LibCppBor: A Modern C++ CBOR Parser and Generator ============================================== LibCppBor provides a natural and easy-to-use syntax for constructing and parsing CBOR messages. It does not (yet) support all features of CBOR, nor (yet) support validation against CDDL schemata, though both are planned. CBOR features that aren't supported include: * Parsing Indefinite length view-only values for major types 2 (byte string) and 3 (text string) * Writing Indefinite length values * Semantic tagging * Half floating point LibCppBor requires C++-17. ## CBOR representation LibCppBor represents CBOR data items as instances of the `Item` class or, more precisely, as instances of subclasses of `Item`, since `Item` is a pure interface. The subclasses of `Item` correspond almost one-to-one with CBOR major types, and are named to match the CDDL names to which they correspond. They are: * `Uint` corresponds to major type 0, and can hold unsigned integers up through (2^64 - 1). * `Nint` corresponds to major type 1. It can only hold values from -1 to -(2^63 - 1), since it's internal representation is an int64_t. This can be fixed, but it seems unlikely that applications will need the omitted range from -(2^63) to (2^64 - 1), since it's inconvenient to represent them in many programming languages. * `Int` is an abstract base of `Uint` and `Nint` that facilitates working with all signed integers representable with int64_t. * `Bstr` corresponds to major type 2, a byte string. * `Tstr` corresponds to major type 3, a text string. * `Array` corresponds to major type 4, an Array. It holds a variable-length array of `Item`s. * `Map` corresponds to major type 5, a Map. It holds a variable-length array of pairs of `Item`s. * `Simple` corresponds to major type 7. It's an abstract class since items require more specific type. * `Bool` is implemented as a subclass of `Simple`. * `Null` is implemented as a subclass of `Simple`. * `Float` is implemented as a subclass of `Simple`. * `Double` is implemented as a subclass of `Simple`. Note that major type 6, semantic tag, is not yet implemented. In practice, users of LibCppBor will rarely use most of these classes when generating CBOR encodings. This is because LibCppBor provides straightforward conversions from the obvious normal C++ types. Specifically, the following conversions are provided in appropriate contexts: * Signed and unsigned integers convert to `Uint` or `Nint`, as appropriate. * `std::string`, `std::string_view`, `const char*` and `std::pair` convert to `Tstr`. * `std::vector`, `std::pair` and `std::pair` convert to `Bstr`. * `bool` converts to `Bool`. ## CBOR generation ### Complete tree generation The set of `encode` methods in `Item` provide the interface for producing encoded CBOR. The basic process for "complete tree" generation (as opposed to "incremental" generation, which is discussed below) is to construct an `Item` which models the data to be encoded, and then call one of the `encode` methods, whichever is convenient for the encoding destination. A trivial example: ``` cppbor::Uint val(0); std::vector encoding = val.encode(); ``` It's relatively rare that single values are encoded as above. More often, the "root" data item will be an `Array` or `Map` which contains a more complex structure.For example : ``` using cppbor::Map; using cppbor::Array; std::vector vec = // ... Map val("key1", Array(Map("key_a", 99 "key_b", vec), "foo"), "key2", true); std::vector encoding = val.encode(); ``` This creates a map with two entries, with `Tstr` keys "Outer1" and "Outer2", respectively. The "Outer1" entry has as its value an `Array` containing a `Map` and a `Tstr`. The "Outer2" entry has a `Bool` value. This example demonstrates how automatic conversion of C++ types to LibCppBor `Item` subclass instances is done. Where the caller provides a C++ or C string, a `Tstr` entry is added. Where the caller provides an integer literal or variable, a `Uint` or `Nint` is added, depending on whether the value is positive or negative. As an alternative, a more fluent-style API is provided for building up structures. For example: ``` using cppbor::Map; using cppbor::Array; std::vector vec = // ... Map val(); val.add("key1", Array().add(Map().add("key_a", 99).add("key_b", vec)).add("foo")).add("key2", true); std::vector encoding = val.encode(); ``` An advantage of this interface over the constructor - based creation approach above is that it need not be done all at once. The `add` methods return a reference to the object added to to allow calls to be chained, but chaining is not necessary; calls can be made sequentially, as the data to add is available. #### `encode` methods There are