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A pure PHP implementation of the MessagePack serialization format.

Features

• Fully compliant with the latest MessagePack specification
• Supports streaming unpacking
• Supports unsigned 64-bit integers handling
• Supports object serialization
• Fully tested
• Relatively fast

Table of contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Packing
    • Packing options
  • Unpacking
    • Unpacking options
• Custom types
  • Type objects
  • Type transformers
  • Extensions
    • Timestamp
    • Application-specific extensions
• Exceptions
• Tests
  • Fuzzing
  • Performance
• License

Installation

The recommended way to install the library is through Composer:

composer require rybakit/msgpack

Usage

Packing

To pack values, you can either use an instance of a Packer:

$packer = new Packer();
$packed = $packer->pack($value);

or call a static method on the MessagePack class:

$packed = MessagePack::pack($value);

In the examples above, the method pack automatically packs a value depending on its type. However, not all PHP types can be uniquely translated to MessagePack types. For example, the MessagePack format defines map and array types, which are represented by a single array type in PHP. By default, the packer will pack a PHP array as a MessagePack array if it has sequential numeric keys starting from 0, and as a MessagePack map otherwise:

$mpArr1 = $packer->pack([1, 2]); // MP array [1, 2]
$mpArr2 = $packer->pack([0 => 1, 1 => 2]); // MP array [1, 2]
$mpMap1 = $packer->pack([0 => 1, 2 => 3]); // MP map {0: 1, 2: 3}
$mpMap2 = $packer->pack([1 => 2, 2 => 3]); // MP map {1: 2, 2: 3}
$mpMap3 = $packer->pack(['a' => 1, 'b' => 2]); // MP map {a: 1, b: 2}

However, sometimes you need to pack a sequential array as a MessagePack map. To do this, use the packMap method:

$mpMap = $packer->packMap([1, 2]); // {0: 1, 1: 2}

Here is a list of type-specific packing methods:

$packer->packNil(); // MP nil
$packer->packBool(true); // MP bool
$packer->packInt(42); // MP int
$packer->packFloat(M_PI); // MP float (32 or 64)
$packer->packFloat32(M_PI); // MP float 32
$packer->packFloat64(M_PI); // MP float 64
$packer->packStr('foo'); // MP str
$packer->packBin("\x80"); // MP bin
$packer->packArray([1, 2]); // MP array
$packer->packMap(['a' => 1]); // MP map
$packer->packExt(1, "\xaa"); // MP ext

Check the "Custom types" section below on how to pack custom types.

Packing options

The Packer object supports a number of bitmask-based options for fine-tuning the packing process (defaults are in bold):

Name	Description
FORCE_STR	Forces PHP strings to be packed as MessagePack UTF-8 strings
FORCE_BIN	Forces PHP strings to be packed as MessagePack binary data
DETECT_STR_BIN	Detects MessagePack str/bin type automatically
FORCE_ARR	Forces PHP arrays to be packed as MessagePack arrays
FORCE_MAP	Forces PHP arrays to be packed as MessagePack maps
DETECT_ARR_MAP	Detects MessagePack array/map type automatically
FORCE_FLOAT32	Forces PHP floats to be packed as 32-bits MessagePack floats
FORCE_FLOAT64	Forces PHP floats to be packed as 64-bits MessagePack floats

The type detection mode (DETECT_STR_BIN/DETECT_ARR_MAP) adds some overhead which can be noticed when you pack large (16- and 32-bit) arrays or strings. However, if you know the value type in advance (for example, you only work with UTF-8 strings or/and associative arrays), you can eliminate this overhead by forcing the packer to use the appropriate type, which will save it from running the auto-detection routine. Another option is to explicitly specify the value type. The library provides 2 auxiliary classes for this, Map and Bin. Check the "Custom types" section below for details.

Examples:

// detect str/bin type and pack PHP 64-bit floats (doubles) to MP 32-bit floats
$packer = new Packer(PackOptions::DETECT_STR_BIN | PackOptions::FORCE_FLOAT32);

// these will throw MessagePack\Exception\InvalidOptionException
$packer = new Packer(PackOptions::FORCE_STR | PackOptions::FORCE_BIN);
$packer = new Packer(PackOptions::FORCE_FLOAT32 | PackOptions::FORCE_FLOAT64);

Unpacking

To unpack data, you can either use an instance of a BufferUnpacker:

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker();

$unpacker->reset($packed);
$value = $unpacker->unpack();

or call a static method on the MessagePack class:

$value = MessagePack::unpack($packed);

If the packed data is received in chunks (e.g. when reading from a stream), use the tryUnpack method, which attempts to unpack the data and returns an array of unpacked messages (if any) instead of throwing an InsufficientDataException:

while ($chunk = ...) {
 $unpacker->append($chunk);
 if ($messages = $unpacker->tryUnpack()) {
 return $messages;
 }
}

If you want to unpack from a specific position in a buffer, use seek:

$unpacker->seek(42); // set position equal to 42 bytes
$unpacker->seek(-8); // set position to 8 bytes before the end of the buffer

To skip bytes from the current position, use skip:

$unpacker->skip(10); // set position to 10 bytes ahead of the current position

To get the number of remaining (unread) bytes in the buffer:

$unreadBytesCount = $unpacker->getRemainingCount();

To check whether the buffer has unread data:

$hasUnreadBytes = $unpacker->hasRemaining();

If needed, you can remove already read data from the buffer by calling:

$releasedBytesCount = $unpacker->release();

With the read method you can read raw (packed) data:

$packedData = $unpacker->read(2); // read 2 bytes

Besides the above methods BufferUnpacker provides type-specific unpacking methods, namely:

$unpacker->unpackNil(); // PHP null
$unpacker->unpackBool(); // PHP bool
$unpacker->unpackInt(); // PHP int
$unpacker->unpackFloat(); // PHP float
$unpacker->unpackStr(); // PHP UTF-8 string
$unpacker->unpackBin(); // PHP binary string
$unpacker->unpackArray(); // PHP sequential array
$unpacker->unpackMap(); // PHP associative array
$unpacker->unpackExt(); // PHP MessagePack\Type\Ext object

Unpacking options

The BufferUnpacker object supports a number of bitmask-based options for fine-tuning the unpacking process (defaults are in bold):

Name	Description
BIGINT_AS_STR	Converts overflowed integers to strings [1]
BIGINT_AS_GMP	Converts overflowed integers to GMP objects [2]
BIGINT_AS_DEC	Converts overflowed integers to Decimal\Decimal objects [3]

1. The binary MessagePack format has unsigned 64-bit as its largest integer data type, but PHP does not support such integers, which means that an overflow can occur during unpacking.

2. Make sure the GMP extension is enabled.

3. Make sure the Decimal extension is enabled.

Examples:

$packedUint64 = "\xcf"."\xff\xff\xff\xff"."\xff\xff\xff\xff";

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker($packedUint64);
var_dump($unpacker->unpack()); // string(20) "18446744073709551615"

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker($packedUint64, UnpackOptions::BIGINT_AS_GMP);
var_dump($unpacker->unpack()); // object(GMP) {...}

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker($packedUint64, UnpackOptions::BIGINT_AS_DEC);
var_dump($unpacker->unpack()); // object(Decimal\Decimal) {...}

Custom types

In addition to the basic types, the library provides functionality to serialize and deserialize arbitrary types. This can be done in several ways, depending on your use case. Let's take a look at them.

Type objects

If you need to serialize an instance of one of your classes into one of the basic MessagePack types, the best way to do this is to implement the CanBePacked interface in the class. A good example of such a class is the Map type class that comes with the library. This type is useful when you want to explicitly specify that a given PHP array should be packed as a MessagePack map without triggering an automatic type detection routine:

$packer = new Packer();

$packedMap = $packer->pack(new Map([1, 2, 3]));
$packedArray = $packer->pack([1, 2, 3]);

More type examples can be found in the src/Type directory.

Type transformers

As with type objects, type transformers are only responsible for serializing values. They should be used when you need to serialize a value that does not implement the CanBePacked interface. Examples of such values include instances of built-in or third-party classes that you do not own, or non-objects such as resources.

A transformer class must implement the CanPack interface. To use a transformer, it must first be registered in the packer. Here is an example of how to serialize PHP streams into the MessagePack bin format type using one of the supplied transformers, StreamTransformer:

$packer = new Packer(null, [new StreamTransformer()]);

$packedBin = $packer->pack(fopen('/path/to/file', 'r+'));

More type transformer examples can be found in the src/TypeTransformer directory.

Extensions

In contrast to the cases described above, extensions are intended to handle extension types and are responsible for both serialization and deserialization of values (types).

An extension class must implement the Extension interface. To use an extension, it must first be registered in the packer and the unpacker.

The MessagePack specification divides extension types into two groups: predefined and application-specific. Currently, there is only one predefined type in the specification, Timestamp.

