whatisgithub

Popular C repositories on GitHub, each answered in plain English for non-coders: what it is, its tech stack, and how to run it.

• maharmstone/btrfsWinBtrfs is a Windows driver that lets you read and write Linux Btrfs-formatted drives on Windows, with suppor
• libfuse/sshfsA command-line tool that mounts a remote server's file system as a local folder on your computer over SSH, so
• jerryscript-project/jerryscriptA JavaScript engine that runs on tiny microcontrollers with as little as 64 KB of RAM, letting you add JavaScr
• arkime/arkimeAn open-source network traffic recorder and search tool that captures all packets to disk in standard PCAP for
• netblue30/firejailFirejail is a Linux security tool that runs any application inside an isolated sandbox using standard kernel f
• google-deepmind/labA customizable 3D game-world from Google DeepMind for training AI agents using reinforcement learning, where a
• freertos/freertosFreeRTOS is a real-time operating system kernel for microcontrollers and embedded devices that handles task sc
• aircrack-ng/aircrack-ngA suite of command-line tools for auditing WiFi network security — capturing wireless traffic, testing for vul
• stanfordnlp/gloveA Stanford research tool that converts words into numerical vectors so computers can understand language mathe
• universal-ctags/ctagsUniversal Ctags is a command-line tool that indexes your source code so editors like Vim and Emacs can instant
• sqlcipher/sqlcipherSQLCipher is a drop-in replacement for SQLite that encrypts your entire database file with 256-bit AES, making
• containers/bubblewrapBubblewrap is a Linux command-line tool that lets regular users run programs in an isolated sandbox without ro
• orangeduck/celloCello is a C library that adds generics, garbage collection, exceptions, and object-like method dispatch to pl
• openintelwireless/itlwmmacOS kernel extension that adds Wi-Fi support for Intel wireless adapters on Hackintosh systems and OpenCore
• microsoft/winfileThe original Windows File Manager from Windows 3.0, now open-sourced by Microsoft and updated to compile and r
• turanszkij/wickedengineAn open-source 3D graphics engine for Windows, Linux, and Mac that provides a ready-made foundation for buildi
• mgba-emu/mgbaAn accurate and fast emulator for playing Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and original Game Boy games on mod
• vysheng/tgA command-line Telegram client written in C that lets you send and receive messages, manage group chats, and u
• zelda64recomp/zelda64recompA native PC port of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask that runs without an emulator, adding high framerates,
• mcmilk/7-zip-zstdA modified version of 7-Zip that adds support for modern compression formats — Zstandard, Brotli, LZ4, and oth
• epicgamesext/raddebuggerA graphical debugger for 64-bit Windows programs built by Epic Games, plus a faster linker and a custom debug-
• ntop/n2nPeer-to-peer VPN tool written in C that connects machines across the internet as if they share a local network
• philipl/pifsA joke filesystem written in C that stores files by recording where their bytes appear in the digits of pi rat
• madler/zlibA foundational C library for compressing and decompressing data, used inside operating systems, browsers, and
• hathach/tinyusbOpen-source C library that lets microcontrollers act as USB devices (keyboard, storage, audio) or USB hosts (r
• yanfeizhang/coder-kung-fuA collection of deep-dive technical articles in Chinese about how CPUs, memory, disk, and networking work at t
• mackron/miniaudioA single C source file that adds audio playback and recording to any program — no external dependencies, works
• telegrammessenger/mtproxyA proxy server for Telegram that lets people in regions where Telegram is blocked connect through your own Lin
• akopytov/sysbenchA command-line tool for benchmarking databases and system hardware — CPU, memory, file I/O, and database queri
• rubymetric/chsrcA command-line tool that switches software package download sources to faster regional mirror servers with a s
• peng-zhihui/holocubicHoloCubic is a tiny ESP32-powered desk gadget that uses an optical prism to make images appear to float in mid
• peng-zhihui/helloword-keyboardHelloWord is a fully open-source custom mechanical keyboard with a swappable left module that adds an e-ink di
