The door slowly creaks open revealing a long hall with dusty stacks of books of lore…
I admit, maybe not that.
But you have found the Library Reference portion of Beej’s Guide to C!
This isn’t a tutorial, but rather is a comprehensive set of manual pages (or man pages as Unix hackers like to say) that define every function in the C Standard Library, complete with examples.
“This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language.”
“Every single one, sir?”
“Every single one, sir!”
“Ah, well in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if I also offer the doctor my most enthusiastic contrafribularities.”—Blackadder toying with Dr. Samuel Johnson
There are, in fact, a number of functions left out of this guide, most notably all the optional “safe” functions (with a _s suffix).
But everything you’re likely to want is definitely covered in here. With examples.
Probably.
This guide is for people who are at least modestly proficient in C.
If you are not one of those people and wish to become one of those people, I can wholeheartedly recommend with zero bias the book Beej’s Guide to C Programming1, freely available wherever the Internet is sold.
Use the contents or index to find the function or category you’re after.
Then grab a bowl of your favorite cereal and devour the delicious, delicious verbiage.
I’ll try to stick to Plain Ol’-Fashioned ISO-standard C2. Well, for the most part. Here and there I might go crazy and start talking about POSIX3 or something, but we’ll see.
Unix users (e.g. Linux, BSD, etc.) try running cc or gcc from the command line–you might already have a compiler installed. If you don’t, search your distribution for installing gcc or clang.
Windows users should check out Visual Studio Community4. Or, if you’re looking for a more Unix-like experience (recommended!), install WSL5 and gcc.
Mac users will want to install XCode6, and in particular the command line tools.
There are a lot of compilers out there, and virtually all of them will work for this book. And a C++ compiler will compile a lot of (but not all!) C code. Best use a proper C compiler if you can.
This official location of this document is https://beej.us/guide/bgclr/7. There used to be a note here about migrating off Chico State’s computers (my alma mater), but that’s something that happened roughly a zillion years ago and the wording remained here only because it was copied over from the Network Guide, [breath] which I apparently haven’t read in its entirety for quite some time.
The End.
I’m generally available to help out with email questions so feel free to write in, but I can’t guarantee a response. I lead a pretty busy life and there are times when I just can’t answer a question you have. When that’s the case, I usually just delete the message. It’s nothing personal; I just won’t ever have the time to give the detailed answer you require.
As a rule, the more complex the question, the less likely I am to respond. If you can narrow down your question before mailing it and be sure to include any pertinent information (like platform, compiler, error messages you’re getting, and anything else you think might help me troubleshoot), you’re much more likely to get a response.
If you don’t get a response, hack on it some more, try to find the answer, and if it’s still elusive, then write me again with the information you’ve found and hopefully it will be enough for me to help out.
Now that I’ve badgered you about how to write and not write me, I’d just like to let you know that I fully appreciate all the praise the guide has received over the years. It’s a real morale boost, and it gladdens me to hear that it is being used for good! :-) Thank you!
You are more than welcome to mirror this site, whether publicly or privately. If you publicly mirror the site and want me to link to it from the main page, drop me a line at beej@beej.us.
If you want to translate the guide into another language, write me at beej@beej.us and I’ll link to your translation from the main page. Feel free to add your name and contact info to the translation.
Please note the license restrictions in the Copyright and Distribution section, below.
Beej’s Guide to C Programming–Library Reference is Copyright © 2021 Brian “Beej Jorgensen” Hall.
With specific exceptions for source code and translations, below, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
One specific exception to the “No Derivative Works” portion of the license is as follows: this guide may be freely translated into any language, provided the translation is accurate, and the guide is reprinted in its entirety. The same license restrictions apply to the translation as to the original guide. The translation may also include the name and contact information for the translator.
The C source code presented in this document is hereby granted to the public domain, and is completely free of any license restriction.
Educators are freely encouraged to recommend or supply copies of this guide to their students.
Contact beej@beej.us for more information.
The hardest things about writing these guides are:
A lot of people have helped me through this process, and I want to acknowledge those who have made this book possible.
Thank you! ♥