b_stacktrace

A minimalistic single-header multi-platform C89 lib for stack tracing

Usage

C or C++

Clone the repo or copy b_stacktrace.h in your project tree.

Including b_stacktrace.h provides:

• char* b_stacktrace_get_string();- Returns a human-readable stack-trace string from the point of view of the caller. The string is allocated with malloc and needs to be freed with free.
• b_stacktrace_handle b_stacktrace_get(); - Returns a stack-trace handle from the point of view of the caller which can be expanded to a string via b_stacktrace_to_string. The handle is allocated with malloc and needs to be freed with free.
• char* b_stacktrace_to_string(b_stacktrace_handle stacktrace); - Converts a stack-trace handle to a human-readable string. The string is allocated with malloc and needs to be freed with free.
• int b_stacktrace_depth(b_stacktrace_handle stacktrace); - Returns the number of entries (frames) in the stack-trace handle.

#define B_STACKTRACE_IMPL before including b_stacktrace.h in one C or C++ file to create the implementation

Optional wrapper for C++17 and newer

TBD

Examples

The subdirectory example/ contains several small examples:

• trace.c - creates a trace from a C program
• trace.cpp - creates a trace from a C++ program, demonstrating more complex symbols (classes, templates)
• crash.c - example usage of the provided stack trace: as a crash handler

License

The library is distributed under the MIT Software License. Copyright © 2020-2025 Borislav Stanimirov.