DEdeadlightreal·Jun 27, 2025Submission
SwiftNet – C networking library (macOS-only for now, needs Linux testers)
3 points · Open discussionSwiftNetProject
SwiftNet
C2025–2025
SwiftNetProject / SwiftNet
SwiftNet
Lightweight C networking library using libpcap at Layer 2. Simple API, tiny footprint, no external libraries.
2Distinct people
3Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
14GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Lightweight C networking library using libpcap at Layer 2. Simple API, tiny footprint, no external libraries.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:02:05 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by week3 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2025-06-27 11:59:29 UTC to 2025-11-25 21:11:29 UTC. Weeks start Monday, UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 23 | 2025-06-23 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-06-30 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Jun 30 | 2025-06-30 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-07-07 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 7 | 2025-07-07 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-07-14 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 14 | 2025-07-14 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-07-21 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 21 | 2025-07-21 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-07-28 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 28 | 2025-07-28 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-04 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 4 | 2025-08-04 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-11 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 11 | 2025-08-11 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-18 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 18 | 2025-08-18 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-25 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 25 | 2025-08-25 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 1 | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-08 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 8 | 2025-09-08 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-15 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 15 | 2025-09-15 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-22 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 22 | 2025-09-22 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-29 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 29 | 2025-09-29 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-10-06 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 6 | 2025-10-06 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-10-13 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 13 | 2025-10-13 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-10-20 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 20 | 2025-10-20 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-10-27 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 27 | 2025-10-27 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-03 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 3 | 2025-11-03 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-10 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 10 | 2025-11-10 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-17 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 17 | 2025-11-17 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-24 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 24 | 2025-11-24 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
2 sourcesHello dear people,
I’m working on SwiftNet, a small and easy-to-use C library for making networking communications in C straightforward. It’s a wrapper over Berkeley sockets with a simple API, readable, and easy to integrate.
Right now, it’s only been tested on macOS, so I’m looking for contributors to:
Test it on Linux
Suggest improvements
Help refine the design/API
The codebase is pretty small, and while the API is straightforward, the internals are admittedly a bit rough right now. I’m still learning and improving!
Why I built this:
I wanted to create a C library that makes sending data over the network reliable and easy, while learning more about low-level networking and systems design.
Everything is written in pure C, built with a basic CMake setup, and has no external dependencies.
Example usage:
// Server sends "hello" to every cli
Read the rest
ent that sends a message
void server_message_handler(uint8_t* data, SwiftNetPacketServerMetadata* metadata) {
swiftnet_server_append_to_packet(server, "hello", strlen("hello"));
swiftnet_server_send_packet(server, metadata->sender);
swiftnet_server_clear_send_buffer(server);
}
How you can help:
Test on Linux: clone, build with cmake, and run the tests in /tests
Suggest improvements to the overall library or code clarity
Share ideas for future features
Thanks for checking it out! Ask me anything.
Repo: https://github.com/deadlightreal/SwiftNet