anybuf

A minimal, zero dependency protobuf encoder and decoder to encode/decode anything. It is designed to create the value bytes of a protobuf Any, hence the name.

Due to its low level design, anybuf allows you to do things wrong in many ways and you should have a solid understanding of how protobuf encoding works in general to better understand the API.

The crate anybuf is split in two major components:

• anybuf::Anybuf is a protobuf encoder
• anybuf::Bufany is a protobuf decoder

Non goals

• protobuf 2 things
• Field sorting
• Groups support (deprecated, see https://protobuf.dev/programming-guides/proto2/#groups)

Supported

• Varint fields (bool/uint32/uint64/sint32/sint64/int32/int64)
• Variable length fields (string/bytes)
• Nested messages: Just append an Anybuf instance
• Repeated (bool/uint32/uint64/sint32/sint64/int32/int64/string/bytes/messages)

Not yet supported

• Fixed length types
• Packed encoding for repeated fields
• Maps support (but you can use the equivalent encoding via repeated messages)

How to use it

Encoding

use anybuf::Anybuf;

let data = Anybuf::new()
    .append_uint64(1, 4)        // field number 1 gets value 4
    .append_string(2, "hello")  // field number 2 gets a string
    .append_bytes(3, b"hello")  // field number 3 gets bytes
    .append_message(4, &Anybuf::new().append_bool(3, true)) // field 4 gets a message
    .append_repeated_uint64(5, &[23, 56, 192])              // field number 5 is a repeated uint64
    .into_vec();                // done

// data is now a serialized protobuf document

Decoding

use anybuf::Bufany;

let deserialized = Bufany::deserialize(&data).unwrap(); // data from above
let id = deserialized.uint64(1).unwrap(); // 4
let title = deserialized.string(2).unwrap(); // "hello"