Project

bindata

2.22
No release in over a year
BinData is a declarative way to read and write binary file formats. This means the programmer specifies *what* the format of the binary data is, and BinData works out *how* to read and write data in this format. It is an easier ( and more readable ) alternative to ruby's #pack and #unpack methods.
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
 Dependencies

Development

> 5.0.0
>= 0
 Project Readme

What is BinData?

Github CI Version Downloads Coverage

Do you ever find yourself writing code like this?

io = File.open(...)
len = io.read(2).unpack("v")
name = io.read(len)
width, height = io.read(8).unpack("VV")
puts "Rectangle #{name} is #{width} x #{height}"

It’s ugly, violates DRY and doesn't feel like Ruby.

There is a better way. Here’s how you’d write the above using BinData.

class Rectangle < BinData::Record
  endian :little
  uint16 :len
  string :name, :read_length => :len
  uint32 :width
  uint32 :height
end

io = File.open(...)
r  = Rectangle.read(io)
puts "Rectangle #{r.name} is #{r.width} x #{r.height}"

BinData provides a declarative way to read and write structured binary data.

This means the programmer specifies what the format of the binary data is, and BinData works out how to read and write data in this format. It is an easier (and more readable) alternative to ruby's #pack and #unpack methods.

BinData makes it easy to create new data types. It supports all the common primitive datatypes that are found in structured binary data formats. Support for dependent and variable length fields is built in.

Installation

$ gem install bindata

Documentation

BinData manual.

Contact

If you have any queries / bug reports / suggestions, please contact me (Dion Mendel) via email at bindata@dm9.info