Boost C++ Libraries: Ticket #7301: Inconsistent use of load_/save_override for serialized file signature

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:30:54 GMT

Sorry about the formatting, basic_binary_iarchive.ipp::55 is

std::size_t l;
this->This()->load(l);
if(l == std::strlen(BOOST_ARCHIVE_SIGNATURE())) {
 ...
 file_signature.resize(l);
  if(0 < l){
    ...
    this->This()->load_binary(&(*file_signature.begin()), l);
} }

status changed

Robert Ramey — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:08:19 GMT

status new → assigned

and your suggested patch is ...?

Robert Ramey

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:21:41 GMT

Well, you could just read the signature in basic_binary_iarchive.ipp like you write it:

this->This() >> file_signature;

But I'm guessing the code was changed because that causes problems in some test case involving an invalid file? So rather than handling signatures with the user overloaded string functions, you could just do the saving of the signature string manually as well, something like the following in init() in basic_binary_oarchive.ipp:

std::size_t l = file_signature.size()
this->This()->save(l);
this->This()->save_binary(file_signature, l);

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:43:42 GMT

To add context, I went back and looked to see why a former colleague had overridden save_string() to begin with: Basically he switched the size_t for an unsigned int to induce x32/x64 compatibility into the binaries (the wisdom and correctness of such an operation being lengthy and off-topic.) In that sense supporting the load_override is preferable in that you retain the option of writing more portable string functions. However, since the goal of the binary archives is explicitly not 32/64 bit portability, it doesn't strike me as critical that that be supported here, only that the overrides be consistently used or ignored. Thus the first option is nicer in that judicious overrides can be used to overcome portability restraints, but I suspect there's a reason I don't know about that it's not done that way.

status changed; resolution set

Robert Ramey — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 21:16:52 GMT

status assigned → closed
resolution → fixed

I checked in this change

this->This() >> file_signature;