This C Repo is being deprecated. Please try our new C-Core repo available at https://github.com/pubnub/c-core

The generic PubNub C library provides an elegant, easy-to-use but flexible API for C programs to use the PubNub cloud messaging service.

The library supports multiple event notification backends - this allows it to be used in a synchronous manner (in simple C programs), asynchronously with the libevent library, or integrated with any other event loop as the user can provide their own set of callbacks.

The library should be fully thread safe and signal safe. The code currently covers only POSIX systems and has not been tested on Windows yet. Suitable platforms for using this library include Raspberry Pi.

C++ bindings wrapping the C library in a C++ friendly interface is also distributed alongside.

Build your program with compile flags as provided by pkg-config --cflags libpubnub'' and build flags based on pkg-config --libs libpubnub''.

#include <json.h>
#include <pubnub.h>
#include <pubnub-sync.h>

struct pubnub_sync *sync = pubnub_sync_init();
struct pubnub *p = pubnub_init("demo", "demo",
		 &pubnub_sync_callbacks, sync);

pubnub_publish(p, "my_channel", json_object, -1, NULL, NULL);

do {
	pubnub_subscribe(p, "my_channel", -1, NULL, NULL);
	if (pubnub_sync_last_result(sync) != PNR_OK)
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	struct json_object *msg = pubnub_sync_last_response(sync);
	for (int i = 0; i < json_object_array_length(msg); i++) {
		json_object *msg1 = json_object_array_get_idx(msg, i);
		printf("received: %s\n", json_object_get_string(msg1));
	}
} while (1);

See the provided examples for more desriptive code.

Build your program with compile flags as provided by pkg-config --cflags libpubnub-cpp'' and build flags based on pkg-config --libs libpubnub-cpp''.

#include <json.h>
#include <pubnub.hpp>
#include <pubnub-sync.hpp>

pubnub_sync *sync = pubnub_sync_init();
PubNub p("demo", "demo", &pubnub_sync_callbacks, sync);

p.publish("my_channel", json_object);

do {
	p.subscribe("my_channel");
	PubNub_sync_reply reply = pubnub_sync_last_reply(sync);
	if (reply.result() != PNR_OK)
		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	json_object *msg = reply.response();
	for (int i = 0; i < json_object_array_length(msg); i++) {
		json_object *msg1 = json_object_array_get_idx(msg, i);
		std::cout << "received: "
			<< json_object_get_string(msg1) << std::endl;
	}
} while (1);

See the provided examples for more desriptive code.

Libraries libevent, libjson, libcurl and OpenSSL are required to build libpubnub. Since we are compiling the library, it is not enough to have the libraries installed, you will also need header files (usually distributed as development packages). On Debian-like systems, use the command:

sudo apt-get install libevent-dev libjson0-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl-dev

Use the command

make

to build the library. In case of errors, verify that you really have all the libraries installed.

By default, the library will be installed to /usr/local. To change the install location, edit the PREFIX line in ``Makefile'', but you will need to make arrangements for the ld.so dynamic linker to be able to find libpubnub in your chosen location (e.g. adding the directory to /etc/ld.so.conf or using $LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable).

After you have made sure the install location matches your expectations (if you aren't sure, the /usr/local default is a fine choice), run

sudo make install

and enjoy libpubnub!

This section of the documentation is still TODO. In the meantime, please refer to the header files in libpubnub/ (pubnub.h, pubnub-sync.h, pubnub-libevent.h) which are heavily commented (in general).

The C++ API wraps the C library. While a full C++ "view" is provided for the basic struct pubnub (class PubNub in libpubnub-cpp/pubnub.hpp), the libevent frontend is so thin that a separate C++ view would not make any difference. The sync frontend struct does not have a C++ view, but information about the last pubnub call can be accessed through a C++ class as described in libpubnub-cpp/pubnub-sync.hpp.

A set of examples to show-case basic and recommended usage of the library can be found in the examples/ directory. Beginners should first examine the simplest sync-demo'' example which presents a coherent PubNub based application, or walk through the sync-basics'' examples that briefly demonstrate all the PubNub API calls.

The examples can be built and run after the library itself is installed. A simple ``make'' command should suffice to build the binary. Refer to the local README.md files regarding any special details regarding each example.

Some of the C examples have their C++ counterparts in the examples-cpp/ directory.

Using our own C client, we've built example chat plugins for Adium, Pidgin, and Finch.

Check them out in our examples directory at https://github.com/pubnub/c/blob/master/examples/libpurple !