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cterminologystandard-librarylibc
pepsi
pepsi

Reputation: 6865

Is the term "libc" equivalent to "C standard library"?

I sometimes hear people using the terms "libc" and "C standard library" interchangeably. I understand that "libc" is the name (or part of the names) of many popular C standard library implementations. My guess is that because of the widespread use of these implementations, people started referring to the C standard library in general as "libc" although it is not an official name.

Is it correct to refer to the C standard library as "libc"?

Upvotes: 12

Views: 978

Answers (4)

James McNellis
James McNellis

Reputation: 355069

I always thought that "libc" just happens to be the name (or part of the names) of many popular C standard library implementations.

This is correct. "libc" is the name of some implementations of the C Standard Library.

As an example of a C Standard Library implementation that is not named "libc," the Microsoft C Standard Library implementation is a part of the "C Run-Time Libraries," usually referred to as the "CRT."

Is it correct to refer to the C standard library as "libc"?

The C Standard Library is not named "libc," so using that term to refer to it generically (and not to a particular implementation) would be incorrect. That said, in most contexts, if you did use the term "libc" to refer to the C Standard Library, you are still likely to be understood.

Upvotes: 12

dan04
dan04

Reputation: 90995

"libc" is indeed the name of the implementation. It often includes functions that are not part of the C standard, and might not include functions that are part of the C standard. (A common case of the latter is the Standard C math functions being split into a separate "libm".)

Upvotes: 8

Gabriel Ščerbák
Gabriel Ščerbák

Reputation: 18570

LibC (http://www.gnu.org/s/libc/) is one particular implementation of the C library standard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_standard_library#ISO_Standard).

Upvotes: 0

Sandro Munda
Sandro Munda

Reputation: 41030

'libc' refers to the C standard library. However, the libc has several implementations :

  • glibc : an implementation of libc written for the GNU Project
  • klibc : a minimalistic subset implementation of the libc
  • ...

Upvotes: 1

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