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Revision: 1.22
Committed: Fri Nov 22 15:28:38 2013 UTC (10 years, 5 months ago) by root
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1 root 1.1 =head1 NAME
2    
3     CBOR::XS - Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR, RFC7049)
4    
5     =encoding utf-8
6    
7     =head1 SYNOPSIS
8    
9     use CBOR::XS;
10    
11     $binary_cbor_data = encode_cbor $perl_value;
12     $perl_value = decode_cbor $binary_cbor_data;
13    
14     # OO-interface
15    
16     $coder = CBOR::XS->new;
17 root 1.6 $binary_cbor_data = $coder->encode ($perl_value);
18     $perl_value = $coder->decode ($binary_cbor_data);
19    
20     # prefix decoding
21    
22     my $many_cbor_strings = ...;
23     while (length $many_cbor_strings) {
24     my ($data, $length) = $cbor->decode_prefix ($many_cbor_strings);
25     # data was decoded
26     substr $many_cbor_strings, 0, $length, ""; # remove decoded cbor string
27     }
28 root 1.1
29     =head1 DESCRIPTION
30    
31 root 1.21 WARNING! This module is very new, and not very well tested (that's up
32     to you to do). Furthermore, details of the implementation might change
33     freely before version 1.0. And lastly, most extensions depend on an IANA
34     assignment, and until that assignment is official, this implementation is
35     not interoperable with other implementations (even future versions of this
36     module) until the assignment is done.
37 root 1.9
38     You are still invited to try out CBOR, and this module.
39 root 1.5
40     This module converts Perl data structures to the Concise Binary Object
41     Representation (CBOR) and vice versa. CBOR is a fast binary serialisation
42     format that aims to use a superset of the JSON data model, i.e. when you
43     can represent something in JSON, you should be able to represent it in
44     CBOR.
45 root 1.1
46 root 1.9 In short, CBOR is a faster and very compact binary alternative to JSON,
47 root 1.10 with the added ability of supporting serialisation of Perl objects. (JSON
48     often compresses better than CBOR though, so if you plan to compress the
49     data later you might want to compare both formats first).
50 root 1.5
51 root 1.15 To give you a general idea about speed, with texts in the megabyte range,
52     C<CBOR::XS> usually encodes roughly twice as fast as L<Storable> or
53     L<JSON::XS> and decodes about 15%-30% faster than those. The shorter the
54     data, the worse L<Storable> performs in comparison.
55    
56     As for compactness, C<CBOR::XS> encoded data structures are usually about
57     20% smaller than the same data encoded as (compact) JSON or L<Storable>.
58 root 1.14
59 root 1.21 In addition to the core CBOR data format, this module implements a number
60     of extensions, to support cyclic and self-referencing data structures
61     (see C<allow_sharing>), string deduplication (see C<allow_stringref>) and
62     scalar references (always enabled).
63    
64 root 1.5 The primary goal of this module is to be I<correct> and the secondary goal
65     is to be I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.
66 root 1.1
67     See MAPPING, below, on how CBOR::XS maps perl values to CBOR values and
68     vice versa.
69    
70     =cut
71    
72     package CBOR::XS;
73    
74     use common::sense;
75    
76 root 1.17 our $VERSION = 0.08;
77 root 1.1 our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
78    
79     our @EXPORT = qw(encode_cbor decode_cbor);
80    
81     use Exporter;
82     use XSLoader;
83    
84 root 1.6 use Types::Serialiser;
85    
86 root 1.3 our $MAGIC = "\xd9\xd9\xf7";
87    
88 root 1.1 =head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
89    
90     The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
91     exported by default:
92    
93     =over 4
94    
95     =item $cbor_data = encode_cbor $perl_scalar
96    
97     Converts the given Perl data structure to CBOR representation. Croaks on
98     error.
99    
100     =item $perl_scalar = decode_cbor $cbor_data
101    
102     The opposite of C<encode_cbor>: expects a valid CBOR string to parse,
103     returning the resulting perl scalar. Croaks on error.
104    
105     =back
106    
107    
108     =head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
109    
110     The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
111     decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.
112    
113     =over 4
114    
115     =item $cbor = new CBOR::XS
116    
117     Creates a new CBOR::XS object that can be used to de/encode CBOR
118     strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>.
