Prebuilt binaries of the MongoDB C Driver (libmongoc and libbson), 1.x and 2.x: Windows DLLs for x64 and x86, built with MSVC and OpenSSL 3.5 LTS, and Linux shared libraries for x64.
MongoDB publishes the C driver as source code only. This repository builds each upstream release on GitHub Actions from the signed tarball, tests it against a real mongod over TLS, and publishes the result as release assets.
This is an unofficial build, not affiliated with or endorsed by MongoDB, Inc.
| Releases | Windows | Linux | For |
|---|---|---|---|
v2.* (marked Latest) |
mongoc2.dll, bson2.dll |
libmongoc2.so.2, libbson2.so.2 |
New code: 2.x is the current upstream branch |
v1.* |
libmongoc-1.0.dll, libbson-1.0.dll |
libmongoc-1.0.so.0, libbson-1.0.so.0 |
Delphi FireDAC, and applications written for the 1.x API |
The 1.x DLLs keep the lib-prefixed names that FireDAC looks for. Upstream dropped that prefix in 1.16, so a default 1.x build does not work with FireDAC. FireDAC cannot use 2.x, whose DLL names and API differ.
Get the archive for your branch and platform from the releases:
| File | For |
|---|---|
libmongoc-windows-<version>-x64.zip |
64-bit Windows applications |
libmongoc-windows-<version>-x86.zip |
32-bit Windows applications, including the 32-bit Delphi IDE |
libmongoc-linux-<version>-x64.tar.gz |
64-bit Linux applications, on Ubuntu 24.04 and later |
Each zip contains:
bin/ the two driver DLLs (see above)
libssl-3-x64.dll, libcrypto-3-x64.dll (x86: libssl-3.dll, libcrypto-3.dll)
vcruntime140.dll, the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime
include/ libbson and libmongoc headers
lib/ import libraries (1.x: libmongoc-1.0.lib, libbson-1.0.lib; 2.x: mongoc2.dll.lib, bson2.dll.lib),
CMake and pkg-config files
licenses/ mongo-c-driver and its bundled components, OpenSSL
Copy the DLLs from bin/ next to your executable. The driver DLL imports the OpenSSL DLLs when it loads, so they are needed even if you never use TLS, and they must be OpenSSL 3.5 or later. If your application already ships OpenSSL 3.5 or later under the same file names, you can keep yours.
vcruntime140.dll is the only thing the DLLs need that Windows 10 and 11 do not include. It normally comes with the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, and the copy in the package makes the DLLs load on machines that do not have it. Every Visual Studio since 2015 uses this file name, and a newer runtime runs what an older compiler built: leave the file out if you install the redistributable (14.44 or later) with your application, and do not replace a newer vcruntime140.dll with it.
For C and C++ projects, add the two directories under include/ to the include path and link the two import libraries from lib/. With CMake, add the extracted folder to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH, call find_package(mongoc) and link mongoc::mongoc; on 1.x, upstream's mongoc-1.0 package and its mongo::mongoc_shared target work as well.
The CMake files are upstream's, with one change: they do not look for OpenSSL. As upstream writes them, every project that links the driver must also find the OpenSSL headers and import libraries, which a program that only loads the DLLs does not use and which the package does not contain. A project that calls OpenSSL itself brings its own.
Distributions package the driver, but one branch at a time: Ubuntu 24.04 has 1.26, and Ubuntu 26.04 has 2.2 and no 1.x any more. The archive brings the current release of either branch to both:
lib/ libmongoc-1.0.so.0, libbson-1.0.so.0 (2.x: libmongoc2.so.2, libbson2.so.2), which applications load,
the same libraries under their two other names, for compilers and CMake,
CMake and pkg-config files
include/ libbson and libmongoc headers
licenses/ mongo-c-driver and its bundled components
An application only needs the two .so.0 files (.so.2 on 2.x). The other names of a library, such as libmongoc-1.0.so and libmongoc-1.0.so.0.0.0, are copies of the same file, where a Linux package has symbolic links: Windows tools do not extract those, and the archive has to survive a trip through Windows.
Unlike the Windows packages, it contains no OpenSSL: the libraries use the OpenSSL 3, Cyrus SASL and zlib of the distribution, which keeps them on its security updates. Most installations already have them:
sudo apt install libssl3t64 libsasl2-2 ca-certificatesThe libraries are built on Ubuntu 24.04 and tested on Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04. They are not tested on other distributions, where they need the glibc of Ubuntu 24.04 (2.39) or a later one, libssl.so.3 and libsasl2.so.2.
