Oak MSIL Parser

High-performance incremental MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) parser for the oak ecosystem with flexible configuration, optimized for .NET assembly analysis and tooling.

🎯 Overview

Oak of msil is a robust parser for MSIL/CIL, designed to handle complete Microsoft Intermediate Language syntax including modern features. Built on the solid foundation of oak-core, it provides both high-level convenience and detailed AST generation for .NET assembly processing and analysis.

✨ Features

Complete MSIL Syntax: Supports all MSIL/CIL features including modern specifications
Full AST Generation: Generates comprehensive Abstract Syntax Trees
Lexer Support: Built-in tokenization with proper span information
Error Recovery: Graceful handling of syntax errors with detailed diagnostics

🚀 Quick Start

Basic example:

use oak_msil::MsilParser;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let parser = MsilParser::new();
    let msil_code = r#"
.assembly extern mscorlib {}
.assembly Test {}

.method static void Main() cil managed
{
    .entrypoint
    .maxstack 8
    
    ldstr "Hello, World!"
    call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)
    ret
}
    "#;
    
    let assembly = parser.parse_assembly(msil_code)?;
    println!("Parsed MSIL assembly successfully.");
    Ok(())
}

📋 Parsing Examples

Assembly Parsing

use oak_msil::{MsilParser, ast::Assembly};

let parser = MsilParser::new();
let msil_code = r#"
.assembly Calculator
{
    .ver 1:0:0:0
}

.module Calculator.exe

.class public Calculator
{
    .method public static int32 Add(int32, int32) cil managed
    {
        .maxstack 2
        ldarg.0
        ldarg.1
        add
        ret
    }
}
"#;

let assembly = parser.parse_assembly(msil_code)?;
println!("Modules: {}", assembly.modules.len());
println!("Classes: {}", assembly.classes.len());

Method Parsing

use oak_msil::{MsilParser, ast::Method};

let parser = MsilParser::new();
let method_code = r#"
.method public static int32 Factorial(int32) cil managed
{
    .maxstack 2
    .locals init (int32 V_0, int32 V_1)
    
    ldarg.0
    ldc.i4.1
    ble.s L1
    
    ldarg.0
    ldarg.0
    ldc.i4.1
    sub
    call int32 Calculator::Factorial(int32)
    mul
    ret
    
L1:
    ldc.i4.1
    ret
}
"#;

let method = parser.parse_method(method_code)?;
println!("Instructions: {}", method.instructions.len());

🔧 Advanced Features

Token-Level Parsing

use oak_msil::{MsilParser, lexer::Token};

let parser = MsilParser::new();
let tokens = parser.tokenize("ldstr \"Hello\"\ncall void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)")?;
for token in tokens {
    println!("{:?}", token.kind);
}

Error Handling

use oak_msil::MsilParser;

let parser = MsilParser::new();
let invalid_msil = r#"
.method public static void Broken() cil managed
{
    .maxstack 1
    ldstr "Hello"  -- Missing quotes
    call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)
    ret
}
"#;

match parser.parse_method(invalid_msil) {
    Ok(method) => println!("Parsed MSIL method successfully."),
    Err(e) => {
        println!("Parse error at line {} column {}: {}", 
            e.line(), e.column(), e.message());
        if let Some(context) = e.context() {
            println!("Error context: {}", context);
        }
    }
}

🏗️ AST Structure

The parser generates a comprehensive AST with the following main structures:

Assembly: Root container for MSIL assemblies
Module: Module definitions within assemblies
Class: Class definitions with methods and fields
Method: Method definitions with IL instructions
Instruction: Individual IL instructions
ExceptionHandler: Exception handling clauses
LocalVariable: Local variable declarations

📊 Performance

Streaming: Parse large MSIL files without loading entirely into memory
Incremental: Re-parse only changed sections
Memory Efficient: Smart AST node allocation
Fast Recovery: Quick error recovery for better IDE integration

🔗 Integration

Oak of msil integrates seamlessly with:

.NET Analysis: Build .NET assembly analysis tools
Reverse Engineering: Support reverse engineering workflows
IDE Support: Language server protocol compatibility for MSIL
Compiler Development: Build .NET language compilers
Security Tools: Analyze .NET assemblies for security vulnerabilities

📚 Examples

Check out the examples directory for comprehensive examples:

Complete MSIL assembly parsing
Instruction analysis and optimization
Exception handling analysis
Integration with development workflows

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

Please feel free to submit pull requests at the project repository or open issues.

oak-msil 0.0.1