119    
120     The mutators for flags all return the CBOR object again and thus calls can
121     be chained:
122    
123     #TODO
124     my $cbor = CBOR::XS->new->encode ({a => [1,2]});
125    
126     =item $cbor = $cbor->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
127    
128     =item $max_depth = $cbor->get_max_depth
129    
130     Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
131     or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in CBOR data or a Perl
132     data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
133     point.
134    
135     Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
136     needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
137     characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
138     given character in a string.
139    
140     Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
141     that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
142    
143     If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
144     is rarely useful.
145    
146     Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
147     been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
148     crashing.
149    
150     See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
151    
152     =item $cbor = $cbor->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
153    
154     =item $max_size = $cbor->get_max_size
155    
156     Set the maximum length a CBOR string may have (in bytes) where decoding
157     is being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
158     is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
159     attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
160     effect on C<encode> (yet).
161    
162     If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
163     C<0> is specified).
164    
165     See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
166    
167 root 1.19 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_unknown ([$enable])
168    
169     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_unknown
170    
171     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
172     exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in CBOR (for
173     example, filehandles) but instead will encode a CBOR C<error> value.
174    
175     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
176     exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as CBOR.
177    
178     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
179     leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
180    
181 root 1.20 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_sharing ([$enable])
182 root 1.19
183 root 1.20 =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_sharing
184 root 1.19
185     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will not double-encode
186 root 1.20 values that have been referenced before (e.g. when the same object, such
187     as an array, is referenced multiple times), but instead will emit a
188     reference to the earlier value.
189 root 1.19
190     This means that such values will only be encoded once, and will not result
191     in a deep cloning of the value on decode, in decoders supporting the value
192     sharing extension.
193    
194 root 1.21 It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
195     communication partner supports the value sharing extensions to CBOR
196     (http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing).
197    
198 root 1.19 Detecting shared values incurs a runtime overhead when values are encoded
199     that have a reference counter large than one, and might unnecessarily
200     increase the encoded size, as potentially shared values are encode as
201     sharable whether or not they are actually shared.
202    
203 root 1.20 At the moment, only targets of references can be shared (e.g. scalars,
204     arrays or hashes pointed to by a reference). Weirder constructs, such as
205     an array with multiple "copies" of the I<same> string, which are hard but
206     not impossible to create in Perl, are not supported (this is the same as
207     for L<Storable>).
208 root 1.19
209     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode
210     exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as CBOR.
211    
212     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - shared values and
213 root 1.21 references will always be decoded properly if present.
214    
215     =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_stringref ([$enable])
216    
217     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_stringref
218    
219     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will try not to encode
220     the same string twice, but will instead encode a reference to the string
221     instead. Depending on your data format. this can save a lot of space, but
222     also results in a very large runtime overhead (expect encoding times to be
223     2-4 times as high as without).
224    
225     It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
226     communications partner supports the stringref extension to CBOR
227     (http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref).
228    
229     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode
230     exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as CBOR.
231    
232     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - string references will
233     always be decoded properly if present.
234 root 1.19
235 root 1.1 =item $cbor_data = $cbor->encode ($perl_scalar)
236    
237     Converts the given Perl data structure (a scalar value) to its CBOR
238     representation.
239    
240     =item $perl_scalar = $cbor->decode ($cbor_data)
241    
242     The opposite of C<encode>: expects CBOR data and tries to parse it,
243     returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
244    
245     =item ($perl_scalar, $octets) = $cbor->decode_prefix ($cbor_data)
246    
247     This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
248     when there is trailing garbage after the CBOR string, it will silently
249     stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed so far.
250    
251     This is useful if your CBOR texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
252     and you need to know where the first CBOR string ends amd the next one
253     starts.
254    
255     CBOR::XS->new->decode_prefix ("......")
256     => ("...", 3)
257    
258     =back
259    
260    
261     =head1 MAPPING
262    
263     This section describes how CBOR::XS maps Perl values to CBOR values and
264     vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
265     circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
266     (what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
267    
268     For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
269     lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
270     refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
271    
272    
273     =head2 CBOR -> PERL
274    
275     =over 4
276    
277 root 1.4 =item integers
278    
279     CBOR integers become (numeric) perl scalars. On perls without 64 bit
280     support, 64 bit integers will be truncated or otherwise corrupted.
