macholib.ptypes — Packable types

The module macholib.ptypes defines types that can be serialized into byte arrays, both for basic types and structured types (C struct values).

Utility functions

macholib.ptypes.sizeof(value)

Returns the size in bytes of an object when packed, raises ValueError for inappropriate values.

macholib.ptypes.pypackable(name, pytype, format)

Returns a packable type that is a subclass of the Python type pytype. The value is converted to and from the packed format using the struct format.

Packable types

class macholib.ptypes.BasePackable

All packable types are a subclass of BasePackable, which defines the basic interface but is itself an abstract base class.

_endian_

The byteorder of a packed value. This will be "<"` for little endian values and ``">" for big-endian ones.

Note

the endianness option is a public value to be able to support both big- and little-endian file formats.

The name suggests that this attribute is private, this is partically for historical reasons and partially to avoid conflicts with field names in C structs.

from_mmap(mmap, ptr, **kw)

This class method constructs the value from a subview of a mmap.mmap object. It uses bytes starting at offset ptr and reads just enough bytes to read the entire object.

from_fileobj(fp, **kw)

This class method constructs the value by reading just enough bytes from a file-like object.

Note

The file must be opened in binary mode, that is read calls should return byte-strings and not unicode-strings.

from_str(value, **kw)

This class method construct the value by using the struct module to parse the given bytes.

Note

contrary to what the name suggests the argument to this method is a byte-string, not a unicode-string.

from_tuple(fp, **kw)

This class method constructs the object from a tuple with all fields.

to_str()

Returns a byte representation of the value.

Note

there is no default implementation for this method

to_fileobj(fp)

Write a byte representation of the value to the given file-like object. The file should be opened in binary mode.

to_mmap(mmap, ptr)

Write the byte representation of the value to a mmap.mmap object, starting at offset ptr.

class macholib.ptypes.Structure(...)

_fields_

This class attribute is a list that contains the fields of the structure in the right order. Every item of this list is a tuple with 2 arguments: the first element is the name of the field, and the second the packable type for the field.

Every subclass of Structure must define _fields_ to be usefull, and the value of _fields_ should not be changed after class construction.

Basic packables

Other than the core functionality this module defines a number of pypackable() types that correspond to useful basic C types.

class macholib.ptypes.p_char([value])

A byte string of length 1

class macholib.ptypes.p_int8

An 8-bit signed integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_uint8

An 8-bit unsigned integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_int16

An 16-bit signed integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_uint16

An 16-bit unsigned integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_int32

An 32-bit signed integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_uint32

An 32-bit unsigned integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_int64

An 64-bit signed integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_uint64

An 64-bit unsigned integer

class macholib.ptypes.p_float

An floating point value of type float

class macholib.ptypes.p_double

An floating point value of type double

Note

the module exports a number of other types with names starting with p_, such as p_int. Those types are deprecated and should not be used.