mdf4-rs

A safe, efficient Rust library for reading and writing ASAM MDF 4 (Measurement Data Format) files.

Maintained by Sigma Tactical Group for measurement logging in the Sigma stack. The crates.io package name mdf4-rs is unchanged for semver continuity. Earlier standalone development and contributors are upstream lineage — see CONTRIBUTORS.md.

Features

• 100% safe Rust - #![forbid(unsafe_code)]
• Minimal dependencies - Only serde/serde_json for serialization
• Memory efficient - Streaming index for large files (335x faster, 50x less memory)
• Full read/write - Create, read, and modify MDF4 files
• CAN logging - Integrated CAN bus data logging with DBC support

Embedded-first

Product placement: no_std + alloc readers with slim features; alloc for writers/loggers/dbc today—details and backlog in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Quick Start

[dependencies]
mdf4-rs = "0.3"

Reading

use mdf4_rs::MDF;

let mdf = MDF::from_file("recording.mf4")?;
for group in mdf.channel_groups() {
    for channel in group.channels() {
        let values = channel.values()?;
        println!("{}: {} samples", channel.name()?.unwrap_or_default(), values.len());
    }
}

Writing

use mdf4_rs::{MdfWriter, DataType};

let mut writer = MdfWriter::new("output.mf4")?;
writer.init_mdf_file()?;
let cg = writer.add_channel_group(None, |_| {})?;
writer.add_channel(&cg, None, |ch| {
    ch.data_type = DataType::FloatLE;
    ch.name = Some("Temperature".into());
    ch.bit_count = 64;
})?;
// ... write data

CAN Logging

use mdf4_rs::can::CanDbcLogger;

let dbc = dbc_rs::Dbc::parse(dbc_content)?;
let mut logger = CanDbcLogger::builder(&dbc).build()?;
logger.log(0x100, timestamp_us, &frame_data);
let mdf_bytes = logger.finalize()?;

Minimal (no_std)

[dependencies]
mdf4-rs = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = ["alloc"] }

See examples/ for complete working examples:

• read_file.rs - Reading MDF4 files
• write_file.rs - Creating MDF4 files
• can_logging.rs - CAN bus logging with DBC support
• ethernet_logging.rs - Ethernet frame logging
• lin_logging.rs - LIN bus logging
• flexray_logging.rs - FlexRay bus logging
• index_operations.rs - Efficient file indexing
• merge_files.rs - Merging multiple MDF4 files
• cut_file.rs - Extracting time segments
• no_std_write.rs - Writing MDF4 in no_std environments

Feature Flags

Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV)

mdf4-rs requires Rust 1.97.0 or later (edition 2024, first supported in Rust 1.85.0).

Documentation

• API Reference
• ARCHITECTURE.md - Internal design (includes Embedded-first)

Brand & artwork

© Sigma Tactical Group. All rights reserved.

The Sigma Tactical Group name, logos, marks, artwork, and visual identity are proprietary. They are not covered by this repository's source-code license. See BRANDING.md.

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.