MessagePack is an efficient binary serialization format. It lets you exchange data among multiple languages like JSON. But it's faster and smaller. Small integers are encoded into a single byte, and typical short strings require only one extra byte in addition to the strings themselves.

License

Contributing

The source for msgpack-c is held at msgpack-c github.com site.

To report an issue, use the msgpack-c issue tracker at github.com.

Using Msgpack

Building and Installing

Install from git repository

Using autotools

You will need gcc (4.1.0 or higher), autotools.

$ git clone https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c.git
$ cd msgpack-c
$ ./bootstrap
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

Using cmake

You will need gcc (4.1.0 or higher), cmake.

$ git clone https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c.git
$ cd msgpack-c
$ cmake .
$ make

Install from package

UNIX-like platform with ./configure

On typical UNIX-like platforms, download source package from Releases and run ./configure && make && make install. Example:

$ wget https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c/releases/download/cpp-0.5.8/msgpack-0.5.8.tar.gz
$ tar zxvf msgpack-0.5.8.tar.gz
$ cd msgpack-0.5.8
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

FreeBSD with Ports Collection

On FreeBSD, you can use Ports Collection. Install net/msgpack package.

Gentoo Linux with Portage

On Gentoo Linux, you can use emerge. Install dev-libs/msgpack package.

Mac OS X with MacPorts

On Mac OS X, you can install MessagePack for C using MacPorts.

$ sudo port install msgpack

You might need to run sudo port selfupdate before installing to update the package repository.

You can also install via Homebrew.

$ sudo brew install msgpack

Windows

Clone msgpack-c git repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c.git

or using GUI git client.

e.g.) tortoise git https://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/

Launch cmake GUI client. http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html

Set 'Where is the source code:' text box and 'Where to build the binaries:' text box.

Click 'Configure' button.

Choose your Visual Studio version.

Click 'Generate' button.

Open the created msgpack.sln on Visual Studio.

Build all.

Linking with an Application

Include msgpack.hpp (or msgpack.h for C) in your application and link with libmsgpack. Here is a typical gcc link command:

g++ myapp.cpp -lmsgpack -o myapp

Code Example

#include <msgpack.hpp>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    // This is target object.
    std::vector<std::string> target;
    target.push_back("Hello,");
    target.push_back("World!");

    // Serialize it.
    msgpack::sbuffer sbuf;  // simple buffer
    msgpack::pack(&sbuf, target);

    // Deserialize the serialized data.
    msgpack::unpacked msg;    // includes memory pool and deserialized object
    msgpack::unpack(&msg, sbuf.data(), sbuf.size());
    msgpack::object obj = msg.get();

    // Print the deserialized object to stdout.
    std::cout << obj << std::endl;    // ["Hello," "World!"]

    // Convert the deserialized object to staticaly typed object.
    std::vector<std::string> result;
    obj.convert(&result);

    // If the type is mismatched, it throws msgpack::type_error.
    obj.as<int>();  // type is mismatched, msgpack::type_error is thrown
}

Quickstart Guides

For more detailed examples see QuickStart for C and QuickStart for C++.