bytes_parser

A simple wrapper to parse primitive Rust types from a slice of bytes [u8]

What is it for?

This is the crate for you, if all you need is to parse a bespoke binary protocol. You provide a reference slice of bytes, and assuming you know what those bytes represent, read the original values out of it.

The core of this crate is BytesParser, built with few principles in mind:

• simplicity: just a thin wrapper around an array of bytes, with a cursor to track progress.
• zero-copy: all you get back is either a bit-copied primitive, or a reference backed by the original bytes - never cloning.
• only primitive types: if you need to serialize/deserialize complex data structures, you probably want serde.

Features

• Parse all primitive scalar types, signed and unsigned, as well as &str and sub-slice of &[u8].
• Internal, auto-updating cursor, to implement a simple scanning logic.
• Options to move the cursor arbitrarily, but safely, along the input slice.
• Support for Endianness selection (see ParsingEndian).
• Descriptive errors (see BytesParserError).
• Minimal dependencies.

Examples

use bytes_parser::{BytesParser, ParsingEndian};

let input: &[u8] = /* a slice of bytes from somewhere */;

// Crate a parser from a given slice of bytes
let mut parser = BytesParser::from(input);

// Will use Big-Endian parsing
assert_eq!(parser.endian(), ParsingEndian::BE);
assert_eq!(ParsingEndian::BE, ParsingEndian::default());

// Parse a string length and the string itself
let str_len = parser.parse_usize()?;
let str = parser.parse_str_utf8(str_len)?;
assert_eq!(str, "Forza Napoli Sempre!");

Alternatives

• nom: steeper learning curve, but more feature complete.
• serde: mostly focused on SERialization/DEserialization of well known formats, but it can be setup to handle a slice of bytes.

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.