It is. You can also write it in C++ or Rust and expose a C API+ABI, and then you're distributing a binary library that the OS sees as very similar to a C library.
Occasionally when working in Lua I'd write something low-level in C++, wrap it in C, and then call the C wrapper from Lua. It's extra boilerplate but damn is it nice to have a REPL for your C++ code.
Edit: Because someone else will say it - Rust binary artifacts _are_ kinda big by default. You can compile libstd from scratch on nightly (it's a couple flags) or you can amortize the cost by packing more functions into the same binary, but it is gonna have more fixed overhead than C or C++.
> It is. You can also write it in C++ or Rust and expose a C API+ABI, and then you're distributing a binary library that the OS sees as very similar to a C library.
If I want a "C Library", I want a "C Library" and not some weird abomination that has been surgically grafted to libstdc++ or similar (but be careful of which version as they're not compatible and the name mangling changes and ...).
This isn't theoretical. It's such a pain that the C++ folks started resorting to header-only libraries just to sidestep the nightmare.
This makes me less safe rather than more. Note that there is a substantial double standard here, we could never in the name of safety impose this level of burden from C tooling side because maintainers would rightfully be very upset (even toggling a warning in the default set causes discussions). For the same reason it should be unacceptable to use Rust before this is fixed, but somehow the memory safety absolutists convinced many people that this is more important than everything else. (I also think memory safety is important, but I can't help but thinking that pushing for Rust is more harmful to me than good. )
The link you provided seems light on details. From what I can tell, it sounds like Debian tooling has trouble with packages that are statically linked? It's not clear to me how I'm expected to weigh that against something like memory safety, especially without any more context around how much of this is specific to the tooling Debian uses rather than something inherent to static linking as a whole. Without that, it seems just as reasonable to argue against using Debian until they improve their tooling.
Occasionally when working in Lua I'd write something low-level in C++, wrap it in C, and then call the C wrapper from Lua. It's extra boilerplate but damn is it nice to have a REPL for your C++ code.
Edit: Because someone else will say it - Rust binary artifacts _are_ kinda big by default. You can compile libstd from scratch on nightly (it's a couple flags) or you can amortize the cost by packing more functions into the same binary, but it is gonna have more fixed overhead than C or C++.