* License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
*
- * $Id: bitmatch.mli,v 1.19 2008-05-07 14:56:53 rjones Exp $
+ * $Id$
*)
(**
this module to both parse and generate binary formats, for
example, communications protocols, disk formats and binary files.
- {{:http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/bitmatch/}OCaml bitmatch website}
+ {{:http://code.google.com/p/bitmatch/}OCaml bitmatch website}
{2 Examples}
match then the standard library [Match_failure] exception is
thrown.
- Patterns look a bit different from normal match patterns. The
+ Patterns look a bit different from normal match patterns. They
consist of a list of bitfields separated by [;] where each bitfield
contains a bind variable, the width (in bits) of the field, and
other information. Some example patterns:
A bitstring field of length 0 matches an empty bitstring
(occasionally useful when matching optional subfields).
- Qualifiers are a list of identifiers which control the type,
+ Qualifiers are a list of identifiers/expressions which control the type,
signedness and endianness of the field. Permissible qualifiers are:
- - [int] (field has an integer type)
- - [string] (field is a string type)
- - [bitstring] (field is a bitstring type)
- - [signed] (field is signed)
- - [unsigned] (field is unsigned)
- - [bigendian] (field is big endian - a.k.a network byte order)
- - [littleendian] (field is little endian - a.k.a Intel byte order)
- - [nativeendian] (field is same endianness as the machine)
+ - [int]: field has an integer type
+ - [string]: field is a string type
+ - [bitstring]: field is a bitstring type
+ - [signed]: field is signed
+ - [unsigned]: field is unsigned
+ - [bigendian]: field is big endian - a.k.a network byte order
+ - [littleendian]: field is little endian - a.k.a Intel byte order
+ - [nativeendian]: field is same endianness as the machine
+ - [endian (expr)]: [expr] should be an expression which evaluates to
+ a {!endian} type, ie. [LittleEndian], [BigEndian] or [NativeEndian].
+ The expression is an arbitrary OCaml expression and can use the
+ value of earlier fields in the bitmatch.
The default settings are [int], [unsigned], [bigendian].
computed expression.
Detection of compile-time constants is quite simplistic so only an
- immediate, simple integer is recognised as a constant and anything
- else is considered a computed expression, even expressions such as
- [5-2] which are obviously (to our eyes) constant.
+ simple integer literals and simple expressions (eg. [5*8]) are
+ recognized as constants.
In any case the bit size of an integer is limited to the range
\[1..64\]. This is detected as a compile-time error if that is
still need to be a runtime check to enforce the
size).
+ {2 Named patterns and persistent patterns}
+
+ Please see {!Bitmatch_persistent} for documentation on this subject.
+
{2 Compiling}
Using the compiler directly you can do:
{3 Types}
*)
+type endian = BigEndian | LittleEndian | NativeEndian
+
+val string_of_endian : endian -> string
+(** Endianness. *)
+
type bitstring = string * int * int
(** [bitstring] is the basic type used to store bitstrings.
This function is inefficient. In the best case when the bitstring
is nicely byte-aligned we do a [String.sub] operation. If the
bitstring isn't aligned then this involves a lot of bit twiddling
- and is particularly inefficient. *)
+ and is particularly inefficient.
+
+ If the bitstring is not a multiple of 8 bits wide then the
+ final byte of the string contains the high bits set to the
+ remaining bits and the low bits set to 0. *)
+
+val bitstring_to_file : bitstring -> string -> unit
+(** [bitstring_to_file bits filename] writes the bitstring [bits]
+ to the file [filename]. It overwrites the output file.
+
+ Some restrictions apply, see {!bitstring_to_chan}. *)
+
+val bitstring_to_chan : bitstring -> out_channel -> unit
+(** [bitstring_to_file bits filename] writes the bitstring [bits]
+ to the channel [chan].
+
+ Channels are made up of bytes, bitstrings can be any bit length
+ including fractions of bytes. So this function only works
+ if the length of the bitstring is an exact multiple of 8 bits
+ (otherwise it raises [Invalid_argument "bitstring_to_chan"]).
+
+ Furthermore the function is efficient only in the case where
+ the bitstring is stored fully aligned, otherwise it has to
+ do inefficient bit twiddling like {!string_of_bitstring}.
+
+ In the common case where the bitstring was generated by the
+ [BITSTRING] operator and is an exact multiple of 8 bits wide,
+ then this function will always work efficiently.
+*)
(** {3 Printing bitstrings} *)
(** {3 Miscellaneous} *)
+val package : string
+(** The package name, always ["ocaml-bitmatch"] *)
+
+val version : string
+(** The package version as a string. *)
+
val debug : bool ref
(** Set this variable to true to enable extended debugging.
This only works if debugging was also enabled in the
val extract_int_le_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int * int * int
+val extract_int_ne_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int * int * int
+
+val extract_int_ee_unsigned : endian -> string -> int -> int -> int -> int * int * int
+
val extract_int32_be_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int32 * int * int
val extract_int32_le_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int32 * int * int
+val extract_int32_ne_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int32 * int * int
+
+val extract_int32_ee_unsigned : endian -> string -> int -> int -> int -> int32 * int * int
+
val extract_int64_be_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int64 * int * int
+val extract_int64_le_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int64 * int * int
+
+val extract_int64_ne_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int64 * int * int
+
+val extract_int64_ee_unsigned : endian -> string -> int -> int -> int -> int64 * int * int
+
val construct_bit : Buffer.t -> bool -> int -> exn -> unit
val construct_char_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int -> int -> exn -> unit
val construct_int_be_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int -> int -> exn -> unit
+val construct_int_ne_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int -> int -> exn -> unit
+
+val construct_int_ee_unsigned : endian -> Buffer.t -> int -> int -> exn -> unit
+
val construct_int32_be_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int32 -> int -> exn -> unit
+val construct_int32_ne_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int32 -> int -> exn -> unit
+
+val construct_int32_ee_unsigned : endian -> Buffer.t -> int32 -> int -> exn -> unit
+
val construct_int64_be_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int64 -> int -> exn -> unit
+val construct_int64_ne_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int64 -> int -> exn -> unit
+
+val construct_int64_ee_unsigned : endian -> Buffer.t -> int64 -> int -> exn -> unit
+
val construct_string : Buffer.t -> string -> unit