Cobs-Codec

This crate provides a COBS (Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing) codec for Tokio.

The COBS encoding is a very efficient framing method for network packets. Basically; it allows you to send messages consisting of any bytes while still being able to detect where messages start and end.

Encoded messages end with a specific (customizable) byte called a sentinel. Any occurrence of this byte within the message is avoided by a substition scheme that adds very litte overhead: O(1 + N/254) worst case.

Choosing a Sentinel Value

This crate allows users to choose their own sentinel value. There are two guiding principles when choosing a value.

Size: The encoding has the least overhead when the message contains one sentinel at least every 254 bytes. Note that this consideration is irrelevant for messages up to 254 bytes long.

Speed: Encoding/decoding is fastest for messages with as few sentinel values as possible, ideally none.

Features

• No unsafe code (#[forbid(unsafe_code)])
• Tested

Example

use std::io::Cursor;
use tokio_util::codec::{FramedWrite, FramedRead};
use futures::{SinkExt, StreamExt};

use cobs_codec::{Encoder, Decoder};

// Choose a message separator that does not appear too frequently in your messages.
const SENTINEL: u8 = 0x00;

// It's a good idea to limit message size to prevent running out of memory.
const MAX: usize = 32;

let encoder = Encoder::<SENTINEL, MAX>::new();
let decoder = Decoder::<SENTINEL, MAX>::new();

// Imagine this buffer being sent from the server to the client.
let mut buffer = Vec::with_capacity(128);

let mut server_cursor = Cursor::new(&mut buffer);
let mut server = FramedWrite::new(&mut server_cursor, encoder);

// Send a few messages.
assert!(server.send("hello").await.is_ok());
assert!(server.send("world").await.is_ok());

let mut client_cursor = Cursor::new(&mut buffer);
let mut client = FramedRead::new(&mut client_cursor, decoder);

// Receive the messages.
assert_eq!(convert(&client.next().await), Some(Ok(b"hello".as_slice())));
assert_eq!(convert(&client.next().await), Some(Ok(b"world".as_slice())));
assert_eq!(convert(&client.next().await), None);

Documentation

Documentation

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.