# serde\_bytes [](https://travis-ci.org/serde-rs/bytes) [](https://crates.io/crates/serde_bytes)
Wrapper types to enable optimized handling of `&[u8]` and `Vec<u8>`.
Without specialization, Rust forces Serde to treat `&[u8]` just like any
other slice and `Vec<u8>` just like any other vector. In reality this
particular slice and vector can often be serialized and deserialized in a
more efficient, compact representation in many formats.
When working with such a format, you can opt into specialized handling of
`&[u8]` by wrapping it in `serde_bytes::Bytes` and `Vec<u8>` by wrapping it
in `serde_bytes::ByteBuf`.
This crate supports the Serde `with` attribute to enable efficient handling
of `&[u8]` and `Vec<u8>` in structs without needing a wrapper type.
```rust
#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;
extern crate serde;
extern crate serde_bytes;
#[derive(Serialize)]
struct Efficient<'a> {
#[serde(with = "serde_bytes")]
bytes: &'a [u8],
#[serde(with = "serde_bytes")]
byte_buf: Vec<u8>,
}
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Packet {
#[serde(with = "serde_bytes")]
payload: Vec<u8>,
}
```
Rust support for specialization is being tracked in [rust-lang/rust#31844].
Once it lands in the stable compiler Serde will be deprecating these wrapper
types in favor of optimizing `&[u8]` and `Vec<u8>` out of the box.
[rust-lang/rust#31844]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/31844
## License
Serde is licensed under either of
* Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) or
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
* MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or
http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
at your option.
### Contribution
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted
for inclusion in Serde by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be
dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.