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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/PORTABLE_STORAGE.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/PORTABLE_STORAGE.md | 112 |
1 files changed, 77 insertions, 35 deletions
diff --git a/docs/PORTABLE_STORAGE.md b/docs/PORTABLE_STORAGE.md index 0b3643749..675ca818c 100644 --- a/docs/PORTABLE_STORAGE.md +++ b/docs/PORTABLE_STORAGE.md @@ -15,15 +15,19 @@ documentation. Unfortunately, whilst the rest of the library is fairly straightforward to decipher, the Portable Storage is less-so. Hence this document. -## Preliminaries +## String and Integer Encoding -### String and integer encoding +### Integers -#### varint +With few exceptions, integers serialized in epee portable storage format are serialized +as little-endian. -Varints are used to pack integers in an portable and space optimized way. The -lowest 2 bits store the amount of bytes required, which means the largest value -integer that can be packed into 1 byte is 63 (6 bits). +### Varints + +Varints are used to pack integers in an portable and space optimized way. Varints are stored as little-endian integers, with the lowest 2 bits storing the amount of bytes required, which means the largest value integer that can be packed into 1 byte is 63 +(6 bits). + +#### Byte Sizes | Lowest 2 bits | Size value | Value range | |---------------|---------------|-----------------------------------| @@ -32,20 +36,47 @@ integer that can be packed into 1 byte is 63 (6 bits). | b10 | 4 bytes | 16384 to 1073741823 | | b11 | 8 bytes | 1073741824 to 4611686018427387903 | -#### string +#### Represenations of Example Values +| Value | Byte Representation (hex) | +|----------------------|---------------------------| +| 0 | 00 | +| 7 | 1c | +| 101 | 95 01 | +| 17,000 | A2 09 01 00 | +| 7,942,319,744 | 03 BA 98 65 07 00 00 00 | + +### Strings + +These are simply length (varint) prefixed char strings without a null +terminator (though one can always add one if desired). There is no +specific encoding enforced, and in fact, many times binary blobs are +stored as these strings. This type should not be confused with the keys +in sections, as those are restricted to a maximum length of 255 and +do not use varints to encode the length. -These are simply length (varint) prefixed char strings. + "Howdy" => 14 48 6F 77 64 79 -## Packet format +### Section Keys + +These are similar to strings except that they are length limited to 255 +bytes, and use a single byte at the front of the string to describe the +length (as opposed to a varint). + + "Howdy" => 05 48 6F 77 64 79 + +## Binary Format Specification ### Header -A packet starts with a header: +The format must always start with the following header: + +| Field | Type | Value | +|------------------|----------|------------| +| Signature Part A | UInt32 | 0x01011101 | +| Signature Part B | UInt32 | 0x01020101 | +| Version | UInt8 | 0x01 | -| Header | Type | Value | -|---------------|-----------|-----------------------| -| Signature | 8 bytes | 0x0111010101010201| | -| Version | byte | 0x01 | +In total, the 9 byte header will look like this (in hex): `01 11 01 01 01 01 02 01 01` ### Section @@ -63,18 +94,12 @@ Which is followed by the section's name-value [entries](#Entry) sequentially: | Entry | Type | |-------------------|-----------------------| -| Name | string<sup>1</sup> | +| Name | section key | | Type | byte | -| Count<sup>2</sup> | varint | +| Count<sup>1</sup> | varint | | Value(s) | (type dependant data) | - -<sup>1</sup> Note, the string used for the entry name is not prefixed with a -varint, it is prefixed with a single byte to specify the length of the name. -This means an entry name cannot be more that 255 chars, which seems a reasonable -restriction. - -<sup>2</sup> Note, this is only present if the entry type has the array flag +<sup>1</sup> Note, this is only present if the entry type has the array flag (see below). #### Entry types @@ -90,7 +115,7 @@ The types defined are: #define SERIALIZE_TYPE_UINT32 6 #define SERIALIZE_TYPE_UINT16 7 #define SERIALIZE_TYPE_UINT8 8 -#define SERIALIZE_TYPE_DUOBLE 9 +#define SERIALIZE_TYPE_DOUBLE 9 #define SERIALIZE_TYPE_STRING 10 #define SERIALIZE_TYPE_BOOL 11 #define SERIALIZE_TYPE_OBJECT 12 @@ -103,11 +128,14 @@ The entry type can be bitwise OR'ed with a flag: #define SERIALIZE_FLAG_ARRAY 0x80 ``` -This signals there are multiple *values* for the entry. When we are dealing with -an array, the next value is a varint specifying the array length followed by -the array item values. For example: +This signals there are multiple *values* for the entry. Since only one bit is +reserved for specifying an array, we can not directly represent nested arrays. +However, you can place each of the inner arrays inside of a section, and make +the outer array type `SERIALIZE_TYPE_OBJECT | SERIALIZE_FLAG_ARRAY`. Immediately following the type code byte is a varint specifying the length of the array. +Finally, the all the elements are serialized in sequence with no padding and +without any type information. For example: -<p style="padding-left:1em; font:italic larger serif">name, type, count, +<p style="padding-left:1em; font:italic larger serif">type, count, value<sub>1</sub>, value<sub>2</sub>,..., value<sub>n</sub></p> #### Entry values @@ -123,17 +151,31 @@ Note, I have not yet seen the type `SERIALIZE_TYPE_ARRAY` in use. My assumption is this would be used for *untyped* arrays and so subsequent entries could be of any type. -## Monero specifics - -### Entry values +### Overall example + +Let's put it all together and see what an entire object would look like serialized. To represent our data, let's create a JSON object (since it's a format +that most will be familiar with): + +```json +{ + "short_quote": "Give me liberty or give me death!", + "long_quote": "Monero is more than just a technology. It's also what the technology stands for.", + "signed_32bit_int": 20140418, + "array_of_bools": [true, false, true, true], + "nested_section": { + "double": -6.9, + "unsigned_64bit_int": 11111111111111111111 + } +} +``` -#### Strings +This would translate to: -These are prefixed with a varint to specify the string length. + -#### Integers +## Monero specifics -These are stored little endian byte order. +### Entry values #### Hashes, Keys, Blobs |