281    
282     =item byte strings
283    
284     Byte strings will become octet strings in Perl (the byte values 0..255
285     will simply become characters of the same value in Perl).
286    
287     =item UTF-8 strings
288    
289     UTF-8 strings in CBOR will be decoded, i.e. the UTF-8 octets will be
290     decoded into proper Unicode code points. At the moment, the validity of
291     the UTF-8 octets will not be validated - corrupt input will result in
292     corrupted Perl strings.
293    
294     =item arrays, maps
295    
296     CBOR arrays and CBOR maps will be converted into references to a Perl
297     array or hash, respectively. The keys of the map will be stringified
298     during this process.
299    
300 root 1.6 =item null
301    
302     CBOR null becomes C<undef> in Perl.
303    
304     =item true, false, undefined
305 root 1.1
306 root 1.6 These CBOR values become C<Types:Serialiser::true>,
307     C<Types:Serialiser::false> and C<Types::Serialiser::error>,
308 root 1.1 respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
309 root 1.6 C<1> and C<0> (for true and false) or to throw an exception on access (for
310     error). See the L<Types::Serialiser> manpage for details.
311    
312     =item CBOR tag 256 (perl object)
313    
314 root 1.7 The tag value C<256> (TODO: pending iana registration) will be used
315 root 1.11 to deserialise a Perl object serialised with C<FREEZE>. See L<OBJECT
316     SERIALISATION>, below, for details.
317 root 1.1
318 root 1.6 =item CBOR tag 55799 (magic header)
319 root 1.4
320 root 1.6 The tag 55799 is ignored (this tag implements the magic header).
321 root 1.1
322 root 1.6 =item other CBOR tags
323 root 1.4
324 root 1.6 Tagged items consists of a numeric tag and another CBOR value. Tags not
325     handled internally are currently converted into a L<CBOR::XS::Tagged>
326     object, which is simply a blessed array reference consisting of the
327     numeric tag value followed by the (decoded) CBOR value.
328 root 1.4
329 root 1.6 In the future, support for user-supplied conversions might get added.
330 root 1.4
331     =item anything else
332    
333     Anything else (e.g. unsupported simple values) will raise a decoding
334     error.
335 root 1.1
336     =back
337    
338    
339     =head2 PERL -> CBOR
340    
341     The mapping from Perl to CBOR is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
342     truly typeless language, so we can only guess which CBOR type is meant by
343     a Perl value.
344    
345     =over 4
346    
347     =item hash references
348    
349 root 1.4 Perl hash references become CBOR maps. As there is no inherent ordering in
350     hash keys (or CBOR maps), they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random
351     order.
352    
353     Currently, tied hashes will use the indefinite-length format, while normal
354     hashes will use the fixed-length format.
355 root 1.1
356     =item array references
357    
358 root 1.4 Perl array references become fixed-length CBOR arrays.
359 root 1.1
360     =item other references
361    
362     Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
363     exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
364 root 1.4 C<1>, which get turned into false and true in CBOR.
365    
366     =item CBOR::XS::Tagged objects
367    
368     Objects of this type must be arrays consisting of a single C<[tag, value]>
369 root 1.13 pair. The (numerical) tag will be encoded as a CBOR tag, the value will
370     be encoded as appropriate for the value. You cna use C<CBOR::XS::tag> to
371     create such objects.
372 root 1.1
373 root 1.6 =item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false, Types::Serialiser::error
374 root 1.1
375 root 1.6 These special values become CBOR true, CBOR false and CBOR undefined
376     values, respectively. You can also use C<\1>, C<\0> and C<\undef> directly
377     if you want.
378 root 1.1
379 root 1.7 =item other blessed objects
380 root 1.1
381 root 1.7 Other blessed objects are serialised via C<TO_CBOR> or C<FREEZE>. See
382 root 1.11 L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>, below, for details.
383 root 1.1
384     =item simple scalars
385    
386     TODO
387     Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
388     difficult objects to encode: CBOR::XS will encode undefined scalars as
389 root 1.4 CBOR null values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
390 root 1.1 before encoding as CBOR strings, and anything else as number value:
391    
392     # dump as number
393     encode_cbor [2] # yields [2]
394     encode_cbor [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
395     my $value = 5; encode_cbor [$value] # yields [5]
396    
397     # used as string, so dump as string
398     print $value;
399     encode_cbor [$value] # yields ["5"]
400    
401     # undef becomes null
402     encode_cbor [undef] # yields [null]
403    
404     You can force the type to be a CBOR string by stringifying it:
405    
406     my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
407     "$x"; # stringified
408     $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
409     print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
410    
411     You can force the type to be a CBOR number by numifying it:
412    
413     my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
414     $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
415     $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
416    
417     You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
418     if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
419     :).
