Provided by: tcllib_1.15-dfsg-2_all bug

NAME

       bee - BitTorrent Serialization Format Encoder/Decoder

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.4

       package require bee  ?0.1?

       ::bee::encodeString string

       ::bee::encodeNumber integer

       ::bee::encodeListArgs value...

       ::bee::encodeList list

       ::bee::encodeDictArgs key value...

       ::bee::encodeDict dict

       ::bee::decode string ?endvar? ?start?

       ::bee::decodeIndices string ?endvar? ?start?

       ::bee::decodeChannel chan -command cmdprefix ?-exact? ?-prefix data?

       cmdprefix eof token

       cmdprefix error token message

       cmdprefix value token value

       ::bee::decodeCancel token

       ::bee::decodePush token string

_________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

       The bee package provides de- and encoder commands for data in bencoding (speak 'bee'), the
       serialization format for data and messages used by the BitTorrent application.

PUBLIC API

   ENCODER
       The package provides one encoder command for each of the basic forms, and two commands per
       container,  one  taking  a proper tcl data structure to encode in the container, the other
       taking the same information as several arguments.

       ::bee::encodeString string
              Returns the bee-encoding of the string.

       ::bee::encodeNumber integer
              Returns the bee-encoding of the integer number.

       ::bee::encodeListArgs value...
              Takes zero or more bee-encoded values and returns the bee-encoding of their list.

       ::bee::encodeList list
              Takes a list of bee-encoded values and returns the bee-encoding of the list.

       ::bee::encodeDictArgs key value...
              Takes zero or more pairs of keys and values and returns  the  bee-encoding  of  the
              dictionary  they  form.  The values are expected to be already bee-encoded, but the
              keys must not be. Their encoding will be done by the command itself.

       ::bee::encodeDict dict
              Takes a dictionary list of string keys and bee-encoded values and returns the  bee-
              encoding  of  the  list.  Note  that  the keys in the input must not be bee-encoded
              already. This will be done by the command itself.

   DECODER
       The package provides two main decoder commands, one for  decoding  a  string  expected  to
       contain  a  complete  data structure, the other for the incremental decoding of bee-values
       arriving on a channel. The latter command  is  asynchronous  and  provides  the  completed
       decoded values to the user through a command callback.

       ::bee::decode string ?endvar? ?start?
              Takes  the bee-encoding in the string and returns one decoded value. In the case of
              this being a container all contained values are decoded recursively as well and the
              result is a properly nested tcl list and/or dictionary.

              If  the optional endvar is set then it is the name of a variable to store the index
              of the first character after the decoded value into. In other words, if the  string
              contains  more than one value then endvar can be used to obtain the position of the
              bee-value after the bee-value currently decoded. together with start, see below, it
              is possible to iterate over the string to extract all contained values.

              The optional start index defaults to 0, i.e. the beginning of the string. It is the
              index of the first character of the bee-encoded value to extract.

       ::bee::decodeIndices string ?endvar? ?start?
              Takes the same arguments as ::bee::decode  and  returns  the  same  information  in
              endvar.  The result however is different. Instead of the tcl value contained in the
              string it returns a list describing the value with respect  to  type  and  location
              (indices for the first and last character of the bee-value). In case of a container
              the structure also contains the same information for all the embedded values.

              Formally the results for the various types of bee-values are:

              string A list containing three elements:

                     •      The constant string string, denoting the type of the value.

                     •      An integer number greater than or equal to zero. This is the index of
                            the first character of the bee-value in the input string.

                     •      An integer number greater than or equal to zero. This is the index of
                            the last character of the bee-value in the input string.

              Note that this information is present in the results for all  four  types  of  bee-
              values, with only the first element changing according to the type of the value.

              integer
                     The  result  is  like for strings, except that the type element contains the
                     constant string integer.

              list   The result is like before,  with  two  exceptions:  One,  the  type  element
                     contains  the  constant  string  list. And two, the result actually contains
                     four elements. The last element is new,  and  contains  the  index  data  as
                     described here for all elements of the bee-list.

              dictionary
                     The  result  is  like for strings, except that the type element contains the
                     constant string dict. A fourth element is present as well, with  a  slightly
                     different structure than for lists. The element is a dictionary mapping from
                     the strings keys of the bee-dictionary to a list  containing  two  elements.
                     The  first  of  them  is  the  index information for the key, and the second
                     element is the index information  for  the  value  the  key  maps  to.  This
                     structure  is the only which contains not only index data, but actual values
                     from the bee-string. While the index  information  of  the  keys  is  unique
                     enough,  i.e. serviceable as keys, they are not easy to navigate when trying
                     to find particular element. Using the actual keys makes this much easier.

