binary
Binary serialisation for Haskell values using lazy ByteStrings
https://github.com/kolmodin/binary
| Version on this page: | 0.8.5.1 |
| LTS Haskell 24.28: | 0.8.9.3 |
| Stackage Nightly 2026-01-13: | 0.8.9.3 |
| Latest on Hackage: | 0.10.0.0@rev:1 |
binary-0.8.5.1@sha256:e4e0c71916cc1112c63b498ad12b26ff361af1e8c6d42c5e3f7e3a598871d407,5924Module documentation for 0.8.5.1
binary package
Efficient, pure binary serialisation using lazy ByteStrings.
The binary package provides Data.Binary, containing the Binary class,
and associated methods, for serialising values to and from lazy
ByteStrings.
A key feature of binary is that the interface is both pure, and efficient.
The binary package is portable to GHC and Hugs.
Installing binary from Hackage
binary is part of The Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) and therefore if you
have either GHC or The Haskell Platform
installed, you already have binary.
More recent versions of binary than you might have installed may be
available. You can use cabal-install to install a later version from
Hackage.
$ cabal update
$ cabal install binary
Building binary
binary comes with both a test suite and a set of benchmarks.
While developing, you probably want to enable both.
Here’s how to get the latest version of the repository, configure and build.
$ git clone [email protected]:kolmodin/binary.git
$ cd binary
$ cabal update
$ cabal configure --enable-tests --enable-benchmarks
$ cabal build
Run the test suite.
$ cabal test
Using binary
First:
import Data.Binary
and then write an instance of Binary for the type you wish to serialise.
An example doing exactly this can be found in the Data.Binary module.
You can also use the Data.Binary.Builder module to efficiently build
lazy bytestrings using the Builder monoid. Or, alternatively, the
Data.Binary.Get and Data.Binary.Put to serialize/deserialize using
the Get and Put monads.
More information in the haddock documentation.
Deriving binary instances using GHC’s Generic
Beginning with GHC 7.2, it is possible to use binary serialization without writing any instance boilerplate code.
{-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric #-}
import Data.Binary
import GHC.Generics (Generic)
data Foo = Foo deriving (Generic)
-- GHC will automatically fill out the instance
instance Binary Foo
Contributors
- Lennart Kolmodin
- Duncan Coutts
- Don Stewart
- Spencer Janssen
- David Himmelstrup
- Björn Bringert
- Ross Paterson
- Einar Karttunen
- John Meacham
- Ulf Norell
- Tomasz Zielonka
- Stefan Karrmann
- Bryan O’Sullivan
- Bas van Dijk
- Florian Weimer
For a full list of contributors, see here.