420    
421 root 1.4 Perl values that seem to be integers generally use the shortest possible
422     representation. Floating-point values will use either the IEEE single
423     format if possible without loss of precision, otherwise the IEEE double
424     format will be used. Perls that use formats other than IEEE double to
425     represent numerical values are supported, but might suffer loss of
426     precision.
427 root 1.1
428     =back
429    
430 root 1.7 =head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
431    
432     This module knows two way to serialise a Perl object: The CBOR-specific
433     way, and the generic way.
434    
435     Whenever the encoder encounters a Perl object that it cnanot serialise
436     directly (most of them), it will first look up the C<TO_CBOR> method on
437     it.
438    
439     If it has a C<TO_CBOR> method, it will call it with the object as only
440     argument, and expects exactly one return value, which it will then
441     substitute and encode it in the place of the object.
442    
443     Otherwise, it will look up the C<FREEZE> method. If it exists, it will
444     call it with the object as first argument, and the constant string C<CBOR>
445     as the second argument, to distinguish it from other serialisers.
446    
447     The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
448     more). These will be encoded as CBOR perl object, together with the
449     classname.
450    
451     If an object supports neither C<TO_CBOR> nor C<FREEZE>, encoding will fail
452     with an error.
453    
454     Objects encoded via C<TO_CBOR> cannot be automatically decoded, but
455     objects encoded via C<FREEZE> can be decoded using the following protocol:
456    
457     When an encoded CBOR perl object is encountered by the decoder, it will
458     look up the C<THAW> method, by using the stored classname, and will fail
459     if the method cannot be found.
460    
461     After the lookup it will call the C<THAW> method with the stored classname
462     as first argument, the constant string C<CBOR> as second argument, and all
463     values returned by C<FREEZE> as remaining arguments.
464    
465     =head4 EXAMPLES
466    
467     Here is an example C<TO_CBOR> method:
468    
469     sub My::Object::TO_CBOR {
470     my ($obj) = @_;
471    
472     ["this is a serialised My::Object object", $obj->{id}]
473     }
474    
475     When a C<My::Object> is encoded to CBOR, it will instead encode a simple
476     array with two members: a string, and the "object id". Decoding this CBOR
477     string will yield a normal perl array reference in place of the object.
478    
479     A more useful and practical example would be a serialisation method for
480     the URI module. CBOR has a custom tag value for URIs, namely 32:
481    
482     sub URI::TO_CBOR {
483     my ($self) = @_;
484     my $uri = "$self"; # stringify uri
485     utf8::upgrade $uri; # make sure it will be encoded as UTF-8 string
486     CBOR::XS::tagged 32, "$_[0]"
487     }
488    
489     This will encode URIs as a UTF-8 string with tag 32, which indicates an
490     URI.
491    
492     Decoding such an URI will not (currently) give you an URI object, but
493     instead a CBOR::XS::Tagged object with tag number 32 and the string -
494     exactly what was returned by C<TO_CBOR>.
495    
496     To serialise an object so it can automatically be deserialised, you need
497     to use C<FREEZE> and C<THAW>. To take the URI module as example, this
498     would be a possible implementation:
499    
500     sub URI::FREEZE {
501     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
502     "$self" # encode url string
503     }
504    
505     sub URI::THAW {
506     my ($class, $serialiser, $uri) = @_;
507    
508     $class->new ($uri)
509     }
510    
511     Unlike C<TO_CBOR>, multiple values can be returned by C<FREEZE>. For
512     example, a C<FREEZE> method that returns "type", "id" and "variant" values
513     would cause an invocation of C<THAW> with 5 arguments:
514    
515     sub My::Object::FREEZE {
516     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
517    
518     ($self->{type}, $self->{id}, $self->{variant})
519     }
520    
521     sub My::Object::THAW {
522     my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id, $variant) = @_;
523    
524     $class-<new (type => $type, id => $id, variant => $variant)
525     }
526    
527 root 1.1
528 root 1.7 =head1 MAGIC HEADER
529 root 1.3
530     There is no way to distinguish CBOR from other formats
531     programmatically. To make it easier to distinguish CBOR from other
532     formats, the CBOR specification has a special "magic string" that can be
533 root 1.18 prepended to any CBOR string without changing its meaning.
