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Wiring pi is defunct.

SensoredHacker0

I used to love using the Wiring Pi library in C for programing the IO of the Raspberry pi.
I haven't used a PI for a project in a while, and I guess in that time developer of WiringPi has
stopped supporting the library.
I tried using version 2.52 on a raspberry pi 4, but it says something like the hardware isn't listed in /proc/cpuinfo.

So I guess I cant use wiringPi. what C libraries would you use for programing GPIO in C on a rasperry Pi 4?
Ive looked around the internet, and I see some various options, but Im not sure what code works with which boards, etc.

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  • 0

    WiringPi certainly does work with Pi 4, I have used it myself on Pi 4. 

    However, it is not maintained (the author doesn't wish to maintain it anymore), so it won't work with Pi 5 at all (unless someone adapts it, which the original author I think doesn't have an interest in pursuing). There is a list of alternatives (some are for Python, but there are some listed for C) here: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/117591/controlling-raspberry-pi-gpio-with-c-and-python

    However, I've not tried any alternative personally on Pi 4. With C, I've only used WiringPi on Pi 4.

    I suspect some people (those that need it for, say, a job and thus have the time - several days of effort to do it properly) are directly programming registers (i.e. do a mmap, followed by writing/reading the registers that are mapped) for the particular Pi they are using, and effectively creating their own API. I've had to do that myself on some platforms (e.g. BeagleBone Black), but it's a lot of effort to initially do, and to maintain. 

    In summary, if it's only Pi 4 that interests you, and you wish to use C programming, then WiringPi should work. Otherwise, if you may eventually want Pi 5 support too, you'd need to choose a different library (e.g. pigpio, but there are various options at that link), which today may not work for Pi 5 but at least has a chance of being supported eventually, if it is actively being maintained currently, or create your own.

    If you don't need fast GPIO, then there are other options (e.g. using /sys/class/gpio) but those are slower. Not every application will need speed, so that may be a possibility. 

    Yet another possibility is to use SPI or I2C (e.g. SPI or I2C GPIO expander) and avoid the WiringPi and its alternatives altogether since you'd be using the normal Linux i2cdev or spidev API, which will always be supported (unless something better comes along one day).

  • 0 in reply to shabaz
    shabaz said:
    there are other options (e.g. using /sys/class/gpio)

    I use those, if I don't need fast IO. 

  • 0 in reply to Jan Cumps

    I suspect often people don't need the speed, but simply want DigitalIn/DigitalOut style API functions like a microcontroller's libraries may offer, or Arduino even, and probably they would not mind if the underlying implementation used /sys/class/gpio. 

    Even if slower IO is fine, sometimes an OCD gets the better of me and makes me want to implement it using registers, but it's a lot of work!

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  • 0 in reply to Jan Cumps

    I suspect often people don't need the speed, but simply want DigitalIn/DigitalOut style API functions like a microcontroller's libraries may offer, or Arduino even, and probably they would not mind if the underlying implementation used /sys/class/gpio. 

    Even if slower IO is fine, sometimes an OCD gets the better of me and makes me want to implement it using registers, but it's a lot of work!

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