Snakepath: C99 STB-style header-only based on python’s pathlib library, because I love pathlib. POSIX + Windows. No malloc. Vibe-coded with Claude Code + Cursor.

u=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/netanel-haber/snakepath/main/snakepath.h &&
curl -sSLo snakepath.h "$u" &&
cat <<'EOF' | cc -xc - -o demo &&
#define SNAKEPATH_FLUENT
#define SNAKEPATH_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "snakepath.h"
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    SpPath boring = sp_path("/foo/bar.txt");
    printf("BORING API: %s\n", sp_name(&boring).data);
    printf("BORING API: %s\n", sp_stem(&boring).data);

    const char* fluent =
        SPF("/etc")->join("nginx")->join("nginx.conf")->str();
    printf("FLUENT API: %s\n", fluent);
}
EOF
./demo
rm -f demo snakepath.h

Build & Test

cc -o nob nob.c && ./nob

Snakepath API Reference

Boring API

Path Creation

SpPath p = sp_path("a/b/c");                    // Native flavor
SpPath p = sp_path_f("a/b/c", SP_FLAVOR_POSIX); // Explicit POSIX
SpPath p = sp_path_f("C:/x", SP_FLAVOR_WINDOWS); // Explicit Windows

Path Components

SpStr name   = sp_name(&p);     // Final component: "file.txt"
SpStr stem   = sp_stem(&p);     // Name without suffix: "file"
SpStr suffix = sp_suffix(&p);   // Extension: ".txt"
SpStr drive  = sp_drive(&p);    // Drive letter: "C:" (Windows)
SpStr root   = sp_root(&p);     // Root: "/" or "\"
SpStr anchor = sp_anchor(&p);   // Drive + root: "C:\"

Navigation

SpPath parent = sp_parent(&p);  // Parent directory

// Iterate parts
SpPartsIter it = sp_parts_begin(&p);
SpStr part;
while (sp_parts_next(&it, &part)) { /* use part */ }

// Iterate parents
SpParentsIter pit = sp_parents_begin(&p);
SpPath par;
while (sp_parents_next(&pit, &par)) { /* use par */ }

Joining

SpPath joined = sp_join_one(&p, "subdir");
SpPath joined = sp_join(&p, "a", "b", "c");  // C only (variadic)
SpPath joined = sp_joinpath(&p, &other);

Modification

SpPath new_p = sp_with_name(&p, "newfile.txt");
SpPath new_p = sp_with_stem(&p, "newname");
SpPath new_p = sp_with_suffix(&p, ".md");

Queries

bool abs = sp_is_absolute(&p);
bool rel = sp_is_relative_to(&p, &base);
SpPath relative = sp_relative_to(&p, &base);
bool eq = sp_path_eq(&a, &b);

Fluent API

Enable with #define SNAKEPATH_FLUENT before including.

#define SNAKEPATH_FLUENT
#define SNAKEPATH_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "snakepath.h"

// Path('a/b/c').parent.name -> "b"
SpStr name = SPF("a/b/c")->parent()->name();

// PurePosixPath('/etc').joinpath('init.d').name -> "init.d"
const char *s = SPF_P("/etc")->join("init.d")->join("apache2")->str();

SpPath p = SPF_W("C:/Users")->join("docs")->path();
SpPath child = sp_join_one(&p, "file.txt");

Macros

Macro	Python
SPF("path")	Path('path')
SPF_P("path")	PurePosixPath('path')
SPF_W("path")	PureWindowsPath('path')

Chainable

->parent() ->join("x") ->with_name("x") ->with_stem("x") ->with_suffix(".x") ->absolute() ->relative_to(&p) ->relative_to_walk_up(&p)

Terminators

Method	Returns
->path()	SpPath
->str()	const char*
->name() ->stem() ->suffix()	SpStr
->drive() ->root() ->anchor()	SpStr
->suffixes()	SpSuffixes
->is_absolute()	bool
->is_relative_to(&p)	bool

Core Types

SpStr       { const char *data; size_t len; }        // String view
SpPath      { char buf[4096]; size_t len; SpFlavor flavor; }
SpFlavor    { SP_FLAVOR_NATIVE, SP_FLAVOR_POSIX, SP_FLAVOR_WINDOWS }

Configuration

Define before including:

#define SP_PATH_MAX 4096      // Max path length
#define SP_MAX_SUFFIXES 16    // Max file extensions

Platform Behavior

	POSIX	Windows
Separator	/	\ (normalizes /)
Drive	None	C: or UNC \\server\share
Absolute	Has root /	Has drive + root C:\

Python Bindings

Thin ctypes wrapper providing PurePath, PurePosixPath, and PureWindowsPath classes compatible with Python’s pathlib interface.

from snakepath import PurePosixPath, PureWindowsPath

p = PurePosixPath('/usr/local/bin')
print(p.name)      # 'bin'
print(p.parent)    # PurePosixPath('/usr/local')
print(p.suffix)    # ''

w = PureWindowsPath('C:/Users/test.txt')
print(w.drive)     # 'C:'
print(w.stem)      # 'test'

Testing

Tests run CPython’s official pathlib test suite against snakepath:

python tests/python_harness/run_cpython_tests.py

Gotchas

Empty paths normalize to "."

Like Python’s pathlib, an empty path string normalizes to "." (current directory):

SpPath p = sp_path("");
printf("%s\n", sp_str(&p));  // prints "."

sp_suffixes() returns all dot-separated segments

Like Python’s pathlib.Path.suffixes, this function returns all segments after dots in the filename—not just “real” file extensions:

SpPath p = sp_path("snakepath-1.0.0.tar.gz");
SpSuffixes s = sp_suffixes(&p);
// s.count == 4: ".0", ".0", ".tar", ".gz"

Use sp_suffix() if you only want the final extension (.gz).

Pathlib Mapping

Python	Boring API	Fluent
.parts	sp_parts_begin/next()	-
.drive	sp_drive()	.drive()
.root	sp_root()	.root()
.anchor	sp_anchor()	.anchor()
.parents	sp_parents_begin/next()	-
.parent	sp_parent()	.parent()
.name	sp_name()	.name()
.suffix	sp_suffix()	.suffix()
.suffixes	sp_suffixes()	.suffixes()
.stem	sp_stem()	.stem()
.as_posix()	sp_as_posix()	-
.is_absolute()	sp_is_absolute()	.is_absolute()
.is_relative_to()	sp_is_relative_to()	.is_relative_to()
.joinpath()	sp_join_one()	.join()
.match()	sp_match()	-
.relative_to()	sp_relative_to()	.relative_to()
.with_name()	sp_with_name()	.with_name()
.with_stem()	sp_with_stem()	.with_stem()
.with_suffix()	sp_with_suffix()	.with_suffix()
/ operator	sp_join_one()	.join()
str(p)	sp_str()	.str()
==	sp_path_eq()	-
.absolute()	sp_absolute()	.absolute()
.as_uri()	sp_as_uri()	-
Path.cwd()	sp_cwd()	-

Not implemented: Most I/O methods (stat, exists, mkdir, read_*, write_*, glob, etc.)

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Netanel Haber Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.