netstring.lua

An implementation of DJB's netstring encoding format for Lua/LuaJIT.

Synopsis

    local netstring = require'netstring'
    
    print(netstring.encode(1,"hey","here's","some","netstrings",""))
    -- 1:1,3:hey,6:here's,4:some,10:netstrings,0:,   nil
    
    -- you can also encode a table, provided it's like an array
    -- keys are sorted numerically before encoding into netstrings
    print(netstring.encode({ [50]="is", "this", [100]="supported" }))
    -- 4:this,2:is,9:supported,  nil
    
    -- if the table has non-numeric keys, you'll get a table of errors
    -- as the second return value. numeric keys are still encoded
    local ns, errs = netstring.encode({ "this is fine", problem="this is not fine", "this is also fine"})
    print(ns)
    -- 12:this is fine,17:this is also fine,
    
    for i in pairs(errs) do
        print(errs[i])
    end
    -- arg 1 key "problem" is not numeric
    
    local results, remains =  netstring.decode("3:cat,4:dogs,5:uhohthisiswrong,")
    
    for k,v in pairs(results) do
        print(k,v)
    end
    -- 1        cat
    -- 2        dogs
    
    print(remains)
    -- 5:uhohthisiswrong,

Usage

• string, errs = netstring.encode(...)

Takes any number of arguments and returns a string of concatenated netstrings, and a table of strings describing encoding errors.

• table, string = netstring.decode(string)

Attempts to decode each netstring passed to it, returns a table of decoded netstrings, and a string containing any unprocessed data.

License

The MIT License (see LICENSE)