Depending on the kind of data you have available and the number of structures, C compilers and records you have to wrap, there are two approaches:

The simple approach is to use the pack and unpack functions, which pack an array into a string and back.

Your example struct would likely be packed as:

pack "lCvsif", $var1, $var2, $var3, $var4, $var5, $var6;

[download]

With the caveat that floating point structures are only valid for passing around on the same architecture, as there is no standard.

The hard, but potentially more rewarding approach is Convert::Binary::C, which takes a C struct definition and a C compiler, and packs an array into a string that looks as if the C compiler did it. This most likely is overkill.

In reply to Re: Working with C structures over network by Corion
in thread Working with C structures over network by carcassonne

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.