NAME

       Data::MessagePack - MessagePack serializing/deserializing

SYNOPSIS

           use Data::MessagePack;

           my $mp = Data::MessagePack->new();
           $mp->canonical->utf8->prefer_integer if $needed;

           my $packed   = $mp->pack($dat);
           my $unpacked = $mp->unpack($dat);

DESCRIPTION

       This module converts Perl data structures to MessagePack and vice versa.

ABOUT MESSAGEPACK FORMAT

       MessagePack is a binary-based efficient object serialization format.  It enables to
       exchange structured objects between many languages like JSON.  But unlike JSON, it is very
       fast and small.

   ADVANTAGES
       PORTABLE
           The MessagePack format does not depend on language nor byte order.

       SMALL IN SIZE
               say length(JSON::XS::encode_json({a=>1, b=>2}));   # => 13
               say length(Storable::nfreeze({a=>1, b=>2}));       # => 21
               say length(Data::MessagePack->pack({a=>1, b=>2})); # => 7

           The MessagePack format saves memory than JSON and Storable format.

       STREAMING DESERIALIZER
           MessagePack supports streaming deserializer. It is useful for networking such as RPC.
           See Data::MessagePack::Unpacker for details.

       If you want to get more information about the MessagePack format, please visit to
       <http://msgpack.org/>.

METHODS

       "my $packed = Data::MessagePack->pack($data[, $max_depth]);"
           Pack the $data to messagepack format string.

           This method throws an exception when the perl structure is nested more than $max_depth
           levels(default: 512) in order to detect circular references.

           Data::MessagePack->pack() throws an exception when encountering a blessed perl object,
           because MessagePack is a language-independent format.

       "my $unpacked = Data::MessagePack->unpack($msgpackstr);"
           unpack the $msgpackstr to a MessagePack format string.

       "my $mp = Data::MesssagePack->new()"
           Creates a new MessagePack instance.

       "$mp = $mp->prefer_integer([ $enable ])"
       "$enabled = $mp->get_prefer_integer()"
           If $enable is true (or missing), then the "pack" method tries a string as an integer
           if the string looks like an integer.

       "$mp = $mp->canonical([ $enable ])"
       "$enabled = $mp->get_canonical()"
           If $enable is true (or missing), then the "pack" method will output packed data by
           sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.

       "$mp = $mp->utf8([ $enable ])"
       "$enabled = $mp->get_utf8()"
           If $enable is true (or missing), then the "pack" method will apply utf8::encode() to
           all the string values.

           In other words, this property tell $mp to deal with text strings.  See perlunifaq for
           the meaning of text string.

       "$packed = $mp->pack($data)"
       "$packed = $mp->encode($data)"
           Same as "Data::MessagePack->pack()", but properties are respected.

       "$data = $mp->unpack($data)"
       "$data = $mp->decode($data)"
           Same as "Data::MessagePack->unpack()", but properties are respected.

Configuration Variables (DEPRECATED)

       $Data::MessagePack::PreferInteger
           Packs a string as an integer, when it looks like an integer.

           This variable is deprecated.  Use "$msgpack->prefer_integer" property instead.

SPEED

       This is a result of benchmark/serialize.pl and benchmark/deserialize.pl on my SC440(Linux
       2.6.32-23-server #37-Ubuntu SMP).  (You should benchmark them with your data if the speed
       matters, of course.)

           -- serialize
           JSON::XS: 2.3
           Data::MessagePack: 0.24
           Storable: 2.21
           Benchmark: running json, mp, storable for at least 1 CPU seconds...
                 json:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.00 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.01 CPU) @ 141939.60/s (n=143359)
                   mp:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.06 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.06 CPU) @ 355500.94/s (n=376831)
             storable:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.12 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.12 CPU) @ 38399.11/s (n=43007)
                        Rate storable     json       mp
           storable  38399/s       --     -73%     -89%
           json     141940/s     270%       --     -60%
           mp       355501/s     826%     150%       --

           -- deserialize
           JSON::XS: 2.3
           Data::MessagePack: 0.24
           Storable: 2.21
           Benchmark: running json, mp, storable for at least 1 CPU seconds...
                 json:  0 wallclock secs ( 1.05 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.05 CPU) @ 179442.86/s (n=188415)
                   mp:  0 wallclock secs ( 1.01 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.01 CPU) @ 212909.90/s (n=215039)
             storable:  2 wallclock secs ( 1.14 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.14 CPU) @ 114974.56/s (n=131071)
                        Rate storable     json       mp
           storable 114975/s       --     -36%     -46%
           json     179443/s      56%       --     -16%
           mp       212910/s      85%      19%       --

CAVEAT

   Unpacking 64 bit integers
       This module can unpack 64 bit integers even if your perl does not support them (i.e. where
       "perl -V:ivsize" is 4), but you cannot calculate these values unless you use
       "Math::BigInt".

TODO

       Error handling
           MessagePack cannot deal with complex scalars such as object references, filehandles,
           and code references. We should report the errors more kindly.

       Streaming deserializer
           The current implementation of the streaming deserializer does not have internal
           buffers while some other bindings (such as Ruby binding) does. This limitation will
           astonish those who try to unpack byte streams with an arbitrary buffer size (e.g.
           "while(read($socket, $buffer, $arbitrary_buffer_size)) { ... }").  We should implement
           the internal buffer for the unpacker.

FAQ

       Why does Data::MessagePack have pure perl implementations?
           msgpack C library uses C99 feature, VC++6 does not support C99. So pure perl version
           is needed for VC++ users.

AUTHORS

       Tokuhiro Matsuno

       Makamaka Hannyaharamitu

       gfx

THANKS TO

       Jun Kuriyama

       Dan Kogai

       FURUHASHI Sadayuki

       hanekomu

       Kazuho Oku

       syohex

LICENSE

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

       <http://msgpack.org/> is the official web site for the  MessagePack format.

       Data::MessagePack::Unpacker

       AnyEvent::MPRPC