olib Documentation

Welcome to the olib documentation. olib is a lightweight C library for object serialization and format conversion.

Overview

olib provides a unified API for:

• Structured Data Objects: Create and manipulate objects with structs, lists, and primitive types
• Multi-Format Serialization: Serialize objects to JSON, YAML, XML, TOML, and binary formats
• Format Conversion: Convert between any supported formats with a single function call

Quick Navigation

Getting Started

• Getting Started Guide - Installation, basic concepts, and your first program

API Reference

• Base Module - Memory allocation and C/C++ compatibility
• Object Module - Object types and manipulation
• Serializer Module - Serializer interface and custom implementations
• Formats Module - Built-in format serializers
• Helpers Module - High-level read/write/convert functions

Examples

• Examples Guide - Walkthrough of example programs

Quick Example

#include <olib.h>

int main(void) {
    // Create an object
    olib_object_t* obj = olib_object_new(OLIB_OBJECT_TYPE_STRUCT);

    olib_object_t* name = olib_object_new(OLIB_OBJECT_TYPE_STRING);
    olib_object_set_string(name, "olib");
    olib_object_struct_set(obj, "name", name);

    // Serialize to JSON
    char* json = NULL;
    olib_format_write_string(OLIB_FORMAT_JSON_TEXT, obj, &json);
    printf("%s\n", json);  // {"name": "olib"}

    // Cleanup
    olib_free(json);
    olib_object_free(obj);
    return 0;
}

Supported Formats

Format	Type	Enum Value
JSON (text)	Text	OLIB_FORMAT_JSON_TEXT
JSON (binary)	Binary	OLIB_FORMAT_JSON_BINARY
YAML	Text	OLIB_FORMAT_YAML
XML	Text	OLIB_FORMAT_XML
TOML	Text	OLIB_FORMAT_TOML
Plain Text	Text	OLIB_FORMAT_TXT
Binary	Binary	OLIB_FORMAT_BINARY

License

MIT License - Copyright (c) 2026 Christian Luppi