Crate alox_48

alox-48 (short for aluminum oxide 48)

alox-48 supports both full serialization and deserialization of Marshal, but generally users of this library will not be using most of Marshal’s features. (Classes, Extended types, etc)

However, alox-48 does NOT support object links. Object links are marshal’s way of saving space, if an object was serialized already a “link” indicating when it was serialized is serialized instead.

class MyClass
 def initialize
   @var = 1
   @string = "hiya!"
 end
end

a = MyClass.new
Marshal.dump([a, a, a])
# The array here has 3 indices all "pointing" to the same object.
# Instead of serializing MyClass 3 times, Marshal will serialize it once and replace the other 2 occurences with object links.
# When deserializing, Marshal will preserve object links and all 3 elements in the array will point to the same object.
# In alox-48, this is not the case. Each index will be a "unique" ""object"".

This behavior could be simulated with Rc and/or Arc like thurgood, however for the sake of ergonomics (and memory cycles) alox-48 deserializes object links as copies instead. alox-48 does not serialize object links at all.

Some common terminology:

• ivar: Instance variable. These are variables that are attached to an object.
• instance: Not to be confused with a class instance. This is a value that is not an object with attached ivars.
• userdata: A special type of object that is serialized by the _dump method.
• userclass: A subclass of a ruby object like Hash or Array.
• object: A generic ruby object. Can be anything from a string to an instance of a class.

Modules

• de
  Marshal Deserialization framework and Deserializer.
• path_to_error
  A convenience module for getting exact details about where an error occurred.
• ser
  Marshal Serialization framework and Serializer.

Structs

• DeError
• Deserializer
  The alox-48 deserializer.
• Instance
  A type representing a ruby object with extra instance variables.
• Object
  A type equivalent to ruby’s Object.
• RbString
  A type equivalent to ruby’s String. ruby strings do not have to be utf8 encoded, so this type uses Vec<u8> instead.
• RbStruct
  A type equivalent to ruby’s Struct.
• SerError
• SerializeByteString
  A helper to ensure byte slices are serialized as strings.
• Serializer
  The alox_48 serializer.
• Sym
  A borrowed ruby symbol.
• Symbol
  An owned symbol from ruby. It’s a newtype around a String, meant to preserve types during (de)serialization.
• Userdata
  This type represents types serialized with _dump from ruby. Its main intended use is in Value, but you can also use it with Deserialize:
• ValueSerializer
  Serializer whose output is a Value.

Enums

• Value
  An enum representing any ruby value.

Traits

• ArrayAccess
  Provides access to array elements.
• Deserialize
  A structure that can be deserialized from ruby marshal format.
• DeserializerTrait
  A structure that can deserialize data from ruby marshal format.
• HashAccess
  Provides access to hash elements.
• InstanceAccess
  Provides a visitor with access to an instance.
• IvarAccess
  Provides access to instance variables.
• Serialize
  A structure that can be serialized into ruby marshal data.
• SerializeArray
  A structure that can serialize an array.
• SerializeHash
  A structure that can serialize a hash.
• SerializeIvars
  A structure that can serialize instance variables of an object.
• SerializerTrait
  A structure that can serialize data into ruby marshal format.
• Visitor
  This trait represents a visitor that walks through a deserializer.
• VisitorInstance
  This trait represents a visitor that walks through a deserializer.
• VisitorOption
  This trait represents a visitor that walks through a deserializer.

Functions

• from_bytes
  Deserialize data from some bytes. It’s a convenience function over Deserializer::new and Deserialize::deserialize.
• from_value
  Interpret a Value as an instance of type T.
• to_bytes
  Serialize the type into bytes.
• to_value
  Convert a T into Value.

Type Aliases

• DeResult
  Type alias around a result.
• RbArray
  Shorthand type alias for a ruby array.
• RbFields
  A type alias used to represent fields of objects. All objects store a Symbol to represent the key for instance variable, and we do that here too.
• RbHash
  Shorthand type alias for a ruby hash.
• SerResult
  Type alias around a result.

Derive Macros

• Deserialize
  Derive Deserialize for a struct.
• Serialize
  Derive Serialize for a struct.