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stb single-file public domain libraries for C/C++
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nothings/stb
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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single-file public domain (or MIT licensed) libraries for C/C++
This project discusses security-relevant bugs in public in Github Issues and Pull Requests, and it may take significant time for security fixes to be implemented or merged. If this poses an unreasonable risk to your project, do not use stb libraries.
Noteworthy:
- image loader:stb_image.h
- image writer:stb_image_write.h
- image resizer:stb_image_resize2.h
- font text rasterizer:stb_truetype.h
- typesafe containers:stb_ds.h
Most libraries by stb, except: stb_dxt by Fabian "ryg" Giesen, original stb_image_resizeby Jorge L. "VinoBS" Rodriguez, and stb_image_resize2 and stb_sprintf by Jeff Roberts.
| library | lastest version | category | LoC | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stb_vorbis.c | 1.22 | audio | 5584 | decode ogg vorbis files from file/memory to float/16-bit signed output |
| stb_hexwave.h | 0.5 | audio | 680 | audio waveform synthesizer |
| stb_image.h | 2.30 | graphics | 7988 | image loading/decoding from file/memory: JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP, PSD, GIF, HDR, PIC |
| stb_truetype.h | 1.26 | graphics | 5079 | parse, decode, and rasterize characters from truetype fonts |
| stb_image_write.h | 1.16 | graphics | 1724 | image writing to disk: PNG, TGA, BMP |
| stb_image_resize2.h | 2.13 | graphics | 10616 | resize images larger/smaller with good quality |
| stb_rect_pack.h | 1.01 | graphics | 623 | simple 2D rectangle packer with decent quality |
| stb_perlin.h | 0.5 | graphics | 428 | perlin's revised simplex noise w/ different seeds |
| stb_ds.h | 0.67 | utility | 1895 | typesafe dynamic array and hash tables for C, will compile in C++ |
| stb_sprintf.h | 1.10 | utility | 1906 | fast sprintf, snprintf for C/C++ |
| stb_textedit.h | 1.14 | user interface | 1429 | guts of a text editor for games etc implementing them from scratch |
| stb_voxel_render.h | 0.89 | 3D graphics | 3807 | Minecraft-esque voxel rendering "engine" with many more features |
| stb_dxt.h | 1.12 | 3D graphics | 719 | Fabian "ryg" Giesen's real-time DXT compressor |
| stb_easy_font.h | 1.1 | 3D graphics | 305 | quick-and-dirty easy-to-deploy bitmap font for printing frame rate, etc |
| stb_tilemap_editor.h | 0.42 | game dev | 4187 | embeddable tilemap editor |
| stb_herringbone_wa... | 0.7 | game dev | 1221 | herringbone Wang tile map generator |
| stb_c_lexer.h | 0.12 | parsing | 941 | simplify writing parsers for C-like languages |
| stb_divide.h | 0.94 | math | 433 | more useful 32-bit modulus e.g. "euclidean divide" |
| stb_connected_comp... | 0.96 | misc | 1049 | incrementally compute reachability on grids |
| stb_leakcheck.h | 0.6 | misc | 194 | quick-and-dirty malloc/free leak-checking |
| stb_include.h | 0.02 | misc | 295 | implement recursive #include support, particularly for GLSL |
Total libraries: 21Total lines of C code: 51103
These libraries are in the public domain. You can do anything youwant with them. You have no legal obligationto do anything else, although I appreciate attribution.
They are also licensed under the MIT open source license, if you have lawyerswho are unhappy with public domain. Every source file includes an explicitdual-license for you to choose from.
The idea behind single-header file libraries is that they're easy to distribute and deploybecause all the code is contained in a single file. By default, the .h files in here act astheir own header files, i.e. they declare the functions contained in the file but don'tactually result in any code getting compiled.
So in addition, you should selectexactly one C/C++ source file that actually instantiatesthe code, preferably a file you're not editing frequently. This file should define aspecific macro (this is documented per-library) to actually enable the function definitions.For example, to use stb_image, you should have exactly one C/C++ file that doesn'tinclude stb_image.h regularly, but instead does
#define STB_IMAGE_IMPLEMENTATION#include "stb_image.h"The right macro to define is pointed out right at the top of each of these libraries.
Are there other single-file public-domain/open source libraries with minimal dependencies out there?
No, because it's public domain you can freely relicense it to whatever license your newlibrary wants to be.
stb_image will either use SSE2 (if you compile with -msse2) orwill not use any SIMD at all, rather than trying to detect theprocessor at runtime and handle it correctly. As I understand it,the approved path in GCC for runtime-detection requireyou to use multiple source files, one for each CPU configuration.Because stb_image is a header-file library that compiles in onlyone source file, there's no approved way to build both anSSE-enabled and a non-SSE-enabled variation.
While we've tried to work around it, we've had multiple issues overthe years due to specific versions of gcc breaking what we're doing,so we've given up on it. See#280and#410 for examples.
Generally they're only better in that they're easier to integrate,easier to use, and easier to release (single file; good API; noattribution requirement). They may be less featureful, slower,and/or use more memory. If you're already using an equivalentlibrary, there's probably no good reason to switch.
You can usethis URL to link directly to that list.
Just to give you some idea of the internal complexity of the library,to help you manage your expectations, or to let you know what you'regetting into. While not all the libraries are written in the samestyle, they're certainly similar styles, and so comparisons betweenthe libraries are probably still meaningful.
Note though that the lines do include both the implementation, thepart that corresponds to a header file, and the documentation.
Windows doesn't have standard directories where librarieslive. That makes deploying libraries in Windows a lot morepainful than open source developers on Unix-derivates generallyrealize. (It also makes library dependencies a lot worse in Windows.)
There's also a common problem in Windows where a library was builtagainst a different version of the runtime library, which causeslink conflicts and confusion. Shipping the libs as headers meansyou normally just compile them straight into your project withoutmaking libraries, thus sidestepping that problem.
Making them a single file makes it very easy to justdrop them into a project that needs them. (Of course you canstill put them in a proper shared library tree if you want.)
Why not two files, one a header and one an implementation?The difference between 10 files and 9 files is not a big deal,but the difference between 2 files and 1 file is a big deal.You don't need to zip or tar the files up, you don't have toremember to attachtwo files, etc.
No, they are just the initials for my name, Sean T. Barrett.This was not chosen out of egomania, but as a moderately saneway of namespacing the filenames and source function names.
No. As stb_image use has grown, it has become more importantfor us to focus on security of the codebase. Adding new imageformats increases the amount of code we need to secure, so itis no longer worth adding new formats.
Yes.https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/stb_howto.txt
I prefer it over GPL, LGPL, BSD, zlib, etc. for many reasons.Some of them are listed here:https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/why_public_domain.md
Primarily, because I use C, not C++. But it does also make it easierfor other people to use them from other languages.
I still use MSVC 6 (1998) as my IDE because it has better human factorsfor me than later versions of MSVC.