Cross-platform compatible.
Optimized for speed and space.
Allows flexible or/and verbose syntax for better serialization control.
No code generation required: no IDL or metadata, just use your types directly.
Runtime error checking on deserialization.
Supports forward/backward compatibility for your types.
2-in-1 declarative control flow, same code for serialization and deserialization.
Allows fine-grained bit-level serialization control.
Can read/write from any source: stream (file, network stream. etc... ), or buffer (vector, c-array, etc...).
Easily extendable for any type.
Configurable endianess support.
No macros.

Why to use bitsery

Look at the numbers and features list, and decide yourself. (benchmarked on Ubuntu with GCC 7.1)

	serialize	deserialize	data size	executable size
flatbuffers	1852 ms.	777 ms.	27252 bytes	74544 bytes
cereal	1069 ms.	1385 ms.	20208 bytes	72336 bytes
bitsery	808 ms.	737 ms.	14803 bytes	69784 bytes
bitsery fixed-size buffer	297 ms.	738 ms.	14803 bytes	69928 bytes
bitsery optimized serialization flow	686 ms.	997 ms.	6601 bytes	69320 bytes
bitsery optimized serialization flow + fixed-size buffer	446 ms.	996 ms.	6601 bytes	69464 bytes

If still not convinced read more in library motivation section.

Usage example

#include <bitsery/bitsery.h>
#include <bitsery/adapter/buffer.h>
#include <bitsery/traits/vector.h>

enum class MyEnum:uint16_t { V1,V2,V3 };
struct MyStruct {
    uint32_t i;
    MyEnum e;
    std::vector<float> fs;
};

template <typename S>
void serialize(S& s, MyStruct& o) {
    s.value4b(o.i);
    s.value2b(o.e);
    s.container4b(o.fs, 10);
};

using namespace bitsery;

using Buffer = std::vector<uint8_t>;
using OutputAdapter = OutputBufferAdapter<Buffer>;
using InputAdapter = InputBufferAdapter<Buffer>;

int main() {
    MyStruct data{8941, MyEnum::V2, {15.0f, -8.5f, 0.045f}};
    MyStruct res{};

    Buffer buffer;

    auto writtenSize = quickSerialization<OutputAdapter>(buffer, data);

    auto state = quickDeserialization<InputAdapter>({buffer.begin(), writtenSize}, res);

    assert(state.first == ReaderError::NoError && state.second);
    assert(data.fs == res.fs && data.i == res.i && data.e == res.e);
}

For more details go directly to quick start tutorial.

How to use it

This documentation comprises these parts:

Tutorial - getting started.
Reference section - all the details.

documentation is in progress, most parts are empty, but contributions are welcome.

Requirements

Works with C++11 compiler, no additional dependencies, include <bitsery/bitsery.h> and you're done.

Platforms

This library was tested on

Windows: Visual Studio 2015, MinGW (GCC 5.2)
Linux: GCC 5.4, GCC 6.2, Clang 3.9
OS X Mavericks: AppleClang 8

License

bitsery is licensed under the MIT license.