534 root 1.3
535     This string is available as C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>. This module does not
536 root 1.18 prepend this string to the CBOR data it generates, but it will ignore it
537 root 1.3 if present, so users can prepend this string as a "file type" indicator as
538     required.
539    
540    
541 root 1.12 =head1 THE CBOR::XS::Tagged CLASS
542    
543     CBOR has the concept of tagged values - any CBOR value can be tagged with
544     a numeric 64 bit number, which are centrally administered.
545    
546     C<CBOR::XS> handles a few tags internally when en- or decoding. You can
547     also create tags yourself by encoding C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects, and the
548     decoder will create C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects itself when it hits an
549     unknown tag.
550    
551     These objects are simply blessed array references - the first member of
552     the array being the numerical tag, the second being the value.
553    
554     You can interact with C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects in the following ways:
555    
556     =over 4
557    
558     =item $tagged = CBOR::XS::tag $tag, $value
559    
560     This function(!) creates a new C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object using the given
561     C<$tag> (0..2**64-1) to tag the given C<$value> (which can be any Perl
562     value that can be encoded in CBOR, including serialisable Perl objects and
563     C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects).
564    
565     =item $tagged->[0]
566    
567     =item $tagged->[0] = $new_tag
568    
569     =item $tag = $tagged->tag
570    
571     =item $new_tag = $tagged->tag ($new_tag)
572    
573     Access/mutate the tag.
574    
575     =item $tagged->[1]
576    
577     =item $tagged->[1] = $new_value
578    
579     =item $value = $tagged->value
580    
581     =item $new_value = $tagged->value ($new_value)
582    
583     Access/mutate the tagged value.
584    
585     =back
586    
587     =cut
588    
589     sub tag($$) {
590     bless [@_], CBOR::XS::Tagged::;
591     }
592    
593     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::tag {
594     $_[0][0] = $_[1] if $#_;
595     $_[0][0]
596     }
597    
598     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::value {
599     $_[0][1] = $_[1] if $#_;
600     $_[0][1]
601     }
602    
603 root 1.13 =head2 EXAMPLES
604    
605     Here are some examples of C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> uses to tag objects.
606    
607     You can look up CBOR tag value and emanings in the IANA registry at
608     L<http://www.iana.org/assignments/cbor-tags/cbor-tags.xhtml>.
609    
610     Prepend a magic header (C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>):
611    
612     my $cbor = encode_cbor CBOR::XS::tag 55799, $value;
613     # same as:
614     my $cbor = $CBOR::XS::MAGIC . encode_cbor $value;
615    
616     Serialise some URIs and a regex in an array:
617    
618     my $cbor = encode_cbor [
619     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://www.nethype.de/"),
620     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://software.schmorp.de/"),
621     (CBOR::XS::tag 35, "^[Pp][Ee][Rr][lL]\$"),
622     ];
623    
624     Wrap CBOR data in CBOR:
625    
626     my $cbor_cbor = encode_cbor
627     CBOR::XS::tag 24,
628     encode_cbor [1, 2, 3];
629    
630 root 1.19 =head1 TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS
631    
632 root 1.22 This section describes how this module handles specific tagged values
633     and extensions. If a tag is not mentioned here and no additional filters
634     are provided for it, then the default handling applies (creating a
635     CBOR::XS::Tagged object on decoding, and only encoding the tag when
636     explicitly requested).
637 root 1.19
638     Future versions of this module reserve the right to special case
639 root 1.22 additional tags (such as base64url).
640    
641     =head2 ENFORCED TAGS
642    
643     These tags are always handled when decoding, and their handling cannot be
644     overriden by the user.
645 root 1.19
646     =over 4
647    
648     =item <unassigned> (perl-object, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/perl-object>)
649    
650     These tags are automatically created for serialisable objects using the
651     C<FREEZE/THAW> methods (the L<Types::Serialier> object serialisation
652     protocol).
