Add BON8 support (#2998)

* Add BON8 support

Add to_bon8/from_bon8 and input_format_t::bon8 for BON8, a binary format
that uses the byte values that cannot begin a UTF-8 character as type
markers, so strings need no length prefix. It is the most compact of the
supported binary formats on the benchmark files.

The reader is non-recursive like the other binary readers. A string ends
at the first byte that cannot continue it, so the reader hands the one or
two bytes it reads past a string back to the value that follows. The
writer produces the canonical representation of the specification, except
for NFC normalization; its output is identical to that of the reference
implementation (HikoGUI) on all files of the test data.

The round-trip tests need the .bon8 files of json_test_data 3.2.0.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Address review comments

- Reuse detail::validate_one_utf8 to check strings in to_bon8; the error
  now names the first byte of the invalid sequence.
- Document that to_bon8 leaves bytes in the output adapter on an
  exception, and that string_open is only an output of write_bon8_marker.
- Explain why the pushback buffer of the BON8 reader cannot overflow.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Select the BON8 float prefix by type

get_bon8_float_prefix only depends on the type of its argument, so make
the type a template parameter instead of passing an unused value.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Rename a test variable that Flawfinder mistakes for read()

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Fix the BON8 CI failures

- compare the float in write_bon8_float with number_float_t constants,
  so GCC does not warn about a float-to-double conversion
- mark check_bon8_utf8's context as used when exceptions are disabled
- choose the compact float prefix in a helper rather than with nested
  conditional operators (clang-tidy)
- use auto for the cast in the BON8 integer reader (clang-tidy)
- write the int32 minimum test values as long long literals (MSVC C4146)

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Amalgamate

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Read BON8 strings in bulk from contiguous input

- copy the valid UTF-8 of a string in one step when the input is
  contiguous (twitter.json is read in 1.68 instead of 2.52 ms,
  jeopardy.json in 196 instead of 297 ms, close to CBOR and MessagePack)
- share the new valid_utf8_prefix() with the writer's UTF-8 check, which
  now skips ASCII 8 bytes at a time
- let the fuzzer check that contiguous and stream input give the same
  value or error, and test both paths in the unit tests
- clarify that a second 0xFF after a string is an empty string

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Link the BON8 functions from the other binary format pages

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Name the bulk scan flag after the input, not BON8

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Read BSON keys in bulk from contiguous input

BSON keys (and array indices) are C-style strings, which were read byte
by byte. For contiguous input they are now read up to their \x00-byte in
one step, using the same bulk_scan flag as BON8 strings: twitter.json is
read in 1.46 instead of 2.01 ms, citm_catalog.json in 2.93 instead of
3.33 ms, jeopardy.json in 182 instead of 207 ms. canada.json, whose keys
are almost all one-digit array indices, takes 2 % longer.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Fix the BON8 CI failures of the bulk-read tests

- skip the contiguous-versus-stream tests of BON8 strings and BSON keys
  when exceptions are disabled: they catch the parse errors of invalid
  input, and without exceptions the library aborts instead
- use static_cast for the int64 test value (google-readability-casting)

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Move the explicit basic_json instantiation into its own test file

Linking test-regression3_cpp20 with clang and MinGW failed with
"relocation truncated to fit: IMAGE_REL_AMD64_REL32 against `.rdata'",
as test-regression2 did before #5511. The explicit instantiation of
basic_json<> for #4825 compiles every member function, including the
BON8 reader and writer, into that object, and it was already close to
the limit (2,226,104 bytes on develop, 2,234,960 with BON8; clang -O1,
C++20).

Give the instantiation a file of its own: unit-regression3 is now
1,594,736 bytes and unit-explicit_instantiation 1,095,064. The new file
mentions JSON_HAS_CPP_17 and JSON_HAS_CPP_20 so it keeps being built
for the C++17 standard the regression was about.

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

* Convert the bytes of the BON8 test strings explicitly

The str() helper constructed a std::string from a byte range, which
converts each unsigned char implicitly; -fsanitize=integer reports that
for bytes of 0x80 and above (ci_test_clang_sanitizer).

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>

---------

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
This commit is contained in:
Niels Lohmann
2026-09-27 16:56:21 +02:00
committed by GitHub
parent f682cd2ef1
commit 1e101ecac1
58 changed files with 3950 additions and 53 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
# <small>nlohmann::basic_json::</small>to_bon8
```cpp
// (1)
static std::vector<std::uint8_t> to_bon8(const basic_json& j);
// (2)
static void to_bon8(const basic_json& j, detail::output_adapter<std::uint8_t> o);
static void to_bon8(const basic_json& j, detail::output_adapter<char> o);
```
Serializes a given JSON value `j` to a byte vector using the BON8 (Binary Object Notation 8) serialization format. BON8
is a compact binary serialization format that stores strings as UTF-8 without a length prefix.
1. Returns a byte vector containing the BON8 serialization.
2. Writes the BON8 serialization to an output adapter.
The exact mapping and its limitations are described on a [dedicated page](../../features/binary_formats/bon8.md).
## Parameters
`j` (in)
: JSON value to serialize
`o` (in)
: output adapter to write serialization to
## Return value
1. BON8 serialization as a byte vector
2. (none)
## Exception safety
Strong guarantee: if an exception is thrown, there are no changes in the JSON value `j`, which is never modified.
With (2), the bytes written before the exception remain in the output adapter.
## Exceptions
- Throws [out_of_range.407](../../home/exceptions.md#jsonexceptionout_of_range407) if `j` contains an unsigned integer
above 9223372036854775807, which BON8 cannot represent
- Throws [type_error.316](../../home/exceptions.md#jsonexceptiontype_error316) if `j` contains a string that is not
valid UTF-8
## Complexity
Linear in the size of the JSON value `j`.
## Examples
??? example
The example shows the serialization of a JSON value to a byte vector in BON8 format.
```cpp
--8<-- "examples/to_bon8.cpp"
```
Output:
```json
--8<-- "examples/to_bon8.output"
```
## See also
- [from_bon8](from_bon8.md) create a JSON value from an input in BON8 format
- [to_cbor](to_cbor.md) create a CBOR serialization of a JSON value
- [to_msgpack](to_msgpack.md) create a MessagePack serialization of a JSON value
- [to_bson](to_bson.md) create a BSON serialization of a JSON value
- [to_ubjson](to_ubjson.md) create a UBJSON serialization of a JSON value
- [to_bjdata](to_bjdata.md) create a BJData serialization of a JSON value
## Version history
- Added in version 3.13.0.