Crate libxivdat

A Rust library for working with Final Fantasy XIV .DAT files. These files store client-side game config including macros, hotkeys, and ui settings.

Libxivdat provides low-level file i/o via DATFile, a std::fs::File-like interface that automatically manages the header, footer, and content masking of DAT files.

Each DAT file contains unique data structures. Higher-level support for specific file types is implemented on a type-by-type basis as optional features. See the chart below for more information and feature names.

DAT Data Structures

Internally, some DAT file content blocks use a variable-length data structure referred to as a section in this library. A section consists of a single UTF-8 char type tag, u16le size, and a null-terminated UTF-8 string. A single resource (ie, a macro) is then comprised of a repeating pattern of sections. Other DAT files use fixed-size resource blocks, with each resource immediately following the last. These are referred to as “Block DATs” below.

Some DAT files contain unique binary data that does not follow the “standard” DAT format. Others contain UTF-8 plaintext and are not binary files at all. Support for these files is not currently planned.

DAT Support Table

Symbol	Description
✅	Full support
🌀	Partial support
❌	No support

File	Contains	Type	DATFile Read/Write	High Level Module
ACQ.DAT	Recent /tell history	Section	✅	🌀 - section
ADDON.DAT	?	Unique	❌	❌
COMMON.DAT	Character configuration	Plaintext	❌	❌
CONTROL0.DAT	Gamepad control config	Plaintext	❌	❌
CONTROL1.DAT	Keyboard/mouse control config	Plaintext	❌	❌
FFXIV_CHARA_XX.DAT	Character appearance presets	Unique	❌	❌
GEARSET.DAT	Gearsets	Block	✅	❌
GS.DAT	Gold Saucer config (Triad decks)	Block	✅	❌
HOTBAR.DAT	Hotbar layouts	Block	✅	❌
ITEMFDR.DAT	“Search for item” indexing?	Block	✅	❌
ITEMODR.DAT	Item order in bags	Block	✅	❌
KEYBIND.DAT	Keybinds	Section	✅	🌀 - section
LOGFLTR.DAT	Chat log filters?	Block	✅	❌
MACRO.DAT	Character-specific macros	Section	✅	✅ - macro
MACROSYS.DAT	System-wide macros	Section	✅	✅ - macro
UISAVE.DAT	UI config	Block	✅	❌

Examples:

Reading a file:

use libxivdat::dat_file::read_content;
let data_vec = read_content(&path_to_dat_file).unwrap();

Writing to an existing file:

DAT files contain metadata in the header that pertains to how data should be written. Because of this, creating a new DAT file and writing contents are separate steps.

use libxivdat::dat_file::write_content;
let data_vec = write_content(&path_to_dat_file, b"This is some data.").unwrap();

Creating a new file:

use libxivdat::dat_file::DATFile;
use libxivdat::dat_type::DATType;
DATFile::create_with_content(&path_to_dat_file, DATType::Macro, b"This is some data.").unwrap();

File-like access:

use libxivdat::dat_file::read_content;
use libxivdat::dat_file::DATFile;
use libxivdat::dat_type::DATType;
use std::io::{Read,Seek,SeekFrom,Write};

let mut dat_file = DATFile::open(&path_to_dat_file).unwrap();

let mut first_256_bytes = [0u8; 256];
dat_file.read(&mut first_256_bytes).unwrap();

Modules

dat_error

Contains the DATError wrapper error. This error type is used for all functions that do not implement a std::io trait.

dat_file

Contains a generic, low-level tool set for working with any standard binary DAT files. This provides the convenience functions read_content() and write_content() as well as the std::fs::File-like DATFile interface.

dat_type

Contains the enum of all supported file types, DATType and functions for accessing default header and mask values specific to each type.

high_level

Contains general-purpose traits and functions applicable to all high-level, file-type-specific modules such as xiv_macro.

section

Contains a generic tool set for working with any section-based binary DAT files. This module contains two equivalent implementations: Section, read_section(), and read_section_content() for working with files on disk and SectionData, as_section(), and as_section_vec() for working with pre-allocated byte arrays.

xiv_macro

Contains the high-level toolkit for working with macro files, MACRO.DAT and MACROSYS.DAT. This module contains two equivalent implementations: Macro, read_macro(), and read_macro_content() for working with files on disk and MacroData, as_macro(), and as_macro_vec() for working with pre-allocated byte arrays and `SectionData.