Make parsing from std::istream and FILE* fast (#5828)

* Make parsing from std::istream and FILE* fast

Squashed onto develop cd6b428ef (CI fixes from #5860). Original commits:

- Let the lexer's bulk fast paths run on a window of the input
- Scan the get area of an input stream in bulk
- Lock a FILE once per parse instead of once per character
- Add benchmarks for parsing from a FILE* and for many values from a stream
- Avoid implicit unsigned char to char conversion in stream tests
- Make file_input_adapter::unlock() safe to call on a moved-from adapter

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

* Add ABI tags for JSON_DISABLE_STREAM_BULK_SCAN and JSON_DISABLE_UNLOCKED_FILE_IO

Both macros select between two definitions of an input adapter, so
translation units compiled with different settings violated the ODR when
linked together. Like the other ABI-affecting macros, they now append a
tag to the inline namespace: _dsbs and _dufio. Their defaults move to
abi_macros.hpp so that json_fwd.hpp sees them, and the natvis file is
regenerated for the new namespaces.

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

* Skip the exception-only checks of the stream input tests without exceptions

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

---------

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
This commit is contained in:
Niels Lohmann authored and GitHub committed 2026-10-19 22:00:58 +02:00
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@@ -55,6 +55,30 @@ whitespace, because `operator>>` consumes the character that terminates a number
[`JSON_PRECISE_STREAM_POSITION`](../../api/macros/json_precise_stream_position.md) is defined to `1` — see the
[`operator>>` notes](../../api/operator_gtgt.md#notes) for details and examples.
## Input sources and performance
All inputs produce the same values and the same exceptions, but they are read in different ways, which makes some of
them faster than others:
| input | how it is read |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| strings, string views, string literals, contiguous containers, pointer or iterator ranges over contiguous memory | the whole input is scanned in bulk: runs of string characters, numbers, and indentation are recognized several bytes at a time |
| `#!cpp std::istream` (`#!cpp std::ifstream`, `#!cpp std::istringstream`, ...) | the characters the stream buffer holds are scanned in bulk like a string; the stream buffer is asked for more when they are used up |
| `#!cpp FILE*` | one character at a time, with the file locked once for the whole parse |
| other iterator ranges (e.g., `#!cpp std::list<char>`, `#!cpp std::istreambuf_iterator<char>`), wide strings | one character at a time |
Parsing a file from a `#!cpp std::ifstream` is therefore only about 10 to 20 % slower than reading the whole file into a
`#!cpp std::string` first and parsing that, and it needs no memory for a copy of the file. The stream is never read
ahead: after parsing, it is positioned exactly as if every character had been read one at a time, so
[`operator>>`](../../api/operator_gtgt.md) can still read several values from one stream (see also
[JSON Lines](json_lines.md)).
Two macros switch these optimizations off without changing any result:
[`JSON_DISABLE_STREAM_BULK_SCAN`](../../api/macros/json_disable_stream_bulk_scan.md) for stream buffers that do not
follow the usual `std::streambuf` contract, and
[`JSON_DISABLE_UNLOCKED_FILE_IO`](../../api/macros/json_disable_unlocked_file_io.md) for programs in which another
thread must use the same `#!cpp FILE` object while it is parsed.
## SAX vs. DOM parsing
The library offers two parsing models: