rkyv (archive) is a zero-copy deserialization framework for Rust

Resources

Learning Materials

• The rkyv book covers the motivation, architecture, and major features of rkyv
• The rkyv discord is a great place to get help with specific issues and meet other people using rkyv

Documentation

• rkyv, the core library
• rkyv_dyn, which adds trait object support to rkyv
• rkyv_typename, a type naming library

Benchmarks

• The rust serialization benchmark is a shootout style benchmark comparing many rust serialization solutions. It includes special benchmarks for zero-copy serialization solutions like rkyv.

Sister Crates

• bytecheck, which rkyv uses for validation
• ptr_meta, which rkyv uses for pointer manipulation
• rend, which rkyv uses for endian-agnostic features

Example

use rkyv::{Archive, Deserialize, Serialize};

#[derive(Archive, Deserialize, Serialize, Debug, PartialEq)]
#[archive(
    // This will generate a PartialEq impl between our unarchived and archived
    // types:
    compare(PartialEq),
    // bytecheck can be used to validate your data if you want. To use the safe
    // API, you have to derive CheckBytes for the archived type:
    check_bytes,
)]
// Derives can be passed through to the generated type:
#[archive_attr(derive(Debug))]
struct Test {
    int: u8,
    string: String,
    option: Option<Vec<i32>>,
}

let value = Test {
    int: 42,
    string: "hello world".to_string(),
    option: Some(vec![1, 2, 3, 4]),
};

// Serializing is as easy as a single function call
let bytes = rkyv::to_bytes::<_, 256>(&value).unwrap();

// Or you can customize your serialization for better performance
// and compatibility with #![no_std] environments
use rkyv::ser::{Serializer, serializers::AllocSerializer};

let mut serializer = AllocSerializer::<0>::default();
serializer.serialize_value(&value).unwrap();
let bytes = serializer.into_serializer().into_inner();

// You can use the safe API for fast zero-copy deserialization
let archived = rkyv::check_archived_root::<Test>(&bytes[..]).unwrap();
assert_eq!(archived, &value);

// Or you can use the unsafe API for maximum performance
let archived = unsafe { rkyv::archived_root::<Test>(&bytes[..]) };
assert_eq!(archived, &value);

// And you can always deserialize back to the original type
let deserialized: Test = archived.deserialize(&mut rkyv::Infallible).unwrap();
assert_eq!(deserialized, value);

Note: the safe API requires the validation feature:

rkyv = { version = "0.8", features = ["validation"] }

Read more about available features.

Thanks

Thanks to all the sponsors that keep development sustainable. Special thanks to the following sponsors for going above and beyond supporting rkyv:

Platinum Sponsors

Dusk Network is the first privacy blockchain for financial applications. Our mission is to enable any size enterprise to collaborate at scale, meet compliance requirements, and ensure that transaction data remains confidential.

Bronze Sponsors