Docs Menu
Docs Home
/
Languages
/
C Driver
/
C Driver
/
libmongoc
/
Tutorials
/
Obtaining the MongoDB C Driver Libraries

Installing Prebuilt MongoDB C Driver Libraries

On this page

  • Cross Platform Installs Using Library Package Managers
  • Installing using vcpkg
  • Installing in Linux
  • RedHat-based Systems
  • Debian-based Systems
  • Installing on macOS with Homebrew

The libmongoc and libbson libraries are often available in the package management repositories of common Linux distributions and macOS via Homebrew.

Note

For Windows, it is recommended to instead build the libraries from source, for maximum compatibility with the local toolchain. Building from source can be automated by using a from-source library package management tool such as Conan or vcpkg (See: Cross Platform Installs Using Library Package Managers).

Warning

If you install and use prebuilt binaries from a third-party packager, it is possible that it lags behind the version of the libraries described in these documentation pages (1.28). Note the version that you install and keep it in mind when reading these pages.

For the most up-to-date versions of the C driver libraries, prefer to instead build from source.

Tip

See also:

For a listing and common reference on available packages, refer to Package Installation Reference.

Cross Platform Installs Using Library Package Managers

Various library package managers offer libbson and libmongoc as installable packages, including Conan and vcpkg. This section will detail how to install using those tools.

Installing using vcpkg

Note

This page will not detail how to get started using vcpkg. For that, refer to Get started with vcpkg

In vcpkg manifest mode, add the desired libraries to your project's vcpkg.json manifest file:

{
  // ...
  "dependencies": [
    // ...
    "mongo-c-driver"
  ]
}

When you build a CMake project with vcpkg integration and have a vcpkg.json manifest file, vcpkg will automatically install the project's dependencies before proceeding with the configuration phase, so no additional manual work is required.

In vcpkg classic mode, libbson and libmongoc can be installed through the names libbson and mongo-c-driver, respectively:

$ vcpkg install mongo-c-driver

(Installing mongo-c-driver will transitively install libbson as well.)

When the libmongoc and libbson packages are installed and vcpkg has been properly integrated into your build system, the desired libraries will be available for import.

With CMake, the standard config-file package will be available, as well as the generated IMPORTED targets:

CMakeLists.txt
find_package(mongoc-1.0 CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(my-application
    PRIVATE $<IF:$<TARGET_EXISTS:mongo::mongoc_shared>,mongo::mongoc_shared,mongo::mongoc_static>)

Note

The large $<IF:$<TARGET_EXISTS...>:...> generator expression can be used to switch the link type of libmongoc based on whichever form is available from the find_package() command. libmongoc supports building with both dynamic and static library types, but vcpkg will only install one of the two library types at a time.

Configuring a CMake project with vcpkg integration is a matter of setting the CMake toolchain file at the initial configure command:

$ cmake -S . -B _build -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake

Installing in Linux

The names and process of installing libbson and libmongoc varies between distributions, but generally follows a similar pattern.

The following Linux distributions provide libbson and libmongoc packages:

  • Fedora via dnf

  • RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 and Newer and distributions based on RHEL 7 or newer, including CentOS, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux, via yum / dnf and EPEL.

  • Debian and Debian-based distributions, including Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives, via APT.

Tip

See also:

For a list of available packages and package options, see: Package Installation Reference.

RedHat-based Systems

In RedHat-based Linux distributions, including Fedora, CentOS, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux, the C driver libraries can be installed with Yum/DNF.

Note

For Fedora and enterprise Linux of version 8 or greater, it is recommended to use the dnf command in place of any yum command.

Important

Except for Fedora:

The C driver libraries are only available in version 7 and newer of the respective enterprise Linux distributions. However, the C driver libraries are not available in the default repositories, but can be obtained by enabling the EPEL repositories. This can be done by installing the epel-release package:

# yum install epel-release

epel-release must be installed before attempting to install the C driver libraries (i.e. one cannot install them both in a single yum install command).

To install libbson only, install the libbson-devel package:

# yum install libbson-devel

To install the full C database driver (libmongoc), install mongo-c-driver-devel:

## (This package will transitively install libbson-devel)
# yum install mongo-c-driver-devel

To check which version is available, see https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/mongo-c-driver/mongo-c-driver-devel.

The development packages (ending in -devel) include files required to build applications using libbson and libmongoc. To only install the libraries without development files, install the libbson or mongo-c-driver-libs packages.

Debian-based Systems

In Debian-based Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives, libbson and libmongoc are available in the distribution repositories via APT, and can be installed as libbson-dev and libmongoc-dev, respectively:

## Update repository information, if necessary:
# apt update

To install only libbson:

# apt install libbson-dev

To install libmongoc (which will also install libbson):

# apt install libmongoc-dev

To check which version is available, run apt-cache policy libmongoc-dev.

The development packages (ending in -dev) include files required to build applications using libbson and libmongoc. To only install the libraries without development files, install the libbson-1.0-0 or libmongoc-1.0-0 packages.

Installing on macOS with Homebrew

If you are using a macOS system, the C driver libraries (including both libmongoc and libbson) may be installed using the Homebrew package manager with the following command:

$ brew install mongo-c-driver

Note

Homebrew does not provide separate packages for libbson and libmongoc.

Tip

The Homebrew package manager is not installed by default on macOS. For information on installing Homebrew, refer to the Homebrew installation documentation page.

Back

Building the C Driver Libraries from Source