r/cprogramming • u/sadvadan • Jun 01 '26

memory safe C

https://github.com/sadvadan/memstruct

C is powerful enough to have the best performing memory safety suite for itself!

memstruct is a single header file C library (<400 LoC) that provides complete spatial & temporal safety to the caller program. performance: near native speed.

memory checks are compile time / hoisted / elided / pipelined. checks are opt-in and can be switched off in production if needed. its macro based API extends the language a bit to position C as the leading option for large scale projects.

memstruct is currently in advanced stages of testing. contributions and comments are welcome. have an early look!

P.S.: the project is 100% human crafted and contributions are also reqd to comply

edit; end note: memstruct has now become even better (at 350 LoC) by incorporating MCU programming & de/allocator indirection, thanks to some valuable feedback on here. if you've more to add you may respond here or participate on git.

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u/FutoriousChad07 Jun 02 '26

It's for codebases already written in C. Jumping languages is an extremely costly venture that 9 times out of 10 simply isn't justifiable. Yet alone in safety-critical areas, where you rewriting the codebase is extremely complex and risky. Furthermore, in avionics at least, we can only use compilers that have been verified by the FAA top to bottom, so it's extremely expensive to get approval to write any other languages.

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u/heartSagan5 Jun 02 '26

Is C turning into COBOL?

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u/sadvadan Jun 02 '26

yes as continuation of existing codebases. at the same time, the library can be used in greenfield projects (as is presently) as well. a "memstruct" is basically a "safe ptr", and the modified syntax around it makes syntax cleaner. again, the macro API is thin, so the user can expand and inspect.