cpow(3)

💖 cpow(3) — bestie, we're doing complex powers now

okay so this is cpow from the manual, and it lives in section 3 of the Library Functions Manual. it's giving math-girlie energy and honestly? she ate. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

cpow, cpowf, cpowl — the complex power function 🌸

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📚 LIBRARY 📚

Math library, and you link it like <rainbow>this:

-lm

aka libm, aka the girlies who do the actual math 💅

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🌟 SYNOPSIS 🌟

#include <complex.h>

double complex cpow(double complex x, double complex z);
float complex cpowf(float complex x, float complex z);
long double complex cpowl(long double complex x,
                          long double complex z);

yes bestie, <complex.h> is the passport, you can't get in without it 🦋

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🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

so what do these do? they calculate x raised to the power z — that's x to the z, both of them complex, no cap. 🫶

⚠️ tiny but IMPORTANT detail: there's a branch cut for x along the negative real axis. that's not a vibe, that's math, and you gotta respect it. 💀

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💜 ATTRIBUTES 💜

for the whole explanation of what these terms even mean, go peep attributes(7). but here's the tea for these three functions specifically:

• Interface: cpow(), cpowf(), cpowl()
• Attribute: Thread safety
• Value: MT-Safe

translation: they're MT-Safe, so multiple threads can hang out here at the same time, it's a whole party and nobody's fighting 😌✨

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👑 STANDARDS 👑

C11, POSIX.1-2008. periodt. 💅

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🌈 HISTORY 🌈

came into the world in glibc 2.1, and the standards lore is C99, POSIX.1-2001. so she's been iconic for a minute, we love a veteran 👑

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• cabs(3)
• pow(3)
• complex(7)

go read those next, bestie, it's a whole rabbit hole and i'm obsessed 🍓

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that's the whole page, you're literally a cpow expert now and i'm so proud 😭💖

signing off with the receipts: this is from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08, and yes we stay on our cpow(3) brand. mwah 💜✨