What can you do in C without “std” includes? Are t

Question

I apologize if this is a subjective or repeated question. It's sort of awkward to search for, so I wasn't sure what terms to include.

What I'd like to know is what the basic foundation tools/functions are in C when you don't include standard libraries like stdio and stdlib.

What could I do if there's no printf(), fopen(), etc?

Also, are those libraries technically part of the "C" language, or are they just very useful and effectively essential libraries?

Answer 1

The std libraries are "standard" libraries, in that for a C compiler to be compliant to a standard (e.g. C99), these libraries must be "include-able." For an interesting example that might help in understanding what this means, have a look at Jessica McKellar's challenge here:

http://blog.ksplice.com/2010/03/libc-free-world/

Answer 2

The C standard has this to say (5.1.2.3/5):

The least requirements on a conforming implementation are:

— At sequence points, volatile objects are stable in the sense that previous accesses are complete and subsequent accesses have not yet occurred.

— At program termination, all data written into files shall be identical to the result that execution of the program according to the abstract semantics would have produced.

— The input and output dynamics of interactive devices shall take place as specified in 7.19.3.

So, without the standard library functions, the only behavior that a program is guaranteed to have, relates to the values of volatile objects, because you can't use any of the guaranteed file access or "interactive devices". "Pure C" only provides interaction via standard library functions.

Pure C isn't the whole story, though, since your hardware could have certain addresses which do certain things when read or written (whether that be a SATA or PCI bus, raw video memory, a serial port, something to go beep, or a flashing LED). So, knowing something about your hardware, you can do a whole lot writing in C without using standard library functions. Potentially, you could implement the C standard library, although this might require access to special CPU instructions as well as special memory addresses.

But in pure C, with no extensions, and the standard library functions removed, you basically can't do anything other than read the command line arguments, do some work, and return a status code from main. That's not to be sniffed at, it's still Turing complete subject to resource limits, although your only resource is automatic and static variables, no heap allocation. It's not a very rich programming environment.

The standard libraries are part of the C language specification, but in any language there does tend to be a line drawn between the language "as such", and the libraries. It's a conceptual difference, but ultimately not a very important one in principle, because the standard says they come together. Anyone doing something non-standard could just as easily remove language features as libraries. Either way, the result is not a conforming implementation of C.

Note that a "freestanding" implementation of C only has to implement a subset of standard includes not including any of the I/O, so you're in the position I described above, of relying on hardware-specific extensions to get anything interesting done. If you want to draw a distinction between the "core language" and "the libraries" based on the standard, then that might be a good place to draw the line.

Answer 3

What could I do if there's no printf(), fopen(), etc?

As long as you know how to interface the system you are using you can live without the standard C library. In embedded systems where you only have several kilobytes of memory, you probably don't want to use the standard library at all.

Here is a Hello World! example on Linux and Windows without using any standard C functions:

For example on Linux you can invoke the Linux system calls directly in inline assembly:

/* 64 bit linux. */

#define SYSCALL_EXIT 60
#define SYSCALL_WRITE 1

void sys_exit(int error_code)
{
    asm volatile
    (
        "syscall"
        : 
        : "a"(SYSCALL_EXIT), "D"(error_code)
        : "rcx", "r11", "memory"
    );
}

int sys_write(unsigned fd, const char *buf, unsigned count)
{
    unsigned ret;

    asm volatile
    (
        "syscall"
        : "=a"(ret)
        : "a"(SYSCALL_WRITE), "D"(fd), "S"(buf), "d"(count)
        : "rcx", "r11", "memory"
    );

    return ret;
}

int _start()
{
    const char hwText[] = "Hello world!\n";

    sys_write(1, hwText, sizeof(hwText));
    sys_exit(12);

    return 0;
}

Compile this with:

gcc -nostdlib nostd.c 

And it outputs Hello world!, and exits.

On Windows the system calls are not published, instead it's hidden behind another layer of abstraction, the kernel32.dll. Which is always loaded when your program starts whether you want it or not. So you can simply include windows.h and use the Win32 API:

#include <windows.h>

int _start()
{
    const char str[] = "Hello world!\n";
    HANDLE stdout = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    DWORD written;

    WriteFile(stdout, str, sizeof(str), &written, NULL);
    ExitProcess(12);

    return 0;
}

The windows.h has nothing to do with the standard C library, as you should be able to write Windows programs on any other language too.

You can compile it using the MinGW tools like this:

gcc -nostdlib C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll nostdlib.c

Then the compiler is smart enough to resolve the import dependencies and compile your program.

If you disassemble the program, you can see only your code is there, there is no standard library bloat in it.

So you can use C without the standard library.

Answer 4

The CRT is part of the C language just as much as the keywords and the syntax. If you are using C, your compiler MUST provide an implementation for your target platform.

Edit: It's the same as the STL for C++. All languages have a standard library. Maybe assembler as the exception, or some other seriously low level languages. But most medium/high levels have standard libs.

Answer 5

The Standard C Library is part of ANSI C89/ISO C90. I've recently been working on the library for a C compiler that previously was not ANSI-compliant.

The book The Standard C Library by P.J. Plauger was a great reference for that project. In addition to spelling out the requirements of the standard, Plauger explains the history of each .h file and the reasons behind some of the API design. He also provides a full implementation of the library, something that helped me greatly when something in the standard wasn't clear.

The standard describes the macros, types and functions for each of 15 header files (include stdio.h, stdlib.h, but also float.h, limits.h, math.h, locale.h and more).

A compiler can't claim to be ANSI C unless it includes the standard library.

Answer 6

You're certainly not obligated to use the standard libraries if you have no need for them. Quite a few embedded systems either have no standard library support or can't use it for one reason or another. The standard even specifically talks about implementations with no library support, C99 standard 5.1.2.1 "Freestanding environment":

In a freestanding environment (in which C program execution may take place without any benefit of an operating system), the name and type of the function called at program startup are implementation-defined. Any library facilities available to a freestanding program, other than the minimal set required by clause 4, are implementation-defined.

The headers required by C99 to be available in a freestanding implemenation are <float.h>, <iso646.h>, <limits.h>, <stdarg.h>, <stdbool.h>, <stddef.h>, and <stdint.h>. These headers define only types and macros so there's no need for a function library to support them.

Without the standard library, you're entire reliant on your own code, any non-standard libraries that might be available to you, and any operating system system calls that you might be able to interface to (which might be considered non-standard library calls). Quite possibly you'd have to have your C program call assembly routines to interface to devices and/or whatever operating system might be on the platform.