LPeg Serialize

This module can serialize and load LPeg patterns to binary format. LPeg is a pattern matching library for the Lua language.

Like string.dump for Lua functions, the pattern is saved in a binary form and can be loaded later, on another machine, ...

Status

This library is currently under development:

It may/does contain bugs
The binary format is not guaranteed to be stable (don't expect commit n+1 will load pattern saved by commit n)

Installation

Use the provided Makefile to compile the module (only the linux and macosx targets are currently supported). You need original lpeg source code too (only for headers).

Then install lpeg/serialize.so somewhere in your CPATH.

Usage

local L = require 'lpeg'
local Ls = require 'lpeg.serialize'

local serialized = Ls.save(L.P'aaa')
assert(type(serialized) == 'string')
local unserialized = Ls.load(serialized)
assert(L.type(unserialized) == 'pattern')

print(unserialized:match('aaa'))

Limitations

As arbitrary Lua values can be included in LPeg patterns (tables, callback functions, ...), patterns cannot be serialized when they contain:

Tables with metatables
C functions
Functions with upvalues

Also, be careful with global accesses in serialized functions as it requires that these global still exists when pattern will be loaded.

In addition, the serialized format uses host endianness and type sizes, the functions are serialized with lua_dump so additional limitations may apply. If pattern cannot be loaded because of host environment, an error will be raised.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.