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axboe/liburing

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

★ 3,650CAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

liburing is a C library that makes it easier to use io_uring, a Linux kernel feature for fast, asynchronous file and network operations.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Wraps io_uring
      Setup helpers
      Simplified interface
    Tech stack
      C
      Linux kernel
      FFI variant
    Use cases
      Fast async IO
      Kernel feature testing
    Audience
      Systems developers
      Performance engineers

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Use io_uring for high-throughput asynchronous file and network I/O without manually managing kernel ring buffers

USE CASE 2

Link against liburing from another language through the included FFI variant

USE CASE 3

Run the included regression and unit test suite against a specific kernel to check io_uring support

What is it built with?

CLinux kernelio_uring

How does it compare?

axboe/liburingalexaltea/orbitallienol/openwrt
Stars3,6503,6483,660
LanguageCCC
Setup difficultymoderatehardhard
Complexity4/55/55/5
Audiencedeveloperresearcherops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires a Linux kernel with io_uring support, the test suite can crash or hang older kernels.

In plain English

liburing is a C library that makes it easier to use io_uring, a feature built into the Linux kernel for handling input and output operations. io_uring is a way for programs to ask the kernel to read or write data, handle network connections, or perform other system tasks without waiting around for each one to finish. This can make applications significantly faster because many operations can be submitted and completed at the same time. The library does two main things: it provides helper functions for setting up and tearing down io_uring instances, and it offers a simpler interface for applications that do not need to work with the full kernel-level implementation directly. Without this library, using io_uring requires understanding kernel data structures and memory ring buffers in detail. The library is written in C and is not tied to a specific Linux kernel version. You can use a newer version of liburing on an older kernel, though some newer features will only work on kernels that support them. Building it follows a standard configure-then-make pattern, and after installation it produces both shared and static library files. A separate FFI variant of the library is included for programming languages and environments that cannot use inline C functions. This lets other languages link against liburing as a binary dependency without needing to process C header files directly. The bulk of the repository is actually a regression and unit test suite for both the library and the underlying kernel feature. The README notes this test suite may crash or hang older kernels, so it should not be run on outdated systems. The library is dual-licensed under LGPL and MIT.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I use liburing in a C program to submit asynchronous read and write operations?
Prompt 2
What is the difference between using raw io_uring and using liburing's helper functions?
Prompt 3
How do I link liburing from a language other than C using its FFI variant?
Prompt 4
Is my kernel version safe to run liburing's test suite on, or could it crash the system?

Frequently asked questions

What is liburing?

liburing is a C library that makes it easier to use io_uring, a Linux kernel feature for fast, asynchronous file and network operations.

What language is liburing written in?

Mainly C. The stack also includes C, Linux kernel, io_uring.

How hard is liburing to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is liburing for?

Mainly developer.

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