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Installation

Abscom is a C11 library built with Meson and Ninja. There are no third-party C dependencies: only the C standard library, plus ws2_32 on Windows (linked automatically).

One-line installer

The one-line installers first try to download a prebuilt release asset matching the host platform (produced by the automatic release pipeline) and install it without a compiler. If no matching asset is available they fall back to downloading the source from GitHub, building it (with Meson when available, otherwise a direct cc/gcc compile), installing to a prefix, and recording an uninstall manifest.

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rkriad585/Abscom/main/installer.ps1 | iex

Linux and macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rkriad585/Abscom/main/installer.sh | sh

Both scripts accept:

Flag (PowerShell / Unix) Meaning
-Prefix <dir> / --prefix <dir> Install prefix (defaults: $HOME\abscom on Windows; /usr/local if writable or running as root, else $HOME/.local on Unix)
-BuildType <t> / --buildtype <t> debug, debugoptimized, release, or plain (default release)
-SkipTests / --skip-tests Do not run the test suite
-ForceDirect / --force-direct Skip Meson; compile the static library directly
-SelfUninstall / --selfuninstall Remove all installed files and the download/build cache
-CacheDir <dir> / --cache-dir <dir> Where sources, the build, and the manifest live

Both scripts also honor the ABSCOM_ASSET_URL environment variable to force a specific prebuilt asset URL (e.g. a local file:// copy during testing).

Uninstall:

(Invoke-RestMethod https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rkriad585/Abscom/main/installer.ps1) + " -SelfUninstall" | iex

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rkriad585/Abscom/main/installer.sh | sh -s -- --selfuninstall

Prerequisites

  • A C11 compiler: GCC, Clang (including LLVM MinGW), or a Meson-compatible toolchain.
  • Meson 1.x.
  • Ninja.

The one-line installers do not require Meson or Ninja — they fall back to a direct compile with cc/gcc.

Building

From the repository root, use the convenience wrapper or Meson directly:

./build.sh                     # configure, compile, and test
./build.sh --install --prefix "$HOME/.local"

On Windows:

.\build.ps1
.\build.ps1 -Install -Prefix "C:\Abscom"

Or the raw commands:

meson setup build
meson compile -C build

This produces:

  • A static library (libabscom.a, or abscom.lib/libabscom.a depending on toolchain).
  • A shared library (libabscom.so / libabscom.dll / libabscom.dylib).
  • Test executables in build/tests/.
  • Example executables in build/examples/ (demo, py_demo, data_demo, v6_demo).

Running the tests

meson test -C build

build.sh / build.ps1 run this automatically (pass --skip-tests / -SkipTests to skip).

Installing

meson install -C build

or ./build.sh --install --prefix <dir> / .\build.ps1 -Install -Prefix <dir>.

This installs the headers into include/abscom/ and the libraries into the platform library directory, plus a pkg-config file (abscom.pc) into lib/pkgconfig/. The installed headers are: abs.h, abs_common.h, abs_dynarray.h, abs_string.h, abs_hash.h, abs_hashmap.h, abs_time.h, and abs_fs.h.

Linking manually

Link your application against the static library and the include directory:

cc -std=c11 app.c -Iinclude build/libabscom.a -o app

On Windows, also link the Winsock library:

cc -std=c11 app.c -Iinclude build/libabscom.a -lws2_32 -o app.exe

To link an installed copy, use pkg-config (set PKG_CONFIG_PATH when using a custom prefix):

PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.local/lib/pkgconfig"
cc -std=c11 app.c $(pkg-config --cflags --libs abscom) -o app

Platform notes

  • Windows: meson.build detects the host system and links ws2_32 automatically; http_get requires a working Winsock stack (initialized by abs_init).
  • POSIX (Linux/macOS): socket and clock_gettime interfaces are used; no extra libraries are needed.
  • The build defaults to C11 and warning_level=3. See configuration.md to change these.

Docker

A Dockerfile is included that builds and tests the project on a Debian base image:

docker build -t abscom .

See deployment.md for details.

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