MessagePack is an efficient binary serialization format. It lets you exchange data among multiple languages like JSON but it's faster and smaller. For example, small integers (like flags or error code) are encoded into a single byte, and typical short strings only require an extra byte in addition to the strings themselves.
If you ever wished to use JSON for convenience (storing an image with metadata) but could not for technical reasons (binary data, size, speed...), MessagePack is a perfect replacement.
require 'msgpack' msg = [1,2,3].to_msgpack #=> "\x93\x01\x02\x03" MessagePack.unpack(msg) #=> [1,2,3]
Add msgpack to your Gemfile to install with Bundler:
Or, use RubyGems to install:
Or, build msgpack-ruby and install from a checked-out msgpack-ruby repository:
bundle
rake
gem install --local pkg/msgpack
MessagePack for Ruby should run on x86, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC and other CPU architectures.
And it works with MRI (CRuby) and Rubinius. Patches to improve portability are highly welcomed.
Use MessagePack.pack
or to_msgpack
:
require 'msgpack' msg = MessagePack.pack(obj) # or msg = obj.to_msgpack File.binwrite('mydata.msgpack', msg)
Packer provides advanced API to serialize objects in streaming style:
# serialize a 2-element array [e1, e2] pk = MessagePack::Packer.new(io) pk.write_array_header(2).write(e1).write(e2).flush
See API reference for details.
Use MessagePack.unpack
:
require 'msgpack' msg = File.binread('mydata.msgpack') obj = MessagePack.unpack(msg)Streaming deserialization
Unpacker provides advanced API to deserialize objects in streaming style:
# deserialize objects from an IO u = MessagePack::Unpacker.new(io) u.each do |obj| # ... end
or event-driven style which works well with EventMachine:
# event-driven deserialization def on_read(data) @u ||= MessagePack::Unpacker.new @u.feed_each(data) {|obj| # ... } end
See API reference for details.
Serializing and deserializing symbolsBy default, symbols are serialized as strings:
packed = :symbol.to_msgpack # => "\xA6symbol" MessagePack.unpack(packed) # => "symbol"
This can be customized by registering an extension type for them:
MessagePack::DefaultFactory.register_type(0x00, Symbol) # symbols now survive round trips packed = :symbol.to_msgpack # => "\xc7\x06\x00symbol" MessagePack.unpack(packed) # => :symbol
The extension type for symbols is configurable like any other extension type. For example, to customize how symbols are packed you can just redefine Symbol#to_msgpack_ext. Doing this gives you an option to prevent symbols from being serialized altogether by throwing an exception:
class Symbol def to_msgpack_ext raise "Serialization of symbols prohibited" end end MessagePack::DefaultFactory.register_type(0x00, Symbol) [1, :symbol, 'string'].to_msgpack # => RuntimeError: Serialization of symbols prohibitedSerializing and deserializing Time instances
There are the timestamp extension type in MessagePack, but it is not registered by default.
To map Ruby's Time to MessagePack's timestamp for the default factory:
MessagePack::DefaultFactory.register_type( MessagePack::Timestamp::TYPE, # or just -1 Time, packer: MessagePack::Time::Packer, unpacker: MessagePack::Time::Unpacker )
See API reference for details.
Packer and Unpacker support Extension types of MessagePack.
# register how to serialize custom class at first pk = MessagePack::Packer.new(io) pk.register_type(0x01, MyClass1, :to_msgpack_ext) # equal to pk.register_type(0x01, MyClass) pk.register_type(0x02, MyClass2){|obj| obj.how_to_serialize() } # blocks also available # almost same API for unpacker uk = MessagePack::Unpacker.new() uk.register_type(0x01, MyClass1, :from_msgpack_ext) uk.register_type(0x02){|data| MyClass2.create_from_serialized_data(data) }
MessagePack::Factory
is to create packer and unpacker which have same extension types.
factory = MessagePack::Factory.new factory.register_type(0x01, MyClass1) # same with next line factory.register_type(0x01, MyClass1, packer: :to_msgpack_ext, unpacker: :from_msgpack_ext) pk = factory.packer(options_for_packer) uk = factory.unpacker(options_for_unpacker)
For MessagePack.pack
and MessagePack.unpack
, default packer/unpacker refer MessagePack::DefaultFactory
. Call MessagePack::DefaultFactory.register_type
to enable types process globally.
MessagePack::DefaultFactory.register_type(0x03, MyClass3) MessagePack.unpack(data_with_ext_typeid_03) #=> MyClass3 instance
Alternatively, extension types can call the packer or unpacker recursively to generate the extension data:
Point = Struct.new(:x, :y) factory = MessagePack::Factory.new factory.register_type( 0x01, Point, packer: ->(point, packer) { packer.write(point.x) packer.write(point.y) }, unpacker: ->(unpacker) { x = unpacker.read y = unpacker.read Point.new(x, y) }, recursive: true, ) factory.load(factory.dump(Point.new(12, 34))) # => #<struct Point x=12, y=34>
Creating Packer
and Unpacker
objects is expensive. For best performance it is preferable to re-use these objects.
MessagePack::Factory#pool
makes that easier:
factory = MessagePack::Factory.new factory.register_type( 0x01, Point, packer: ->(point, packer) { packer.write(point.x) packer.write(point.y) }, unpacker: ->(unpacker) { x = unpacker.read y = unpacker.read Point.new(x, y) }, recursive: true, ) pool = factory.pool(5) # The pool size should match the number of threads expected to use the factory concurrently. pool.load(pool.dump(Point.new(12, 34))) # => #<struct Point x=12, y=34>
MessagePack for Ruby provides a buffer API so that you can read or write data by hand, not via Packer or Unpacker API.
This MessagePack::Buffer is backed with a fixed-length shared memory pool which is very fast for small data (<= 4KB), and has zero-copy capability which significantly affects performance to handle large binary data.
How to build and run testsBefore building msgpack, you need to install bundler and dependencies.
gem install bundler
bundle install
Then, you can run the tasks as follows:
How to build -java rubygemsTo build -java gems for JRuby, run:
If this directory has Gemfile.lock (generated with MRI), remove it beforehand.
Online documentation (https://ruby.msgpack.org) is generated from the gh-pages branch. To update documents in gh-pages branch:
bundle exec rake doc
git checkout gh-pages
cp -a doc/* ./
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