binn
A compact, fast, and easy-to-use binary serialization format for efficient data storage and transfer.
What is binn?
Binn is a binary serialization library that provides a compact and fast format for encoding structured data. It solves the need for efficient data interchange between applications, particularly in network communication and file storage, by minimizing size and maximizing read performance.
Developers working on networked applications, embedded systems, or any project requiring efficient binary data serialization across different platforms and languages.
Developers choose Binn for its zero-copy read capabilities, cross-platform stability, and straightforward API, offering a lightweight alternative to bulkier serialization formats with minimal overhead.
Overview
Binary Serialization
Use Cases
Best For
- Sending structured data over network sockets with minimal latency
- Storing configuration or state in binary files for fast loading
- Embedded systems where memory and performance are critical
- Cross-language data exchange via community wrapper libraries
- Applications requiring zero-copy access to serialized strings and blobs
- Replacing JSON or XML in performance-sensitive serialization scenarios
Not Ideal For
- Applications receiving data from untrusted sources without additional validation layers
- Projects where human-readable serialization is required for debugging or manual editing
- Teams relying on programming languages with only partial or community-maintained wrappers (e.g., Erlang)
- Systems needing built-in schema evolution or versioning for long-term data compatibility
Pros & Cons
Pros
Elements are stored with sizes to optimize space and read performance, as described in the performance section, making it efficient for network transmission.
Returns pointers to strings, blobs, and containers within the buffer, avoiding memory allocation and copying, which significantly boosts efficiency for large data.
Supports primitives like integers, floats, and strings, plus containers such as lists, maps, and objects, enabling complex data structures as shown in the data types section.
Stable for production use across little-endian and big-endian devices, ensuring reliable data interchange in heterogeneous environments.
Cons
Read functions do not fully check buffer integrity, requiring developers to implement validation manually, as warned in the security section with example code.
Many language wrappers are community-maintained or partial (e.g., Erlang implementation), leading to inconsistent features and potential maintenance issues.
The README provides basics and links to spec and usage, but lacks comprehensive tutorials or API references, making onboarding more challenging for new users.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
protobuf-cProtocol Buffers implementation in C
mpackMPack - A C encoder/decoder for the MessagePack serialization format / msgpack.org[C]
cmpAn implementation of the MessagePack serialization format in C / msgpack.org[C]
netstring-cNetstring for C
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