INTRO(3)               FreeBSD Library Functions Manual               INTRO(3)

NAME
     intro - introduction to the C libraries

SYNOPSIS
     cc [flags] file ... [-llibrary]

DESCRIPTION
     This section provides an overview of the C library functions, their error
     returns and other common definitions and concepts.  Most of these
     functions are available from the C library, libc.  Other libraries, such
     as the math library, libm, must be indicated at compile time with the -l
     option of the compiler.

     The various libraries (followed by the loader flag):

     libbluetooth  (-lbluetooth) The bluetooth library.  See bluetooth(3).

     libc          (-lc) Standard C library functions.  When using the C
                   compiler cc(1), it is not necessary to supply the loader
                   flag -lc for these functions.  There are several
                   `libraries' or groups of functions included inside of libc:

                   standard I/O routines
                           see stdio(3)

                   database routines
                           see db(3)

                   bit operators
                           see bitstring(3)

                   string operators
                           see string(3)

                   character tests and character operators

                   storage allocation
                           see mpool(3)

                   regular-expressions
                           see regex(3)

                   remote procedure calls (RPC)
                           see rpc(3)

                   time functions
                           see time(3)

                   signal handling
                           see signal(3)

     libcalendar   (-lcalendar) The calendar arithmetic library.  See
                   calendar(3).

     libcam        (-lcam) The common access method user library.  See cam(3).

     libcrypt      (-lcrypt) The crypt library.  See crypt(3).

     libcurses     (-lcurses -ltermcap) Terminal independent screen management
                   routines for two dimensional non-bitmap display terminals.
                   See ncurses(3).

     libcuse       (-lcuse) The userland character device library.  See
                   cuse(3).

     libcompat     (-lcompat) Functions which are obsolete but are available
                   for compatibility with 4.3BSD.  In particular, a number of
                   system call interfaces provided in previous releases of BSD
                   have been included for source code compatibility.  Use of
                   these routines should, for the most part, be avoided.  The
                   manual page entry for each compatibility routine indicates
                   the proper interface to use.

     libdevinfo    (-ldevinfo) The Device and Resource Information Utility
                   library.  See devinfo(3).

     libdevstat    (-ldevstat) The Device Statistics library.  See devstat(3).

     libdwarf      (-ldwarf) The DWARF access library.  See dwarf(3).

     libelf        (-lelf) The ELF access library.  See elf(3).

     libfetch      (-lfetch) The file transfer library.  See fetch(3).

     libfigpar     (-lfigpar) The configuration file parsing library.  See
                   figpar(3).

     libgpio       (-lgpio) The general-purpose input output library (GPIO).
                   See gpio(3).

     libgssapi     (-lgssapi) The generic security service application
                   programming interface.  See gssapi(3).

     libjail       (-ljail) The jail library.  See jail(3).

     libkvm        (-lkvm) Functions used to access kernel memory are in this
                   library.  They can be used against both a running system
                   and a crash dump.  See kvm(3).

     libl          (-ll) The library for lex(1).

     libm          (-lm) The math library.  See math(3).

     libmd         (-lmd) The message digest library.  See md4(3), md5(3),
                   sha(3), sha256(3), sha512(3), ripemd(3), skein(3).

     libmp         (-lmp)

     libpam        (-lpam) The pluggable authentication module library.  See
                   pam(3).

     libpcap       (-lpcap) The packet capture library.  See pcap(3).

     libpmc        (-lpmc) The performance counters library.  See pmc(3).

     libpthread    (-lpthread) The POSIX threads library.  See pthread(3).

     libsysdecode  (-lsysdecode) The system argument decoding library.  See
                   sysdecode(3).

     libtermcap    (-ltermcap) The terminal independent operation library
                   package.  See termcap(3).

     libusb        (-lusb) The USB access library.  See usb(3).

     libvgl        (-lvgl) The video graphics library.  See vgl(3).

     liby          (-ly) The library for yacc(1).

     libz          (-lz) The general-purpose data compression library.  See
                   zlib(3).

FILES
     /usr/lib/libc.a    the C library
     /usr/lib/libc_p.a  the C library compiled for profiling
     /usr/lib/libm.a    the math library
     /usr/lib/libm_p.a  the math library compiled for profiling

SEE ALSO
     cc(1), ld(1), nm(1), intro(2), math(3), stdio(3)

HISTORY
     An intro manual appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6        December 18, 2021       FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6