• peng-zhihui/hdmi-piAn open hardware project that converts HDMI video signals to the MIPI format used by phone screens, letting yo
• tianocore/edk2EDK II is an open-source UEFI firmware development environment used by hardware vendors to build the pre-OS so
• rpisec/mbeA complete university course on exploiting software vulnerabilities, covering reverse engineering, memory corr
• wszqkzqk/deepin-wine-ubuntuAn archived Linux compatibility layer that lets Ubuntu and Debian users run popular Chinese Windows apps like
• nesbox/tic-80A free open-source fantasy game console with built-in code, sprite, map, and sound editors for making tiny ret
• bytecodealliance/wasm-micro-runtimeA tiny engine for running WebAssembly programs on anything from small IoT sensors to cloud servers, with a cor
• hishamhm/htophtop is an interactive terminal process viewer for Unix/Linux that improves on 'top' with mouse support, color
• rxi/microuimicroui is a ~1100-line C library for building immediate-mode user interfaces — you describe your UI in code e
• dokan-dev/dokanyDokany lets Windows developers build custom file systems as ordinary programs — without writing kernel drivers
• tinyproxy/tinyproxyTinyproxy is a lightweight HTTP and HTTPS proxy server for Linux, designed for small networks that need to sha
• feralinteractive/gamemodeA Linux background service that automatically switches your CPU and GPU to high-performance mode when a game s
• arthenica/ffmpeg-kitA now-retired library that made it easy to run FFmpeg video and audio processing commands inside Android, iOS,
• bellard/mquickjsMicroQuickJS is a tiny JavaScript engine written in C for embedded devices, running on as little as 10KB of RA
• airblader/i3i3-gaps was a fork of the i3 tiling window manager for Linux that added configurable spacing between windows;
• mrglockenspiel/activate-linuxA joke C program that displays a faint "Activate Linux" watermark in the corner of your Linux desktop, mimicki
• rainmeter/rainmeterSource code for Rainmeter, a Windows desktop customization tool that lets you display clocks, weather, system
• xufuji456/ffmpegandroidAn Android project demonstrating how to integrate FFmpeg for video tasks like trimming, watermarking, format c
• id-software/quakeOriginal 1996 Quake FPS engine source code by id Software, written in C with assembly for software rendering.
• edenhill/kcatkcat is a lightweight command-line tool for sending and reading messages on Apache Kafka from your terminal wi
• tsudakageyu/minhookSmall C library for Windows that intercepts and modifies function behavior at runtime. Point it at any functio
• remzi-arpacidusseau/ostep-projectsUniversity-level operating systems course projects covering Unix utilities, shells, memory allocators, concurr
• riot-os/riotOpen source real-time operating system built for tiny IoT microcontrollers with very limited memory, supportin
• kbengine/kbengineKBEngine is an open-source C++ server engine for multiplayer online games that handles all the networking and
• pufferai/pufferlibPufferLib is a fast reinforcement learning library written in C that trains small but capable AI agents in sec
• mozilla/mozjpegMozJPEG is a drop-in JPEG compression library from Mozilla that produces smaller image files than standard enc
• kornelski/pngquantpngquant is a command-line tool that shrinks PNG image files by 60-80% by reducing them to 256 colors, while k
• meituan-dianping/sqladvisorSQLAdvisor analyzes your SQL queries and recommends which database indexes to add so they run faster — no quer
• memononen/nanovgNanoVG is a small, stable C library for drawing smooth 2D vector graphics with OpenGL — shapes, text, and imag
• rfidresearchgroup/proxmark3Firmware and software for the Proxmark3 USB device that lets you read, analyze, clone, and interact with RFID
• andmarti1424/sc-imA terminal-based spreadsheet that works like Vim, supporting CSV, XLSX, and ODS files, Lua scripting, GNUPlot
• secwiki/linux-kernel-exploitsA curated reference index of Linux kernel privilege escalation exploits organized by CVE number, covering vuln
• ziparchive/ziparchiveSSZipArchive is an iOS/macOS library that lets you zip and unzip files in your app with a single method call —
• xiph/rnnoiseA C library that removes background noise from audio in real time by combining traditional signal processing w
• eradman/entrentr is a tiny Unix command-line tool that watches a list of files and runs a command automatically whenever a
