![2
www.luxoft.co
m
● [Alice] I created new binary format! here
is C code to parse and construct it!
● [Bob] Do you have Python binding?
● [Charly] What about Java?
● [Dave] Oh I would like to use it in my PHP
web application.
● [Eve] I can’t use it for iOS development,
there are no Objective-C and Swift
utilities
● But, but, but … C - bindings …. Okay!!
Problem:](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/usingkataistructtodescribetheprocessofworkingwithbinarydataformats-210423133113/85/Oleksandr-Kutsan-Using-katai-struct-to-describe-the-process-of-working-with-binary-data-formats-2-320.jpg)
Oleksandr Kutsan "Using katai struct to describe the process of working with binary data formats"
- 1. Kaitai Struct for binary data format parsing 2021
- 2. 2 www.luxoft.co m ● [Alice] I created new binary format! here is C code to parse and construct it! ● [Bob] Do you have Python binding? ● [Charly] What about Java? ● [Dave] Oh I would like to use it in my PHP web application. ● [Eve] I can’t use it for iOS development, there are no Objective-C and Swift utilities ● But, but, but … C - bindings …. Okay!! Problem:
- 3. 3 www.luxoft.co m Declarative and imperative Here is my protocol description; it's so easy to understand. Why can’t you create a binding for your own language? Okay, here is declarative description:
- 4. 4 www.luxoft.co m Protocol description is not standardized
- 5. 5 www.luxoft.co m Need to support several bindings for each file format. Data Struct C C++ Python Java Go Rust ... Binary Data PNG ICMP MP3 TCP CAN ZIP ... N x N bindings
- 6. 6 www.luxoft.co m One file to rule them all
- 7. 7 www.luxoft.co m Was it resolved before? XML or json?
- 8. 8 www.luxoft.co m One file to rule them all
- 9. 9 www.luxoft.co m Katai Struct benefits ➔ Documented and supported https://doc.kaitai.io/ ➔ Bindings for a bunch of languages: C++/STL, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Lua, Nim, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby ➔ Awesome tools for debug and visualize https://github.com/kaitai- io/awesome-kaitai ➔ Cross-platform ➔ Open-source https://github.com/kaitai-io ➔ Modern and sexy ➔ Already tested parsing and constructing code. ➔ Most common formats are already described (from fonts to filesystems) https://formats.kaitai.io/
- 10. 10 www.luxoft.co m KSY file format ● meta: Contains metadata about the target binary format we are parsing such as identifiers or the default endianness ● seq: Describes an ordered sequence of elements (attributes) such as the element identifier, type, and size (or literal contents, e.g., magic numbers). ● enum: Maps integer constants to symbolic names for clarity, which can then be referenced using the enum key. ● type: Declares user-defined named types, each of which can contain any of the elements above, including other type elements.
- 12. 12 www.luxoft.co m Protobuf file parsing example: Protobuf file
- 13. 13 www.luxoft.co m Protobuf file parsing example: Protobuf file
- 18. 18 www.luxoft.co m IDL seq section: Variable length
- 21. Explore generated code (optional)
- 22. 22 www.luxoft.co m Summary Benefits: ▪ Open-source ▪ Great tooling ▪ A lot of bindings ▪ Many binary formats already implemented Drawbacks: ▪ Implemented in Scala, but doesn't always work out-of-the-box ▪ Current version is 0.8 (not stable enough) ▪ Generation for some languages requires some workarounds
- 23. Thank You!