Extract the archive anywhere. libmongoc looks for libbson in its own directory, so an application that loads libmongoc by its full path needs nothing else. To let every application find the libraries by name, register the directory with the dynamic linker:
sudo tar -xzf libmongoc-linux-<version>-x64.tar.gz -C /opt
echo /opt/libmongoc-linux-<version>-x64/lib | sudo tee /etc/ld.so.conf.d/libmongoc.conf
sudo ldconfigldconfig reports that the libraries are not symbolic links, and registers them all the same.
The 1.x and 2.x libraries have different names, so one branch can be installed next to the other, including the one the distribution packages.
For C and C++ projects, add lib/pkgconfig to PKG_CONFIG_PATH and ask pkg-config for libmongoc-1.0 (2.x: mongoc2).
Each release comes with a SHA256SUMS file and a build provenance attestation for every archive, DLL and shared library, which proves the file was produced by this repository's workflow:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
gh attestation verify libmongoc-windows-<version>-x64.zip --repo jamalofski/libmongoc-binaries
gh attestation verify mongoc2.dll --repo jamalofski/libmongoc-binaries
gh attestation verify libmongoc-1.0.so.0 --repo jamalofski/libmongoc-binariesbuild.yml builds the Windows DLLs on a GitHub-hosted windows-2025 runner. The runner has Visual Studio 2026, but the DLLs are compiled with the MSVC 14.44 toolset from Visual Studio 2022 17.14, which it installs side by side:
- It downloads the mongo-c-driver release and checks its signature against the MongoDB C Driver release key (
6DB5 5D82 23FF 44E4 9DCB 9813 44E7 6C05 65AB C463). - It builds OpenSSL from the latest 3.5 LTS release, after checking the tarball signature against the OpenSSL signing certificate (
B146 647E 45A7 B339 47AB 226B 2A2C 87D1 6169 2D40), with OpenSSL's default Windows directories. - It builds libbson and libmongoc with
ENABLE_SSL=OPENSSL,ENABLE_SASL=SSPI,ENABLE_SRV=ON,ENABLE_ZLIB=BUNDLED,ENABLE_MONGODB_AWS_AUTH=ON,ENABLE_SNAPPY=OFF,ENABLE_ZSTD=OFFandENABLE_CLIENT_SIDE_ENCRYPTION=OFF. On 1.x it addsBSON_OUTPUT_BASENAME=libbsonandMONGOC_OUTPUT_BASENAME=libmongoc. - It adds
vcruntime140.dllfrom the runner's Visual Studio and takes the OpenSSL lookup out of the CMake files, then checks the architecture and version of every DLL, and that each dependency is either in the package or part of Windows. - It compiles a smoke test and runs it with only the package and Windows on the DLL search path, against a local
mongodthat requires TLS and a client certificate. - It builds the smoke test once more through the CMake files of the package, with CMake forbidden to look for OpenSSL.
The same workflow builds the Linux libraries on an ubuntu-24.04 runner, from the same verified tarball and with the same options, except ENABLE_SASL=CYRUS and ENABLE_ZLIB=SYSTEM. They link to the OpenSSL of the system, libmongoc gets an $ORIGIN run path, and the symbolic links of the install become plain files. The workflow checks that they depend on nothing but glibc, OpenSSL 3, Cyrus SASL and zlib, then runs the smoke test in fresh ubuntu:24.04 and ubuntu:26.04 containers that only have these, with the package registered through ldconfig, against a mongod container that requires TLS and a client certificate.
check.yml looks for new upstream 1.x and 2.x releases every week and builds and publishes them the same way.
Release tags follow upstream: the release tagged v<version> is built from mongo-c-driver <version>. Each release lists the OpenSSL, compiler and runtime versions it was built with.
Only new mongo-c-driver releases trigger a build, and each Windows build takes the latest OpenSSL 3.5 release available at that time. A new OpenSSL release on its own does not produce a new package.
The build scripts in this repository are under the MIT license. The binaries are distributed under their own licenses, included in each archive: Apache License 2.0 for the MongoDB C Driver and for the OpenSSL of the Windows packages, plus the notices of the code bundled in the driver. vcruntime140.dll is a Microsoft file, redistributed unmodified under the Visual Studio license terms.
MongoDB is a trademark of MongoDB, Inc.