Timestamp

The Timestamp extension type is a predefined type. Support for this type in the library is done through the TimestampExtension class. This class is responsible for handling Timestamp objects, which represent the number of seconds and optional adjustment in nanoseconds:

$timestampExtension = new TimestampExtension();

$packer = new Packer();
$packer = $packer->extendWith($timestampExtension);

$unpacker = new BufferUnpacker();
$unpacker = $unpacker->extendWith($timestampExtension);

$packedTimestamp = $packer->pack(Timestamp::now());
$timestamp = $unpacker->reset($packedTimestamp)->unpack();

$seconds = $timestamp->getSeconds();
$nanoseconds = $timestamp->getNanoseconds();

When using the MessagePack class, the Timestamp extension is already registered:

$packedTimestamp = MessagePack::pack(Timestamp::now());
$timestamp = MessagePack::unpack($packedTimestamp);

Application-specific extensions

In addition, the format can be extended with your own types. For example, to make the built-in PHP DateTime objects first-class citizens in your code, you can create a corresponding extension, as shown in the example. Please note that custom extensions must be registered with a unique extension ID (an integer from 0 to 127).

More extension examples can be found in the examples/MessagePack directory.

To learn more about how extension types can be useful, check out this article.

Exceptions

If an error occurs during packing/unpacking, a PackingFailedException or an UnpackingFailedException will be thrown, respectively. In addition, an InsufficientDataException can be thrown during unpacking.

An InvalidOptionException will be thrown in case an invalid option (or a combination of mutually exclusive options) is used.

Tests

Run tests as follows:

vendor/bin/phpunit

Also, if you already have Docker installed, you can run the tests in a Docker container. First, create a container:

./dockerfile.sh | docker build -t msgpack -

The command above will create a container named msgpack with PHP 8.4 runtime. You may change the default runtime by defining the PHP_IMAGE environment variable:

PHP_IMAGE='php:8.3-cli' ./dockerfile.sh | docker build -t msgpack -

See a list of various images here.

Then run the unit tests:

docker run --rm -v $PWD:/msgpack -w /msgpack msgpack

Fuzzing

To ensure that the unpacking works correctly with malformed/semi-malformed data, you can use a testing technique called fuzzing. The library ships with a helper file (target) for PHP-Fuzzer and can be used as follows:

php-fuzzer fuzz tests/fuzz_buffer_unpacker.php

Performance

To check performance, run:

php -n -dzend_extension=opcache.so \
-dpcre.jit=1 -dopcache.enable=1 -dopcache.enable_cli=1 \
tests/bench.php

With JIT:

php -n -dzend_extension=opcache.so \
-dpcre.jit=1 -dopcache.jit_buffer_size=64M -dopcache.jit=tracing -dopcache.enable=1 -dopcache.enable_cli=1 \
tests/bench.php

You may change default benchmark settings by defining the following environment variables:

Name	Default
MP_BENCH_TARGETS	pure_p,pure_u, see the list of available targets
MP_BENCH_ITERATIONS	100_000
MP_BENCH_DURATION	not set
MP_BENCH_ROUNDS	3
MP_BENCH_TESTS	-@slow, see the list of available tests

For example:

export MP_BENCH_TARGETS=pure_p
export MP_BENCH_ITERATIONS=1000000
export MP_BENCH_ROUNDS=5
# a comma separated list of test names
export MP_BENCH_TESTS='complex array, complex map'
# or a group name
# export MP_BENCH_TESTS='-@slow' // @pecl_comp
# or a regexp
# export MP_BENCH_TESTS='/complex (array|map)/'

Another example, benchmarking both the library and the PECL extension:

MP_BENCH_TARGETS=pure_p,pure_u,pecl_p,pecl_u \
php -n -dextension=msgpack.so -dzend_extension=opcache.so \
-dpcre.jit=1 -dopcache.enable=1 -dopcache.enable_cli=1 \
tests/bench.php

With JIT:

MP_BENCH_TARGETS=pure_p,pure_u,pecl_p,pecl_u \
php -n -dextension=msgpack.so -dzend_extension=opcache.so \
-dpcre.jit=1 -dopcache.jit_buffer_size=64M -dopcache.jit=tracing -dopcache.enable=1 -dopcache.enable_cli=1 \
tests/bench.php

Note that the msgpack extension (v2.1.2) doesn't support ext, bin and UTF-8 str types.

License

The library is released under the MIT License. See the bundled LICENSE file for details.