# kokke/tiny-regex-c

Small portable regex in C

Repository: https://github.com/kokke/tiny-regex-c
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tiny-regex-c
Language: C
License: Unlicense
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-10-25T15:16:07+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3424, "days_push": 677, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1500, forks 210 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:54.205653+00:00)

## What it is
A small, portable regular expression library written in C, supporting a subset of Python's re-module syntax. It is designed for minimal resource usage with no dynamic memory allocation, making it suitable for embedded systems.

## Use cases
- add regex matching to a C project without heavy dependencies
- pattern matching in embedded firmware with no malloc
- parse text with simple regex patterns in C
- validate string formats like dates or identifiers in C
- use regex on microcontrollers with limited RAM

## When to choose
- you need regex in C with a tiny ~3kb binary footprint
- your target environment forbids dynamic memory allocation
- you only need basic regex operators without capture groups
- you want a single-file, easily auditable library

## When to avoid
- you need capture groups, named groups, or advanced regex features
- you need full PCRE or Python re compatibility
- you need high performance on large inputs
- you rely on inverted character classes, which have known bugs

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: parser, developer-tools
- domain: parsers, developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: cross-platform, c, embedded
- tags: regex, embedded-friendly, no-malloc, small-footprint, single-file

## Member repositories
- kokke/tiny-regex-c (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:54.205653+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:33:00.275455+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kokke/tiny-regex-c (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:54.205653+00:00, sha 0f024d5cd122)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.