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Show HN: Hexi – Modern header-only network binary serialisation for C++

(github.com)
118 points Chaosvex | 2 comments | 28 Mar 25 17:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.408s | source

Over the last few years, I've needed an easy way to quickly serialise and deserialise various network protocols safely and efficiently. Most of the libraries that existed at the time were either quite heavy, had less than stellar performance, or were an abstraction level above what I was looking for.

I decided to put together my own class to do the job, starting with an easy, low-overhead way to move bytes in and out of arbitrary buffers. Along the way, it picked up useful bits and pieces, such as buffer structures and allocators that made the byte shuffling faster, often being able to do it with zero allocations and zero copies. Safety features came along to make sure that malicious packet data or mistakes in the code wouldn't result in segfaults or vulnerabilities.

It's become useful enough to me that I've packaged it up in its own standalone library on the chance that it might be useful to others. It has zero dependencies other than the standard library and has been designed for quick integration into any project within minutes, or seconds with a copy paste of the amalgamated header. It can be used in production code but it's also ideal for for those that want to quickly hack away at binary data with minimal fuss.

1. huhtenberg ◴[28 Mar 25 22:28 UTC] No.43510509[source]▶
What are the exact constraints on the struct contents, i.e. what is it that your library can't serialize?

I tried adding std::string to the UserPacket (from the README)

  struct UserPacket {
  //    uint64_t user_id;
  //    uint64_t timestamp;
  //    std::array<uint8_t, 16> ipv6;
        std::string test;
  };
and the compilation fails - https://onlinegdb.com/B_RJd5Uws
replies(1): >>43511035 #
2. Chaosvex ◴[28 Mar 25 23:34 UTC] No.43511035[source]▶
With more complex structures, you need to specify how it should behave. The definition for 'more complex' here is basically no virtual functions, virtual base classes, is trivially copyable and constructible and a few others.

Basically, if it seems like memcpying the structure might be a reasonable thing to do, it'll work. This is why types like std::array will work but std::vector and std::string won't. It can handle those types when inserted individually but not in aggregate since there's no reflection.

The compiler barf does tell the user why it was rejected but... average C++ errors, even with concepts. Not the greatest.

main.cpp:136:52: note: the expression ‘is_trivial_v [with T = UserPacket]’ evaluated to ‘false’ 136 | concept pod = std::is_standard_layout_v<T> && std::is_trivial_v<T>;