Function croaring_sys::roaring_bitmap_portable_deserialize_safe

pub unsafe extern "C" fn roaring_bitmap_portable_deserialize_safe(
    buf: *const c_char,
    maxbytes: usize
) -> *mut roaring_bitmap_t

Read bitmap from a serialized buffer safely (reading up to maxbytes). In case of failure, NULL is returned.

This is meant to be compatible with the Java and Go versions: https://github.com/RoaringBitmap/RoaringFormatSpec

The function itself is safe in the sense that it will not cause buffer overflows. However, for correct operations, it is assumed that the bitmap read was once serialized from a valid bitmap (i.e., it follows the format specification). If you provided an incorrect input (garbage), then the bitmap read may not be in a valid state and following operations may not lead to sensible results. In particular, the serialized array containers need to be in sorted order, and the run containers should be in sorted non-overlapping order. This is is guaranteed to happen when serializing an existing bitmap, but not for random inputs.

You may use roaring_bitmap_internal_validate to check the validity of the bitmap prior to using it. You may also use other strategies to check for corrupted inputs (e.g., checksums).

This function is endian-sensitive. If you have a big-endian system (e.g., a mainframe IBM s390x), the data format is going to be big-endian and not compatible with little-endian systems.