Kaitai Struct: compiler

This project is an official reference compiler for Kaitai Struct project.

Kaitai Struct is a declarative language used for describe various binary data structures, laid out in files or in memory: i.e. binary file formats, network stream packet formats, etc.

The main idea is that a particular format is described in Kaitai Struct language (.ksy files) only once and then can be compiled with this compiler into source files in one of the supported programming languages. These modules will include a generated code for a parser that can read described data structure from a file / stream and give access to it in a nice, easy-to-comprehend API.

Please refer to documentation in Kaitai Struct project for details on .ksy files and general usage patterns.

Trying without install

Kaitai Struct compiler can be tried instantly, without any downloads and installation, at

http://kaitai.io/repl

Note that this implementation uses the same reference code as in this repository and executes totally on a client side, without any queries to server backend.

Downloading and installing

Linux .deb builds (Debian/Ubuntu)

There is an official .deb repository available. The repository is hosted at BinTray and signed with BinTray GPG key (379CE192D401AB61), so it's necessary to import that key first if your box haven't used any BinTray repositories beforehand:

echo "deb https://dl.bintray.com/kaitai-io/debian jessie main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kaitai.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv 379CE192D401AB61
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kaitai-struct-compiler

Windows builds

An official .msi installer build is available to download at

https://bintray.com/kaitai-io/universal/kaitai-struct-compiler/_latestVersion

Universal builds

Basically, everything that can run Java can use so called "universal" builds: a .zip file that includes all the required .jar files bundled and launcher scripts for UNIX/Windows systems. No installation required, one can just unpack and run it. Available at download also at

https://bintray.com/kaitai-io/universal/kaitai-struct-compiler/_latestVersion

Source code

If you're interested in developing compiler itself, you can check out source code in repository:

git clone https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_compiler

See the developer documentation for general pointers on how to proceed with the source code then.

Usage

kaitai-struct-compiler [options] <file>...

Alternatively, a symlink ksc is provided and can be used everywhere just as full name.

Common options:

• <file>... — source files (.ksy)
• -t <language> | --target <language> — target languages (cpp_stl, csharp, java, javascript, perl, php, python, ruby, all)
  • all is a special case: it compiles all possible target languages, creating language-specific directories (as per language identifiers) inside output directory, and then creating output module(s) for each language starting from there
• -d <directory> | --outdir <directory> — output directory (filenames will be auto-generated)

Language-specific options:

• --dot-net-namespace <namespace> — .NET namespace (C# only, default: Kaitai)
• --java-package <package> — Java package (Java only, default: root package)
• --php-namespace <namespace> — PHP namespace (PHP only, default: root package)

Misc options:

• --verbose — verbose output
• --help — display usage information and exit
• --version — output version information and exit

A few examples, given that file foo.ksy exists in current directory and describes format with ID foo:

• kaitai-struct-compiler -t python foo.ksy — compile format in foo.ksy, write output in current directory to file foo.py
• kaitai-struct-compiler -t java foo.ksy — compile format in foo.ksy, create "src" subdir in current one and write output in src/Foo.java
• kaitai-struct-compiler -t java --java-package org.example foo.ksy — compile format in foo.ksy, create "src/org/example" subdir tree in current one and write output in src/org/example/Foo.java; resulting file will bear correct Java package clause.
• kaitai-struct-compiler -t all -d /tmp/out --java-package org.example foo.ksy — compile format in foo.ksy, creating a hierarchy of files:
  • /tmp/out/java/src/org/example/Foo.java
  • /tmp/out/python/foo.py
  • /tmp/out/ruby/foo.rb

Licensing

Kaitai Struct compiler itself is copyright (C) 2015-2017 Kaitai Project.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Note that it applies only to compiler itself, not .ksy input files that one supplies in normal process of compilation, nor to compiler's output files — that consitutes normal usage process and you obviously keep copyright to both.