• mruby/mrubyA lightweight version of Ruby that can be embedded inside other programs, like game engines or microcontroller
• nginx/unitNGINX Unit was an all-in-one web server that ran Python, PHP, Node.js, and other languages natively — now arch
• baidu/dperfdperf is a high-performance HTTP load testing tool that can generate tens of millions of new connections per s
• justinfrankel/licecapA small desktop tool for recording part of your screen as an animated GIF on Windows and macOS. No installatio
• gnif/lookingglassA tool for Linux users running a Windows virtual machine with a dedicated GPU that lets you see the VM's scree
• luajit/luajitA mirror of LuaJIT, a Just-In-Time compiler that makes Lua programs run significantly faster by translating th
• memovai/mimiclawRun a personal AI assistant on a $5-10 ESP32-S3 microchip using WiFi and Telegram. Supports Claude and GPT, st
• openvenues/libpostalA C library that parses and normalizes street addresses from around the world, turning messy human-written tex
• hpjansson/chafaA command-line tool that converts images and animated GIFs into colored text art you can display right inside
• harbourmasters/shipwrightShip of Harkinian is a native port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to modern PCs and Nintendo Switch,
• raspberrypi/pico-sdkThe official C/C++ development kit for Raspberry Pi Pico boards, providing libraries, build tools, and example
• koute/bytehoundA Linux memory profiler that records every memory allocation and release with full call stack traces, then let
• tectonic-typesetting/tectonicTectonic is a self-contained LaTeX engine that compiles .tex documents into PDFs with a single command, automa
• bodmer/tft_espiGraphics library for microcontrollers (ESP32, Pi Pico, STM32) that draws text, shapes, and images on TFT color
• google/wuffsA C library for reading image, audio, and compressed file formats that is guaranteed free of memory-safety bug
• yshui/picompicom is a lightweight compositor for the X11 window system on Linux that adds transparency, drop shadows, and
• microshow/rxffmpegAn Android library that wraps FFmpeg so mobile developers can add video and audio editing to their apps — trim
• aws/s2n-tlsAn open-source C library from AWS that handles TLS and SSL encryption for network connections, designed to be
• troydhanson/uthashA single-header C library that adds hash tables and other data structures to C programs through macros — no co
• microsoft/msquicMsQuic is Microsoft's high-performance C library for the QUIC networking protocol — the technology behind HTTP
• session-replay-tools/tcpcopyA Linux tool that mirrors live production network traffic and replays it against a test server in real time, l
• microsoft/procmon-for-linuxLinux port of Microsoft's Process Monitor that records every system call a program makes in real time, letting
• cilium/tetragonA security monitoring tool that watches process, file, and network activity inside Linux systems and Kubernete
• attractivechaos/klibA fast, header-only C library providing hash tables, trees, dynamic arrays, sorting algorithms, and string uti
• cpq/bare-metal-programming-guideA step-by-step guide for programming microcontrollers from scratch using only GCC and the chip's datasheet, wi
• qihoo360/atlasA MySQL proxy from Qihoo 360 that automatically routes read queries to replica servers and write queries to a
• alibaba/alios-thingsAliOS Things is Alibaba's open-source operating system for small connected IoT devices like smart home sensors
• open-sdr/openwifiAn open-source Wi-Fi implementation built on programmable FPGA hardware, letting researchers inspect and modif
• snesrev/zelda3A fully playable reverse-engineered recreation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past written in C, with a
• armink/easyloggerA tiny C and C++ logging library for microcontrollers and IoT devices, using under 1.6KB of storage and 0.3KB
• matz/streemAn experimental, early-stage programming language by Ruby's creator that treats programs as data pipelines — c
• martanne/visVis is a minimal terminal text editor that combines vi-style modal editing with structural regular expressions
• giltene/wrk2A command-line HTTP load tester that sends requests at a fixed, controlled rate so your latency numbers reflec
• nanomsg/nngA C library that helps separate programs send messages to each other over a network using common patterns like

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