GitPedia

SmallerC

Simple C compiler

From alexfru·Updated June 26, 2026·View on GitHub·

Smaller C is a simple and small single-pass C compiler, currently supporting most of the C language common between C89/ANSI C and C99 (minus some C89 and plus some C99 features). The project is written primarily in C, distributed under the BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" License license, first published in 2012. It has gained significant community traction with 1,566 stars and 173 forks on GitHub. Key topics include: c, c-compiler, compiler, dos, linux.

Latest release: v1.0.2+dos.win.b120a9cBinary release with DOS and Windows binaries
August 4, 2024View Changelog →

Smaller C is a simple and small single-pass C compiler,
currently supporting most of the C language common between C89/ANSI C
and C99 (minus some C89 and plus some C99 features).

Currently it generates 16-bit and 32-bit 80386+ assembly code for NASM
that can then be assembled and linked into DOS, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
programs.
(You may use YASM or FASM instead of NASM)

Code generation for MIPS CPUs is also supported (primarily for RetroBSD).

The compiler is capable of compiling itself.

The core compiler comes with a preprocessor (ucpp), a linker and a compiler
driver (the driver invokes the preprocessor, the core compiler, the assembler,
and the linker and supports options similar to those of gcc).

The standard C library is work-in-progress and it's close to completion.

See the project documentation for more up-to-date details:
https://github.com/alexfru/SmallerC/tree/master/v0100/doc

For the lack of a better place, you can discuss Smaller C here:
https://hackaday.io/project/5569-smaller-c

Links:
NASM: http://nasm.us/
YASM: http://yasm.tortall.net/
FASM: http://flatassembler.net/
CWSDPMI: https://sandmann.dotster.com/cwsdpmi/
HX DOS Extender: https://web.archive.org/web/20141003032346/http://www.japheth.de/
RetroBSD: http://retrobsd.org/

Other projects based on/using Smaller C:
"ROM C" (like ROM Basic but C): https://hackaday.io/project/29198-native-c-pic32-color-video-on-tv
FYS OS: http://www.fysnet.net/fysos.htm
NewBasic Compiler: http://fysnet.net/nbc.htm
Sweet32 CPU and toolchain: https://github.com/Basman74/Sweet32-CPU

Normative and other useful documents on C:
C99 + TC1 + TC2 + TC3, WG14 N1256:
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1256.pdf
Dave Prosser's C preprocessing algorithm annotated by Diomidis D. Spinellis:
http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20060626/index.html
Rationale for C99:
http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/C99RationaleV5.10.pdf
The New C Standard: An Economic and Cultural Commentary:
http://www.knosof.co.uk/cbook/cbook.html
The Development of the C Language by Dennis M. Ritchie:
https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/chist.html
The Standard C Library by P.J. Plauger
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131315099

Contributors

Showing top 7 contributors by commit count.

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This article is auto-generated from alexfru/SmallerC via the GitHub API.Last fetched: 6/28/2026