653    
654     =item <unassigned>, <unassigned> (sharable, sharedref, L <http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>)
655    
656     These tags are automatically decoded when encountered, resulting in
657     shared values in the decoded object. They are only encoded, however, when
658     C<allow_sharable> is enabled.
659    
660 root 1.21 =item <unassigned>, <unassigned> (stringref-namespace, stringref, L <http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>)
661    
662     These tags are automatically decoded when encountered. They are only
663     encoded, however, when C<allow_stringref> is enabled.
664    
665 root 1.19 =item 22098 (indirection, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>)
666    
667     This tag is automatically generated when a reference are encountered (with
668     the exception of hash and array refernces). It is converted to a reference
669     when decoding.
670    
671     =item 55799 (self-describe CBOR, RFC 7049)
672    
673     This value is not generated on encoding (unless explicitly requested by
674     the user), and is simply ignored when decoding.
675    
676     =back
677    
678 root 1.22 =head2 OPTIONAL TAGS
679    
680     These tags have default filters provided when decoding. Their handling can
681     be overriden by changing the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> entry for the tag, or by
682     providing a custom C<filter> function when decoding.
683    
684     When they result in decoding into a specific Perl class, the module
685     usually provides a corresponding C<TO_CBOR> method as well.
686    
687     When any of these need to load additional modules that are not part of the
688     perl core distribution (e.g. L<URI>), it is (currently) up to the user to
689     provide these modules. The decoding usually fails with an exception if the
690     required module cannot be loaded.
691    
692     =over 4
693    
694     =item 2, 3 (positive/negative bignum)
695    
696     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigInt> objects. The corresponding
697     C<Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR> method encodes "small" bigints into normal CBOR
698     integers, and others into positive/negative CBOR bignums.
699    
700     =item 4, 5 (decimal fraction/bigfloat)
701    
702     Both decimal fractions and bigfloats are decoded into L<Math::BigFloat>
703     objects. The corresponding C<Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR> method I<always>
704     encodes into a decimal fraction.
705    
706     CBOR cannot represent bigfloats with I<very> large exponents - conversion
707     of such big float objects is undefined.
708    
709     Also, NaN and infinities are not encoded properly.
710    
711     =item 21, 22, 23 (expected later JSON conversion)
712    
713     CBOR::XS is not a CBOR-to-JSON converter, and will simply ignore these
714     tags.
715    
716     =item 32 (URI)
717    
718     These objects decode into L<URI> objects. The corresponding
719     C<URI::TO_CBOR> method again results in a CBOR URI value.
720    
721     =back
722    
723     =cut
724    
725     our %FILTER = (
726     # 0 # rfc4287 datetime, utf-8
727     # 1 # unix timestamp, any
728    
729     2 => sub { # pos bigint
730     require Math::BigInt;
731     Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
732     },
733    
734     3 => sub { # neg bigint
735     require Math::BigInt;
736     -Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
737     },
738    
739     4 => sub { # decimal fraction, array
740     require Math::BigFloat;
741     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
742     },
743    
744     5 => sub { # bigfloat, array
745     require Math::BigFloat;
746     scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1])->blsft ($_[1][0], 2)
747     },
748    
749     21 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64url encoding
750     22 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64 encoding
751     23 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base16 encoding
752    
753     # 24 # embedded cbor, byte string
754    
755     32 => sub {
756     require URI;
757     URI->new (pop)
758     },
759    
760     # 33 # base64url rfc4648, utf-8
761     # 34 # base64 rfc46484, utf-8
762     # 35 # regex pcre/ecma262, utf-8
763     # 36 # mime message rfc2045, utf-8
764     );
765    
766 root 1.19
767 root 1.7 =head1 CBOR and JSON
768 root 1.1
769 root 1.4 CBOR is supposed to implement a superset of the JSON data model, and is,
770     with some coercion, able to represent all JSON texts (something that other
771     "binary JSON" formats such as BSON generally do not support).
772    
773     CBOR implements some extra hints and support for JSON interoperability,
774     and the spec offers further guidance for conversion between CBOR and
775     JSON. None of this is currently implemented in CBOR, and the guidelines
776     in the spec do not result in correct round-tripping of data. If JSON
777     interoperability is improved in the future, then the goal will be to
778     ensure that decoded JSON data will round-trip encoding and decoding to
779     CBOR intact.
780 root 1.1
781    
782     =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
783    
784     When you are using CBOR in a protocol, talking to untrusted potentially
785     hostile creatures requires relatively few measures.
