Crate bufkit

bufkit

no_std-friendly, memory-backed buffer toolkit designed for Sans-I/O style encoding and decoding. Provides Chunk (read-only view), ChunkMut (mutable view), and helpers for explicit, convenient bounds-checked access.

Overview

bufkit is a small, focused toolkit for working with in-memory buffers in a predictable, controlled way.
It’s Sans-I/O friendly — meaning it’s easy to integrate into network protocol parsers, database engines, binary file format decoders/encoders, and embedded systems that follow the Sans-I/O design pattern — but it doesn’t implement any I/O itself.

Features

• Predictable memory usage – operates directly on memory you provide, no hidden allocations.
• Explicit error handling – choose panicking, Option, or detailed Result with requested vs. available byte counts.
• Segmented views – create independent Chunk/ChunkMut views into the same buffer.
• Offset reads/writes – operate at arbitrary positions without unsafe pointer math.
• Embedded friendly - no_std & no_alloc ready – works in embedded and constrained environments.
• Retry-friendly – try_* methods enable robust partial read/write handling.

Installation

[dependencies]
bufkit = "0.5"

Feature Flags

Feature	Default?	Description
std	Yes	Enables std integration
alloc	No	Enables heap-allocated buffer support
varint	No	LEB128 encoding & decoding
bytes_1	No	Enable integration with bytes 1.x

Alternatives

• bytes::{Buf, BufMut}: Chunkfer traits for the bytes may or may not be stored in contiguous memory.
• buffer-trait: A Buffer trait for reading into uninitialized buffers.

License

bufkit is under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0).

See LICENSE-APACHE, LICENSE-MIT for details.

Copyright (c) 2025 Al Liu.

Modules

error

Errors buffer I/O

Structs

ChunkWriter

A wrapper around any type that implements ChunkMut for improved ergonomics in generic code.

Peeker

A peeker for reading from a buffer without advancing the original buffer’s cursor.

Putter

A putter for writing to a buffer without modifying the original buffer’s cursor.

RefPeeker

A peeker for reading from a buffer without advancing the original buffer’s cursor.

Traits

Chunk

A trait for implementing custom buffers that can read and navigate through byte sequences.

ChunkExt

Extension trait for Chunk that provides additional methods

ChunkMut

A trait for implementing custom buffers that can store and manipulate byte sequences.

ChunkMutExt

A trait that extends ChunkMut with additional methods.

Varintvarint

A trait for types that can be encoded as variable-length integers (varints).