and other languages, part of the LLVM project
Comeau C/C++ — commercial C and C++ compiler for multiple platforms
GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) — widely used free and open-source compiler supporting C and many other languages
Intel C Compiler — proprietary optimizing C compiler from Intel
LCC — lightweight retargetable compiler for ANSI C
Microsoft C Compiler — Microsoft's implementation for Windows platforms
Small-C — early C compiler targeting microcomputers
SubC – public domain compiler
Sun C Compiler — Oracle/Sun Microsystems’ C compiler for Solaris
Tiny C Compiler (TCC) — small, fast C compiler
Turbo C — Borland's C compiler for DOS
Watcom C Compiler — C compiler originally by Watcom, later Open Watcom project
Zortech C — early commercial compiler with support for C and C++

Build and automation tools

CMake — software development tool for building applications via compiler-independent instructions
GNU Autotools — build automation tools
GNU Make — automation tool
Meson — build automation tool for building a codebase

Debugging tools

AddressSanitizer — runtime memory error detector
GDB — GNU Project debugger
LLDB — LLVM debugger
Valgrind — debugging and profiling suite
SlickEdit — IDE and debugger
strace — diagnostic, debugging, and instructional userspace utility.
ltrace — debugger and library call tracing tool

Unit testing

Cantata++ — commercial unit and integration testing tool for C and C++
Check — unit testing framework
CUnit — unit testing framework
Parasoft C/C++test — commercial static analysis and unit testing framework
TBrun — unit testing tool in the LDRA Testbed suite
TPT — model-based testing tool for embedded systems

Mathematical libraries

Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software — high-performance linear algebra routines
Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) — linear algebra operations library
Fastest Fourier Transform in the West – discrete Fourier transforms
GNU MPFR — multiple-precision floating-point library
GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library (GMP) – arbitrary-precision arithmetic
Integer set library — mathematical library for manipulating integer sets
LAPACK — linear algebra library for solving systems of equations
Libfixmath — fixed-point arithmetic library for embedded systems
Lis (linear algebra library) – scalable parallel software library to solve discretized linear equations and eigenvalue problems
Locally Optimal Block Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (LOBPCG)
Math Kernel Library – functions include BLAS, LAPACK, ScaLAPACK, sparse solvers, fast Fourier transforms, and vector math.
OpenBLAS – Linear algebra library for BLAS and LAPACK APIs
PARI/GP — computer algebra system with number theory libraries

Scientific libraries

GNU Scientific Library — numerical library for scientific computing
Hypre – library of routines for scalable (parallel) solutions of linear systems
Nrrd — library and file format for n-dimensional raster data to support scientific visualizations and image processing applications
Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) – Scientific simulation software
UMFPACK – routines for solving unsymmetric sparse linear systems

Machine learning and artificial intelligence

Fast Artificial Neural Network — open-source artificial neural network library
Darknet — framework for convolutional neural networks, known for YOLO object detection.

Database

SQLite — public domain embedded SQL database engine
libpq — PostgreSQL client library

External links

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Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
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[1] "Lucab/Adns". GitHub .

[2] "Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) project". GitHub .

[3] "Liballeg/Allegro5". GitHub .

[4] "Apache/Apr". GitHub .

[5] "P-H-C/PHC-winner-argon2". GitHub .

[6] "Berkeleydb/Libdb". GitHub .

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