Some Serialization Numbers

[Sewer56]

Git Repo with Random Lib Tests Wiki Version with Extra Details

#![feature(optimize_attribute)]

extern crate alloc;
use std::io::{prelude::Read, Cursor};

use byteorder::{LittleEndian, ReadBytesExt};
use rkyv::{Archive, Deserialize, Serialize};

#[derive(Archive, Deserialize, Serialize, Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct Credit {
    name: String,
    role: String,
    url: Option<String>,
}

#[derive(Archive, Deserialize, Serialize, Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct UpdateInfo {
    item_type: String,
    item_id: u32,
}

#[derive(Archive, Deserialize, Serialize, Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct DependencyInfo {
    id: String,
    name: String,
    author: String,
    // Additional fields for UpdateData can be added here
}

#[derive(Archive, Deserialize, Serialize, Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct GalleryItem {
    file_name: String,
    caption: Option<String>,
}

#[derive(Archive, Deserialize, Serialize, Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct PackageConfig {
    id: String,
    name: String,
    summary: String,
    author: String,
    docs_file: Option<String>,
    version: String,
    tags: Vec<String>,
    source_url: Option<String>,
    project_url: Option<String>,
    published: String,
    icon: String,
    is_library: bool,
    supported_games: Vec<String>,
    credits: Vec<Credit>,
    update_data: UpdateInfo,
    dependencies: Vec<DependencyInfo>,
    gallery: Vec<GalleryItem>,
    // Additional fields for Targets can be added here
}

#[no_mangle]
pub extern "C" fn deserialize_package_config(data: &[u8]) -> PackageConfig {
    let archived = unsafe { rkyv::archived_root::<PackageConfig>(data) };
    archived.deserialize(&mut rkyv::Infallible).unwrap()
}

Some serialize, deserialize tests. rkyv is by far the winner, it's pretty much on par with manual deserialization by hand.

35.2%  88.8% 2.8KiB [Unknown] deserialize_package_config
 1.2%   3.1%   100B     alloc alloc::slice::<impl alloc::borrow::ToOwned for [T]>::to_owned
 0.7%   1.7%    54B [Unknown] __rust_alloc
 0.0%   0.0%     1B       std std::sys::pal::unix::args::imp::ARGV_INIT_ARRAY::init_wrapper
 0.0%   0.0%     0B           And 0 smaller methods. Use -n N to show more.
39.7% 100.0% 3.2KiB           .text section size, the file size is 8.0KiB

Other solutions, often based on serde introduce additional code bloat. This is unfortunately not always serde's fault, but just something that happens.

Example:

Postcard:

39.0%  68.2% 5.6KiB [Unknown] deserialize_package_config
 4.5%   7.8%   657B     serde serde::de::impls::<impl serde::de::Deserialize for alloc::string::String>::deserialize
 4.2%   7.3%   615B     serde serde::de::SeqAccess::next_element
 1.4%   2.5%   213B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::finish_grow
 1.3%   2.2%   185B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 1.3%   2.2%   185B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 1.3%   2.2%   184B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 1.0%   1.8%   152B      core core::ptr::drop_in_place<alloc::vec::Vec<postcard_test::Credit>>
 0.9%   1.5%   126B      core core::ptr::drop_in_place<alloc::vec::Vec<postcard_test::DependencyInfo>>
 0.6%   1.1%    94B      core core::ptr::drop_in_place<alloc::vec::Vec<alloc::string::String>>
 0.4%   0.6%    54B [Unknown] __rust_alloc
 0.0%   0.0%     1B       std std::sys::pal::unix::args::imp::ARGV_INIT_ARRAY::init_wrapper
 0.0%   0.0%     0B           And 0 smaller methods. Use -n N to show more.
57.2% 100.0% 8.2KiB           .text section size, the file size is 14.4KiB

Manual (Unoptimized):

21.7%  55.0% 2.1KiB     [Unknown] deserialize_package_config
 6.4%  16.2%   633B postcard_test postcard_test::deserialize_string
 2.2%   5.5%   213B         alloc alloc::raw_vec::finish_grow
 1.9%   4.7%   185B         alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 1.9%   4.7%   185B         alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 1.9%   4.7%   184B         alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 0.9%   2.3%    89B postcard_test postcard_test::deserialize_option_string
 0.5%   1.4%    54B     [Unknown] __rust_alloc
 0.0%   0.0%     1B           std std::sys::pal::unix::args::imp::ARGV_INIT_ARRAY::init_wrapper
 0.0%   0.0%     0B               And 0 smaller methods. Use -n N to show more.
39.5% 100.0% 3.8KiB               .text section size, the file size is 9.6KiB

With optimization, should pretty much match rkyv; but with copying.

