Better String Library
The bstring library provides a string abstraction data type for the C language as a memory safe alternative to null terminated buffers.
This is a fork of Paul Hsieh’s Better String Library. The following features (or mis-features, depending on your point of view) are included:
- Build system (Meson and Autotools)
- Updated test suite based on Check
- Add memory profiling with Valgrind to the workflow
- Add continuous integration via GitHub Actions
- Remove C++ wrapper code, returning this to a pure C library
- Other various improvements
Currently this fork should be binary-compatible with the original code. The only source incompatibility is the remova…
Better String Library
The bstring library provides a string abstraction data type for the C language as a memory safe alternative to null terminated buffers.
This is a fork of Paul Hsieh’s Better String Library. The following features (or mis-features, depending on your point of view) are included:
- Build system (Meson and Autotools)
- Updated test suite based on Check
- Add memory profiling with Valgrind to the workflow
- Add continuous integration via GitHub Actions
- Remove C++ wrapper code, returning this to a pure C library
- Other various improvements
Currently this fork should be binary-compatible with the original code. The only source incompatibility is the removal of the const_bstring type. Just use const bstring instead.
Get bstring
The bstring library is available as a binary package in various distributions. The shared library and development headers can be installed with their respective package manager.
This is the easiest option if you have the option for your distribution.
The current packaging status as reported by repology.org:
Building
The repository currently includes Meson+Ninja and Autotools (Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool) build systems.
Meson
To build with Meson:
$ meson setup build -Denable-docs=true -Denable-tests=true
$ meson compile -C build
$ sudo meson install -C build
A test suite is available if Check is is installed.
$ meson test -C build
If Valgrind is installed the test suite can be checked for memory leaks.
$ meson test --wrapper='valgrind --leak-check=full --error-exitcode=1' -C build
Autotools
To build with Autotools:
$ autoreconf -i
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
A test suite is available if Check is is installed.
$ make check
If Valgrind is installed the test suite can be checked for memory leaks.
$ make memcheck
Documentation
The original documentation has been migrated into the header files and converted to the Doxygen format. The generated output can be found online.
The original documentation essays are available in the source distribution and are included in the Doxygen output.
These essays have been reformatted for easier reading. Minor edits have been made to reflect changes to the codebase.
License
The Better String Library is released under the BSD 3-Clause License.