Follow each binary format's UTF-8 rule: strict writers (CBOR/UBJSON/BJData/BSON), lenient readers (#5741)

Signed-off-by: Niels Lohmann <mail@nlohmann.me>
2026-10-07 17:35:18 +00:00 · 2026-10-04 12:13:48 +02:00
parent 40021f38fb
commit f56b418c56
32 changed files with 651 additions and 128 deletions
--- a/docs/mkdocs/docs/api/macros/json_strict_binary_utf8.md
+++ b/docs/mkdocs/docs/api/macros/json_strict_binary_utf8.md
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+# JSON_STRICT_BINARY_UTF8
+
+```cpp
+#define JSON_STRICT_BINARY_UTF8 /* value */
+```
+
+When defined to `1`, the binary writers [`to_cbor`](../basic_json/to_cbor.md), [`to_ubjson`](../basic_json/to_ubjson.md),
+[`to_bjdata`](../basic_json/to_bjdata.md), and [`to_bson`](../basic_json/to_bson.md) check every string value and
+object key for valid UTF-8 and throw [`type_error.316`](../../home/exceptions.md#jsonexceptiontype_error316) for
+ill-formed UTF-8, like [`dump`](../basic_json/dump.md) does. Without it, they write the bytes unchanged.
+
+The macro does not affect:
+
+- [`to_msgpack`](../basic_json/to_msgpack.md): the MessagePack specification allows a `str` value to contain bytes that
+  are not valid UTF-8, so it always writes them unchanged.
+- [`to_bon8`](../basic_json/to_bon8.md): BON8 always checks, because the UTF-8 lead bytes mark where a string ends.
+- The binary readers ([`from_cbor`](../basic_json/from_cbor.md), [`from_msgpack`](../basic_json/from_msgpack.md),
+  [`from_ubjson`](../basic_json/from_ubjson.md), [`from_bjdata`](../basic_json/from_bjdata.md),
+  [`from_bson`](../basic_json/from_bson.md)): none of these formats requires a decoder to reject ill-formed UTF-8, so
+  they always return the bytes unchanged.
+
+## Default definition
+
+The default value is `0` (disabled, the behavior of version 3.12.0 and earlier is preserved).
+
+```cpp
+#define JSON_STRICT_BINARY_UTF8 0
+```
+
+## Notes
+
+!!! note "Background"
+
+    CBOR, UBJSON, BJData, and BSON all require strings to be UTF-8. Up to version 3.12.0, the writers did not check
+    this, so they could produce output that other decoders reject. Checking by default would break code that stores
+    other encodings (for instance ISO 8859-1) in a string and only ever writes it to a binary format, so this macro
+    offers the check as an opt-in ahead of version 4.0.0, where it is planned to become the default (see
+    [#5529](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/5529) and [#5651](https://github.com/nlohmann/json/issues/5651)).
+
+!!! warning "Opt-in only"
+
+    This macro must be defined **before** including `<nlohmann/json.hpp>`. Defining it after the include has no
+    effect.
+
+!!! note "ABI compatibility"
+
+    The value of this macro is encoded in the [namespace](../../features/namespace.md) (tag `_sbu8`), resulting in
+    distinct symbol names. Translation units compiled with and without it can therefore be linked into the same program
+    without One Definition Rule (ODR) violations, but they cannot exchange instances of library types.
+
+## Examples
+
+??? example "Default behavior (macro not defined)"
+
+    Without the macro, the bytes are written unchanged:
+
+    ```cpp
+    #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
+
+    using json = nlohmann::json;
+
+    int main()
+    {
+        auto v = json::to_cbor(json("\xFF"));
+        // v is {0x61, 0xFF}
+    }
+    ```
+
+??? example "Opt-in check (macro defined to 1)"
+
+    With the macro, ill-formed UTF-8 is rejected:
+
+    ```cpp
+    #define JSON_STRICT_BINARY_UTF8 1
+    #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
+
+    using json = nlohmann::json;
+
+    int main()
+    {
+        auto v = json::to_cbor(json("\xFF"));
+        // throws type_error.316: invalid UTF-8 byte at index 0: 0xFF
+    }
+    ```
+
+## See also
+
+- [**to_cbor**](../basic_json/to_cbor.md) - create a CBOR serialization of a JSON value
+- [**to_ubjson**](../basic_json/to_ubjson.md) - create a UBJSON serialization of a JSON value
+- [**to_bjdata**](../basic_json/to_bjdata.md) - create a BJData serialization of a JSON value
+- [**to_bson**](../basic_json/to_bson.md) - create a BSON serialization of a JSON value
+- [**error_handler_t**](../basic_json/error_handler_t.md) - how [`dump`](../basic_json/dump.md) treats ill-formed UTF-8
+
+## Version history
+
+- Added in version 3.13.0.
+- Planned to become the default (with the macro removed) in version 4.0.0.