786    
787     First of all, your CBOR decoder should be secure, that is, should not have
788     any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am
789     trying hard on making that true, but you never know.
790    
791     Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should
792     limit the size of CBOR data you accept, or make sure then when your
793     resources run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that
794     can crash safely). The size of a CBOR string in octets is usually a good
795     indication of the size of the resources required to decode it into a Perl
796     structure. While CBOR::XS can check the size of the CBOR text, it might be
797     too late when you already have it in memory, so you might want to check
798     the size before you accept the string.
799    
800     Third, CBOR::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
801     arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
802     machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
803     only 14k nested CBOR objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
804     to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
805     conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
806     has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
807     C<max_depth> method.
808    
809     Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
810     case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
811    
812     Also keep in mind that CBOR::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
813     structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
814     information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by CBOR::XS
815     will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
816    
817     =head1 CBOR IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
818    
819     This section contains some random implementation notes. They do not
820     describe guaranteed behaviour, but merely behaviour as-is implemented
821     right now.
822    
823     64 bit integers are only properly decoded when Perl was built with 64 bit
824     support.
825    
826     Strings and arrays are encoded with a definite length. Hashes as well,
827     unless they are tied (or otherwise magical).
828    
829     Only the double data type is supported for NV data types - when Perl uses
830     long double to represent floating point values, they might not be encoded
831     properly. Half precision types are accepted, but not encoded.
832    
833     Strict mode and canonical mode are not implemented.
834    
835    
836     =head1 THREADS
837    
838     This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
839     plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
840     horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
841     process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
842    
843     (It might actually work, but you have been warned).
844    
845    
846     =head1 BUGS
847    
848     While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
849     not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
850     keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
851    
852     Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
853     service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
854    
855     =cut
856    
857 root 1.22 our %FILTER = (
858     # 0 # rfc4287 datetime, utf-8
859     # 1 # unix timestamp, any
860    
861     2 => sub { # pos bigint
862     require Math::BigInt;
863     Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
864     },
865    
866     3 => sub { # neg bigint
867     require Math::BigInt;
868     -Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
869     },
870    
871     4 => sub { # decimal fraction, array
872     require Math::BigFloat;
873     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
874     },
875    
876     5 => sub { # bigfloat, array
877     require Math::BigFloat;
878     scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1])->blsft ($_[1][0], 2)
879     },
880    
881     21 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64url encoding
882     22 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64 encoding
883     23 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base16 encoding
884    
885     # 24 # embedded cbor, byte string
886    
887     32 => sub {
888     require URI;
889     URI->new (pop)
890     },
891    
892     # 33 # base64url rfc4648, utf-8
893     # 34 # base64 rfc46484, utf-8
894     # 35 # regex pcre/ecma262, utf-8
895     # 36 # mime message rfc2045, utf-8
896     );
897    
898     sub CBOR::XS::default_filter {
899     &{ $FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
900     }
901    
902     sub URI::TO_CBOR {
903     my $uri = $_[0]->as_string;
904     utf8::upgrade $uri;
905     CBOR::XS::tag 32, $uri
906     }
907    
908     sub Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR {
909     if ($_[0] >= -2147483648 && $_[0] <= 2147483647) {
910     $_[0]->numify
911     } else {
912     my $hex = substr $_[0]->as_hex, 2;
913     $hex = "0$hex" if 1 & length $hex; # sigh
914     CBOR::XS::tag $_[0] >= 0 ? 2 : 3, pack "H*", $hex
915     }
916     }
917    
918     sub Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR {
919     my ($m, $e) = $_[0]->parts;
920     CBOR::XS::tag 4, [$e->numify, $m]
921     }
922    
923 root 1.1 XSLoader::load "CBOR::XS", $VERSION;
924    
925     =head1 SEE ALSO
926    
927     The L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS> modules that do similar, but human-readable,
928     serialisation.
929    
930 root 1.6 The L<Types::Serialiser> module provides the data model for true, false
931     and error values.
932    
933 root 1.1 =head1 AUTHOR
934    
935     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
936     http://home.schmorp.de/
937    
938     =cut
939    
940 root 1.6 1
941