R API for Serialization

This package provides other packages with access to the internal R serialization code. Access is provided at the C function level via the registered function facility

For convenience and testing purposes, two wrapper functions are also provided at the R level.

serializeToRaw(obj, version=2, xdr=TRUE)
  unserializeFromRaw(obj)

Arguments

obj

An R object which is going to (un)serialized by the corresponding function.

version

An integer selection the R serialization format. Default is 2, and values 2 or 3 are currently supported.

xdr

A logical value selection (portable) XDR encoding which is the default. Use FALSE for speed-up suitable for common little-endian system at a loss of portability.

Details

The C code in this package is taken from R source code, where it provided for use by R only in a way that renders it inaccessible to other packages.

This package aims to fill this gap by providing access to the same functionality, at the cost of making a copy.

To use the serialization and deserialization code provided here, a client package simply adds LinkingTo: RApiSerialize in its DESCRIPTION file and includes the header file RApiSerializeAPI.h.

Author

Dirk Eddelbuettel put together this package, based on earlier work by Ei-ji Nakama and Junji Nakano who also included the C code from R for serialization in their Rhpc package. R Core wrote the underlying C code for use in R itself.

The package is maintained by Dirk Eddelbuettel.

See also

The R source code in src/main/serialize.c.

Examples

  ## calling the R wrapper 
  serializeToRaw(letters)
#>   [1] 58 0a 00 00 00 02 00 04 05 01 00 02 03 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 1a 00 04 00
#>  [26] 09 00 00 00 01 61 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 62 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 63 00
#>  [51] 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 64 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 65 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01
#>  [76] 66 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 67 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 68 00 04 00 09 00 00
#> [101] 00 01 69 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 6a 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 6b 00 04 00 09
#> [126] 00 00 00 01 6c 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 6d 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 6e 00 04
#> [151] 00 09 00 00 00 01 6f 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 70 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 71
#> [176] 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 72 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 73 00 04 00 09 00 00 00
#> [201] 01 74 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 75 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 76 00 04 00 09 00
#> [226] 00 00 01 77 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 78 00 04 00 09 00 00 00 01 79 00 04 00
#> [251] 09 00 00 00 01 7a