several variations of `Item::encode`, all of which accomplish the same task but output the encoded data in different ways, and with somewhat different performance characteristics. The provided options are: * `bool encode(uint8\_t** pos, const uint8\_t* end)` encodes into the buffer referenced by the range [`*pos`, end). `*pos` is moved. If the encoding runs out of buffer space before finishing, the method returns false. This is the most efficient way to encode, into an already-allocated buffer. * `void encode(EncodeCallback encodeCallback)` calls `encodeCallback` for each encoded byte. It's the responsibility of the implementor of the callback to behave safely in the event that the output buffer (if applicable) is exhausted. This is less efficient than the prior method because it imposes an additional function call for each byte. * `template void encode(OutputIterator i)` encodes into the provided iterator. SFINAE ensures that the template doesn't match for non-iterators. The implementation actually uses the callback-based method, plus has whatever overhead the iterator adds. * `std::vector encode()` creates a new std::vector, reserves sufficient capacity to hold the encoding, and inserts the encoded bytes with a std::pushback_iterator and the previous method. * `std::string toString()` does the same as the previous method, but returns a string instead of a vector. ### Incremental generation Incremental generation requires deeper understanding of CBOR, because the library can't do as much to ensure that the output is valid. The basic tool for intcremental generation is the `encodeHeader` function. There are two variations, one which writes into a buffer, and one which uses a callback. Both simply write out the bytes of a header. To construct the same map as in the above examples, incrementally, one might write: ``` using namespace cppbor; // For example brevity std::vector encoding; auto iter = std::back_inserter(result); encodeHeader(MAP, 2 /* # of map entries */, iter); std::string s = "key1"; encodeHeader(TSTR, s.size(), iter); std::copy(s.begin(), s.end(), iter); encodeHeader(ARRAY, 2 /* # of array entries */, iter); Map().add("key_a", 99).add("key_b", vec).encode(iter) s = "foo"; encodeHeader(TSTR, foo.size(), iter); std::copy(s.begin(), s.end(), iter); s = "key2"; encodeHeader(TSTR, foo.size(), iter); std::copy(s.begin(), s.end(), iter); encodeHeader(SIMPLE, TRUE, iter); ``` As the above example demonstrates, the styles can be mixed -- Note the creation and encoding of the inner Map using the fluent style. ## Parsing LibCppBor also supports parsing of encoded CBOR data, with the same feature set as encoding. There are two basic approaches to parsing, "full" and "stream" ### Full parsing Full parsing means completely parsing a (possibly-compound) data item from a byte buffer. The `parse` functions that do not take a `ParseClient` pointer do this. They return a `ParseResult` which is a tuple of three values: * std::unique_ptr that points to the parsed item, or is nullptr if there was a parse error. * const uint8_t* that points to the byte after the end of the decoded item, or to the first unparseable byte in the event of an error. * std::string that is empty on success or contains an error message if a parse error occurred. Assuming a successful parse, you can then use `Item::type()` to discover the type of the parsed item (e.g. MAP), and then use the appropriate `Item::as*()` method (e.g. `Item::asMap()`) to get a pointer to an interface which allows you to retrieve specific values. ### Stream parsing Stream parsing is more complex, but more flexible. To use StreamParsing, you must create your own subclass of `ParseClient` and call one of the `parse` functions that accepts it. See the `ParseClient` methods docstrings for details. One unusual feature of stream parsing is that the `ParseClient` callback methods not only provide the parsed Item, but also pointers to the portion of the buffer that encode that Item. This is useful if, for example, you want to find an element inside of a structure, and then copy the encoding of that sub-structure, without bothering to parse the rest. The full parser is implemented with the stream parser. ### Disclaimer This is not an officially supported Google product

c	File Name	Size	files	T	Date
zip	include/	55832	3	---	2026-10-26 17:18:39
zip	src/	46623	2	---	2026-10-26 17:18:39
zip	tests/	80460	1	---	2026-10-26 17:18:39
-	Android.bp	2724		bp	2026-10-26 17:18:39
-	LICENSE	11358		%	2026-10-26 17:18:39
-	METADATA	39		%	2026-10-26 17:18:39
-	README.md	9324		md	2026-10-26 17:18:39
-	rules.mk	1164		mk	2026-10-26 17:18:39

🌲 / android-build build yaap system libcppbor

control-panel