       ::bee::decodeChannel chan -command cmdprefix ?-exact? ?-prefix data?
              The command creates a decoder for a series of bee-values arriving  on  the  channel
              chan  and  returns its handle. This handle can be used to remove the decoder again.
              Setting up another bee decoder on chan while a bee decoder  is  still  active  will
              fail with an error message.

              -command
                     The  command  prefix  cmdprefix specified by the required option -command is
                     used to report extracted values and exceptional situations (error,  and  EOF
                     on  the  channel).  The callback will be executed at the global level of the
                     interpreter, with two or three arguments. The exact call signatures are

                     cmdprefix eof token
                            The  decoder  has  reached  eof  on  the  channel  chan.  No  further
                            invocations  of the callback will be made after this. The channel has
                            already been closed at the time of the call, and  the  token  is  not
                            valid anymore as well.

                     cmdprefix error token message
                            The  decoder  encountered  an  error, which is not eof. For example a
                            malformed bee-value. The message provides details  about  the  error.
                            The  decoder token is in the same state as for eof, i.e. invalid. The
                            channel however is kept open.

                     cmdprefix value token value
                            The decoder received  and  successfully  decoded  a  bee-value.   The
                            format  of  the  equivalent  tcl  value  is  the  same as returned by
                            ::bee::decode. The channel is still open and  the  decoder  token  is
                            valid. This means that the callback is able to remove the decoder.

              -exact By default the decoder assumes that the remainder of the data in the channel
                     consists only of bee-values, and  reads  as  much  as  possible  per  event,
                     without regard for boundaries between bee-values. This means that if the the
                     input contains non-bee data after a series of  bee-value  the  beginning  of
                     that  data  may  be lost because it was already read by the decoder, but not
                     processed.

                     The -exact was made for this situation. When specified the decoder will take
                     care to not read any characters behind the currently processed bee-value, so
                     that any non-bee data is kept in the channel for  further  processing  after
                     removal of the decoder.

              -prefix
                     If  this option is specified its value is assumed to be the beginning of the
                     bee-value and used to initialize the internal decoder buffer.  This  feature
                     is  required  if  the  creator  of the decoder used data from the channel to
                     determine if it should create the decoder or not. Without  the  option  this
                     data would be lost to the decoding.

       ::bee::decodeCancel token
              This  command cancels the decoder set up by ::bee::decodeChannel and represented by
              the handle token.

       ::bee::decodePush token string
              This command appends the string to the internal decoder buffer. It is  the  runtime
              equivalent  of the option -prefix of ::bee::decodeChannel. Use it to push data back
              into the decoder when the value callback used data from the channel to determine if
              it should decode another bee-value or not.

FORMAT DEFINITION

       Data  in  the  bee  serialization  format  is  constructed  from  two basic forms, and two
       container forms. The basic forms are strings and integer numbers, and the  containers  are
       lists and dictionaries.

       String S
              A  string S of length L is encoded by the string "L:S", where the length is written
              out in textual form.

       Integer N
              An integer number N is encoded by the string "iNe".

       List v1 ... vn
              A list of the values v1 to vn is encoded by the string "lBV1...BVne" where "BVi" is
              the bee-encoding of the value "vi".

       Dict k1 -> v1 ...
              A dictionary mapping the string key ki to the value vi, for i in 1 ... n is encoded
              by the string "dBKiBVi...e" for i in 1 ... n, where "BKi" is  the  bee-encoding  of
              the key string "ki".  and "BVi" is the bee-encoding of the value "vi".

              Note:  The  bee-encoding  does  not  retain the order of the keys in the input, but
              stores in a sorted order. The sorting is done for the "raw strings".

       Note that the type of each encoded item can  be  determined  immediately  from  the  first
       character of its representation:

       i      Integer.

       l      List.

       d      Dictionary.

       [0-9]  String.

       By  wrapping  an  integer  number into i...e the format makes sure that they are different
       from strings, which all begin with a digit.

EXAMPLES

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

       This document, and the package it describes,  will  undoubtedly  contain  bugs  and  other
       problems.    Please   report   such  in  the  category  bee  of  the  Tcllib  SF  Trackers
       [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883].   Please  also  report  any  ideas   for
       enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.

KEYWORDS

       BitTorrent, bee, bittorrent, serialization, torrent

CATEGORY

       Networking

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2004 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>