test libstemmer on Mac using macports: clang -I/opt/local/include -L/opt/local/lib -lstemmer test.c -o test on Linux gcc -o test test.c -lstemmer (apt-get install libstemmer-dev See associated code in Golang http://play.golang.org/p/1QnkCZtuYr

test.c

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <libstemmer.h>

int main () {
    struct sb_stemmer* sb;
    sb_symbol* res;
    int size;

    sb = sb_stemmer_new("english", "UTF_8");

    if (sb == NULL) {
        printf("init error\n");
        exit(1);
    }

    const sb_symbol * stemmed = sb_stemmer_stem(sb, "eating", 6);
    if (stemmed == NULL)
    {
        printf("Out of memory\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    size = sb_stemmer_length(sb);
    if (size > 0) {
        printf("%s\n", stemmed);
    } else {
        printf("no stem\n");
    }
    
    sb_stemmer_delete(sb);
}