Bincode:

 File  .text    Size     Crate Name
18.5%  37.0%  4.7KiB [Unknown] deserialize_package_config
 6.3%  12.6%  1.6KiB     alloc <<alloc::boxed::Box<dyn core::error::Error+core::marker::Sync+core::marker::Send> as core::...
 3.7%   7.5%    975B     alloc <<alloc::boxed::Box<dyn core::error::Error+core::marker::Sync+core::marker::Send> as core::...
 3.1%   6.3%    822B     serde serde::de::impls::<impl serde::de::Deserialize for alloc::string::String>::deserialize
 2.8%   5.5%    724B      core core::fmt::num::imp::<impl core::fmt::Display for u64>::fmt
 2.0%   4.1%    533B     alloc core::fmt::Write::write_fmt
 1.7%   3.5%    451B     serde serde::de::SeqAccess::next_element
 0.9%   1.9%    246B     serde serde::de::Error::invalid_length
 0.9%   1.7%    228B    alloc? <alloc::string::String as core::fmt::Write>::write_char
 0.8%   1.6%    213B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::finish_grow
 0.7%   1.4%    185B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 0.7%   1.4%    185B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 0.7%   1.4%    184B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 0.6%   1.3%    165B      core core::unicode::printable::check
 0.6%   1.3%    164B      core core::char::EscapeUnicode::new
 0.6%   1.2%    152B      core core::ptr::drop_in_place<alloc::vec::Vec<postcard_test::Credit>>
 0.6%   1.1%    145B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_amortized
 0.5%   1.0%    126B      core core::ptr::drop_in_place<alloc::vec::Vec<postcard_test::DependencyInfo>>
 0.4%   0.9%    114B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::try_allocate_in
 0.4%   0.9%    112B      core core::fmt::Formatter::padding
 2.5%   5.0%    658B           And 16 smaller methods. Use -n N to show more.
49.9% 100.0% 12.8KiB           .text section size, the file size is 25.5KiB

Bitcode:

13.4%  23.9%  3.4KiB [Unknown] deserialize_package_config
12.5%  22.4%  3.2KiB   bitcode bitcode::derive::decode_inline_never
 4.2%   7.6%  1.1KiB   bitcode <bitcode::length::LengthDecoder as bitcode::coder::View>::populate
 3.4%   6.0%    878B   bitcode <bitcode::str::StrDecoder as bitcode::coder::View>::populate
 2.0%   3.7%    533B      core core::fmt::write
 1.9%   3.3%    486B   bitcode <bitcode::derive::option::OptionDecoder<T> as bitcode::coder::View>::populate
 1.8%   3.3%    476B   bitcode std::sys::thread_local::fast_local::Key<T>::try_initialize
 1.8%   3.2%    471B      core core::ptr::drop_in_place<postcard_test::_::PackageConfigDecoder>
 1.2%   2.2%    325B   bitcode bitcode::pack::unpack_bytes
 1.1%   1.9%    281B   bitcode bitcode::pack::unpack_arithmetic
 1.1%   1.9%    281B   bitcode bitcode::pack::unpack_arithmetic
 0.9%   1.6%    234B   bitcode bitcode::pack::unpack_arithmetic
 0.9%   1.6%    232B   bitcode bitcode::pack::unpack_arithmetic
 0.8%   1.5%    213B     alloc alloc::raw_vec::finish_grow
 0.8%   1.4%    199B   bitcode bitcode::pack::unpack_arithmetic
 0.7%   1.3%    191B       std std::sys_common::thread_local_key::StaticKey::key
 0.7%   1.3%    188B       std core::fmt::Write::write_char
 0.7%   1.2%    175B       std <std::io::Write::write_fmt::Adapter<T> as core::fmt::Write>::write_str
 0.6%   1.1%    166B       std alloc::raw_vec::RawVec<T,A>::grow_one
 0.6%   1.1%    164B     alloc alloc::vec::Vec<T,A>::reserve
 4.0%   7.1%  1.0KiB           And 17 smaller methods. Use -n N to show more.
55.9% 100.0% 14.3KiB           .text section size, the file size is 25.5KiB