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Getting Started - C Developers

Introduction image

These instructions are for C Developers and Contributors to get, run and otherwise work with C-based EdgeX Foundry micro services. Before reading this guide, review the general developer requirements.

If you want to get the EdgeX platform and run it (but do not intend to change or add to the existing code base now) then you are considered a "User". Users should read: Getting Started Users)

What You Need For C Development

Many of EdgeX device services are built in C. In the future, other services could be built in C. In additional to the hardware and software listed in the Developers guide, to build EdgeX C services, you will need the following:

  • libmicrohttpd
  • libcurl
  • libyaml
  • libcbor

You can install these on Ubuntu by running: 

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev libmicrohttpd-dev libyaml-dev libcbor-dev

CMake is required to build the SDKs. Version 3 or better is required. You can install CMAKE on Ubuntu by running: 

sudo apt install cmake

Check that your C development environment includes the following:

  • a version of GCC supporting C11
  • CMake version 3 or greater
  • Development libraries and headers for:
    • curl (version 7.32 or later)
    • microhttpd (version 0.9)
    • libyaml (version 0.1.6 or later)
    • libcbor (version 0.5)
    • libuuid (from util-linux v2.x)

Next Steps

To explore how to create and build EdgeX device services in C, head to the Device Services, C SDK guide.