Wiggins has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am asking if there is some obscure tool that will convert 'storables' between 32-bit and 64-bit formats?

I am building an ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) pair of data structures, and then 'storing' them to be reloaded and used during operations. The data portion is a hash keyed on integers, containing arrays of 3 elements. I would like to convert them , rather than stand up a 32-bit OS and a 64-bit OS and shuffle the code between them.

p.s. I use only core packages for portability.

It is always better to have seen your target for yourself, rather than depend upon someone else's description.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: convert 32-bit storables to 64-bit
by Corion (Patriarch) on Nov 06, 2014 at 14:02 UTC

    No. Basically, Storable can only load files created with the same architecture and version of Perl.

    You should consider a different serialization format. For example, JSON or maybe Sereal. If you have the CPU and disk to spare, Data::Dumper can also produce output that is highly likely to be loadable on a different machine, architecture and version of Perl.

[reply]

      Hi Corion,

      may I cite the documentation of Storable:

      Surprisingly, the routines to be called are named freeze and thaw. If you wish to send out the frozen scalar to another machine, use nfreeze instead to get a portable image.

      We work with nfreeze a long time now without any known hassle. But, yes, using freeze crossing architecture boundaries does make problems.

      Regards
      McA

[reply]
[d/l]

        Thank you for prompting me to (re)read the Storable documentation!

        It seems that Storable got much better especially with forward compatibility since I last looked closely at it.

[reply]
        I think is the same for nstore, or I have to rewrite my portable project??!? ;=)


        L*
        There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
        Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: convert 32-bit storables to 64-bit
by choroba (Cardinal) on Nov 06, 2014 at 14:01 UTC
    p.s. I use only core packages for portability.
    Data::Dumper then? For portability, I'd use YAML or JSON (or even Sereal), so it seems, core ≠ portability.
    لսႽ† ᥲᥒ⚪⟊Ⴙᘓᖇ Ꮅᘓᖇ⎱ Ⴙᥲ𝇋ƙᘓᖇ
[reply]
      My meaning of 'portable' is that my code runs on any system that has a basic Perl install, without having to know how to install Perl packages.

      It is always better to have seen your target for yourself, rather than depend upon someone else's description.

[reply]
[reply]
        So you want a one-liner?
[reply]
Re: convert 32-bit storables to 64-bit
by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 06, 2014 at 14:23 UTC

    I'm not sure I got what you were saying alright, but instead of whatever solution you are using right now to store and read your data, pack might just work.

    use Data::Dumper;
# Input data
my %data = ( 1 => [qw/I don't know/], 2 => [qw/what to use/], 3 => [qw
+/as values !/] );

# Repeat multiple times:
#  A signed 32 bit integer followed by three null terminated strings
my $pattern = "(l(Z*)3)*";

# Encoding
my $packed = pack $pattern, map { $_, @{$data{$_}} } keys %data;

# Decoding
my @unpacked = unpack $pattern, $packed;
my ($key, @values, %out);
$out{$key} = [@values] while (($key, @values) = splice @unpacked, 0, 4
+);
print Dumper \%out;

    [download]

    Edit: well, now that I think of it, Data::Dumper would be a far easier solution to store data in an architecture independant way. I guess I have been working with pack too much lately ^^".

[reply]
[d/l]

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