can_tools

Rust utilities for reading, creating, editing and writing CAN DBC files, with optional AUTOSAR .arxml import support.

Features

• Parse DBC files into an in-memory CanDatabase (tolerant to comments, extra spaces, and Windows-1252 encoded files).
• Convert AUTOSAR .arxml clusters into CanDatabase instances.
• Serialize databases back to DBC text with attributes, comments, value tables, multiplexing, and sender/receiver relations.
• Build a fresh database with sensible defaults for attributes such as bus type, baud rate, and version metadata.
• SlotMap-backed storage with stable keys for nodes, messages, and signals, plus helper lookups and sort utilities.

Quick start

Add to your Cargo.toml:

can_tools = "2.1.2"

Parse a DBC, tweak it, and write it back:

use can_tools::{parse, save, DatabaseError};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut db = parse::from_dbc_file("input.dbc")?;

    // Access a message by name
    if let Some(msg) = db.get_message_by_name_mut("EngineData") {
        msg.comment = "Edited by can_tools".into();
    }

    // Persist the changes
    save::save_to_file("output.dbc", &db)?;
    Ok(())
}

Create a brand new database:

use can_tools::{create, save, types::database::BusType};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let db = create::new_database("MyDbc", BusType::CanFd, "1.0.0")?;
    save::save_to_file("my.dbc", &db)?;
    Ok(())
}

Import AUTOSAR .arxml:

use can_tools::parse;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let databases = parse::from_arxml_file("network.arxml")?;
    println!("Extracted {} CAN clusters", databases.len());
    Ok(())
}

Iterate messages, nodes, and signals:

use can_tools::{parse, types::database::CanDatabase};

fn dump(db: &CanDatabase) {
    println!("Database: {} ({} nodes, {} messages)", db.name, db.nodes.len(), db.messages.len());

    for node in db.iter_nodes() {
        println!("- Node: {}", node.name);
    }

    for msg in db.iter_messages() {
        println!("BO_ {} {} ({} bytes)", msg.id, msg.name, msg.byte_length);
        for sig in msg.signals(db) {
            println!(
                "    SG_ {} [{}|{}] {} {:?}",
                sig.name, sig.bit_start, sig.bit_length, sig.endian, sig.sign
            );
        }
    }
}

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let db = parse::from_dbc_file("input.dbc")?;
    dump(&db);
    Ok(())
}

Modules at a glance

• parse: from_dbc_file and from_arxml_file entry points for ingestion.
• save: save_to_file and helpers to serialize a CanDatabase.
• create: builds a CanDatabase pre-populated with canonical attributes.
• types: core data structures (CanDatabase, CanMessage, CanSignal, CanNode, attributes, errors).
• core: internal decoders/encoders for DBC sections (attributes, comments, signals, value tables, etc.).

Error handling

All public operations return strongly-typed errors (e.g. DbcParseError, DbcSaveError, DatabaseError). Many parsing helpers are resilient: malformed lines are skipped where safe, while structural issues (wrong extensions, I/O errors) bubble up as errors.

Notes

• DBC files are decoded as Windows-1252 with common German characters transliterated to ASCII.
• Names and lookups are case-insensitive; message IDs are tracked in both decimal and hex.
• Multiplexing is supported (both multiplexer and multiplexed signals), as are value tables and relational attributes (BU_SG_REL_, BU_BO_REL_).

License

MIT