Libuv

libuv


Stable release	1.48.0^[1] / 7 February 2024; 3 months ago (7 February 2024)

Repository	github.com/libuv/libuv
Written in	C
Operating system	Cross-platform
Platform	Linux, Android, Windows and OS X/Darwin,^[2] FreeBSD, OpenBSD
Type	I/O abstraction library
License	MIT
Website	libuv.org

libuv is a multi-platform C library that provides support for asynchronous I/O based on event loops. It supports epoll(4), kqueue(2), Windows IOCP, Solaris event ports and Linux io_uring. It is primarily designed for use in Node.js but it is also used by other software projects.^[3] It was originally an abstraction around libev [Wikidata] or Microsoft IOCP, as libev does not support IOCP on Windows. In node-v0.9.0's version of libuv, the dependency on libev was removed.^[4]

Features

From:^[2]

Full-featured event loop backed by epoll, kqueue, IOCP, event ports
Asynchronous TCP and UDP sockets
Asynchronous DNS resolution
Asynchronous file and file system operations
File system events
ANSI escape code controlled TTY
IPC with socket sharing, using Unix domain sockets or named pipes (Windows)
Child processes
Thread pool
Signal handling
High resolution clock
Threading and synchronization primitives

Origin of the name

According to libuv developer Ben Noordhuis, the name libuv originally had no specific meaning, but as people kept asking about it, so they made something up. They came up with Unicorn Velociraptor, which became the logo of the library.^[5]

References

^ "Release v1.48.0: 2024.02.07, Version 1.48.0 (Stable)".
^ ^a ^b "The libuv project page and source code". GitHub. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
^ "Projects that use libuv". libuv GitHub project page. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
^ An introduction to libuv
^ "What does UV stand for in libuv?". groups.google.com. Retrieved 7 June 2022.