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:

1. Build system (Meson and Autotools)
2. Updated test suite based on Check
3. Add memory profiling with Valgrind to the workflow
4. Add continuous integration via GitHub Actions
5. Remove C++ wrapper code, returning this to a pure C library
6. 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.

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.

1. Introduction
2. Comparisons
3. Porting
4. Security

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.