[boost] Boost binary serialization, patch proposal for cross architectures compatibility

From: Steve Gury (steve.gury_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-02-11 11:14:10

Hi,

I'm a user of boost serialization and I've detected a small lack in
inter-architecture compatibility.

Issue:
The C and C++ programming languages have different native storage of
standard type depending on the architecture of the operating system. For
example: On a Linux 64bits (LP64), a long variable is stored with 8 bytes
but on a Windows 32bits (ILP32) that same variable will be stored with 4
bytes.
Using boost binary serialization as common format for data exchange between
those different systems won't work fine.
I've written a small patch to fix this issue.

Change:
_ Detect if binary serialized data come from a system with different native
architecture by reading the header. Even if archive is created with the flag
"no_header", the architecture signature is stored.
_ Change the way how std::string (char*, and other) are stored. We have to
store the string's length as a fixed size type (I've chosen unsigned int)
and not size_t (which is an unsigned integer of 64bits on 64bits
architecture and of 32bits on 32bits architecture).
_ Change the way how long and unsigned long are stored by specializing
template function for saving and loading.
_ All those changes have been protected by a "#define
BOOST_CROSS_ARCHITECTURE_COMPATIBLE"

I've compiled and tested this patch, on Windows XP 32bits, Debian Linux
64bits (x86_64), compiled with Visual Studio 2005 ( 8.0) and gcc 4.1

Best regards,
Steve Gury

PS:You can find the patch as attachment.