Tutorial

C and Redis

February 26, 20262 minute read

Ajeet Raina

TL;DR:

Install hiredis, the recommended C Redis client library, compile it with make, then use redisConnect and redisCommand to talk to your Redis server from any C program.

#What you'll learn

How to install and compile the hiredis C client library
How to connect to a Redis server from C
How to execute Redis commands and handle replies
Where to go next with async hiredis and Redis Cluster

#Prerequisites

A C compiler (gcc or clang)
make and wget
Package manager: brew (macOS) or apt (Linux)
A running Redis server

#How do I install hiredis?

Version 1.0.0 marks the first stable release of hiredis. Install the build tools you need, then download and compile hiredis from source.

Install the build prerequisites:

Start a Redis server if you don't already have one running:

Download and compile hiredis:

#How do I connect to Redis from a C program?

Create a file called redistest.c with the following code. It opens a connection with redisConnect, sends a PING command, prints the reply, and cleans up.

#How do I compile and run my C Redis program?

Compile the code with gcc, linking against hiredis:

Run the program:

#What about async connections?

hiredis also provides an asynchronous API for non-blocking I/O. The async interface integrates with event loops such as libevent, libev, and libuv, making it suitable for high-throughput or embedded C applications that need to handle many concurrent Redis operations. See the hiredis async documentation for details.

#Next steps

Explore hiredis on GitHub for the full API reference
Try hiredis-cluster, a C client library for Redis Cluster
Check out hiredispool for connection pooling and auto-reconnect
Browse the Redis command reference to see all available commands