doc/develop/languages/c/newlib.rst
.. _c_library_newlib:
Newlib
Newlib_ is a complete C library implementation written for the embedded
systems. It is a separate open source project and is not included in source
code form with Zephyr. Instead, the :ref:toolchain_zephyr_sdk includes a
precompiled library for each supported architecture (:file:libc.a and
:file:libm.a).
.. note::
Other 3rd-party toolchains, such as :ref:toolchain_gnuarmemb, also bundle
the Newlib as a precompiled library.
Zephyr implements the "API hook" functions that are invoked by the C standard
library functions in the Newlib. These hook functions are implemented in
:file:lib/libc/newlib/libc-hooks.c and translate the library internal system
calls to the equivalent Zephyr API calls.
Types of Newlib
The Newlib included in the :ref:toolchain_zephyr_sdk comes in two versions:
'full' and 'nano' variants.
The Newlib full variant (:file:libc.a and :file:libm.a) is the most capable
variant of the Newlib available in the Zephyr SDK, and supports almost all
standard C library features. It is optimized for performance (prefers
performance over code size) and its footprint is significantly larger than the
nano variant.
This variant can be enabled by selecting the
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC and de-selecting the
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_NANO in the application configuration
file.
The Newlib nano variant (:file:libc_nano.a and :file:libm_nano.a) is the
size-optimized version of the Newlib, and supports all features that the full
variant supports except the new format specifiers introduced in C99, such as
the char, long long type format specifiers (i.e. %hhX and
%llX).
This variant can be enabled by selecting the
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC and
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_NANO in the application configuration
file.
Note that the Newlib nano variant is not available for all architectures. The
availability of the nano variant is specified by the
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_HAS_NEWLIB_LIBC_NANO.
.. _Newlib: https://sourceware.org/newlib/
Formatted Output
Newlib supports all standard C formatted input and output functions, including
printf, fprintf, sprintf and sscanf.
The Newlib formatted input and output function implementation supports all format specifiers defined by the C standard with the following exceptions:
%f) require
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_FLOAT_PRINTF and
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_FLOAT_SCANF to be enabled.%hhX for char, %llX for long long, %jX for intmax_t,
%zX for size_t, %tX for ptrdiff_t).Dynamic Memory Management
Newlib implements an internal heap allocator to manage the memory blocks used
by the standard dynamic memory management interface functions (for example,
:c:func:malloc and :c:func:free).
The internal heap allocator implemented by the Newlib may vary across the
different types of the Newlib used. For example, the heap allocator implemented
in the Full Newlib (:file:libc.a and :file:libm.a) of the Zephyr SDK
requests larger memory chunks to the operating system and has a significantly
higher minimum memory requirement compared to that of the Nano Newlib
(:file:libc_nano.a and :file:libm_nano.a).
The only interface between the Newlib dynamic memory management functions and
the Zephyr-side libc hooks is the :c:func:sbrk function, which is used by the
Newlib to manage the size of the memory pool reserved for its internal heap
allocator.
The :c:func:_sbrk hook function, implemented in :file:libc-hooks.c, handles
the memory pool size change requests from the Newlib and ensures that the
Newlib internal heap allocator memory pool size does not exceed the amount of
available memory space by returning an error when the system is out of memory.
When userspace is enabled, the Newlib internal heap allocator memory pool is
placed in a dedicated memory partition called z_malloc_partition, which can
be accessed from the user mode threads.
The amount of memory space available for the Newlib heap depends on the system configurations:
When MMU is enabled (:kconfig:option:CONFIG_MMU is selected), the amount of
memory space reserved for the Newlib heap is set by the size of the free
memory space returned by the :c:func:k_mem_free_get function or the
:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_MAX_MAPPED_REGION_SIZE, whichever is the
smallest.
When MPU is enabled and the MPU requires power-of-two partition size and
address alignment (:kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_ALIGNED_HEAP_SIZE is
set to a non-zero value), the amount of memory space reserved for the Newlib
heap is set by the :kconfig:option:CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_ALIGNED_HEAP_SIZE.
Otherwise, the amount of memory space reserved for the Newlib heap is equal to the amount of free (unallocated) memory in the SRAM region.
The standard dynamic memory management interface functions implemented by the Newlib are thread safe and may be simultaneously called by multiple threads.