ogórek

Overview ¶

Package ogórek(*) is a library for decoding/encoding Python's pickle format.

Use Decoder to decode a pickle from input stream, for example:

d := ogórek.NewDecoder(r)
obj, err := d.Decode() // obj is interface{} representing decoded Python object

Use Encoder to encode an object as pickle into output stream, for example:

e := ogórek.NewEncoder(w)
err := e.Encode(obj)

The following table summarizes mapping of basic types in between Python and Go:

Python	   Go
------	   --

None	↔  ogórek.None
bool	↔  bool
int	↔  int64
int	←  int, intX, uintX
long	↔  *big.Int
float	↔  float64
float	←  floatX
list	↔  []interface{}
tuple	↔  ogórek.Tuple
dict	↔  map[interface{}]interface{}

str        ↔  string         (+)
bytes      ↔  ogórek.Bytes   (~)
bytearray  ↔  []byte

Python classes and instances are mapped to Class and Call, for example:

Python				Go
------	   			--

decimal.Decimal            ↔    ogórek.Class{"decimal", "Decimal"}
decimal.Decimal("3.14")    ↔    ogórek.Call{
					ogórek.Class{"decimal", "Decimal"},
					ogórek.Tuple{"3.14"},
				}

In particular on Go side it is thus by default safe to decode pickles from untrusted sources(^).

Pickle protocol versions ¶

Over the time the pickle stream format was evolving. The original protocol version 0 is human-readable with versions 1 and 2 extending the protocol in backward-compatible way with binary encodings for efficiency. Protocol version 2 is the highest protocol version that is understood by standard pickle module of Python2. Protocol version 3 added ways to represent Python bytes objects from Python3(~). Protocol version 4 further enhances on version 3 and completely switches to binary-only encoding. Protocol version 5 added support for out-of-band data(%). Please see https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html#data-stream-format for details.

On decoding ogórek detects which protocol is being used and automatically handles all necessary details.

On encoding, for compatibility with Python2, by default ogórek produces pickles with protocol 2. Bytes thus, by default, will be unpickled as str on Python2 and as bytes on Python3. If an earlier protocol is desired, or on the other hand, if Bytes needs to be encoded efficiently (protocol 2 encoding for bytes is far from optimal), and compatibility with pure Python2 is not an issue, the protocol to use for encoding could be explicitly specified, for example:

e := ogórek.NewEncoderWithConfig(w, &ogórek.EncoderConfig{
	Protocol: 3,
})
err := e.Encode(obj)

See EncoderConfig.Protocol for details.

Persistent references ¶

Pickle was originally created for serialization in ZODB (http://zodb.org) object database, where on-disk objects can reference each other similarly to how one in-RAM object can have a reference to another in-RAM object.

When a pickle with such persistent reference is decoded, ogórek represents the reference with Ref placeholder similarly to Class and Call. However it is possible to hook into decoding and process such references in application specific way, for example loading the referenced object from the database:

d := ogórek.NewDecoderWithConfig(r, &ogórek.DecoderConfig{
	PersistentLoad: ...
})
obj, err := d.Decode()

Similarly, for encoding, an application can hook into serialization process and turn pointers to some in-RAM objects into persistent references.

Please see DecoderConfig.PersistentLoad and EncoderConfig.PersistentRef for details.

--------

(*) ogórek is Polish for "pickle".

(+) for Python2 both str and unicode are decoded into string with Python str being considered as UTF-8 encoded. Correspondingly for protocol ≤ 2 Go string is encoded as UTF-8 encoded Python str, and for protocol ≥ 3 as unicode.

(~) bytes can be produced only by Python3 or zodbpickle (https://pypi.org/project/zodbpickle), not by standard Python2. Respectively, for protocol ≤ 2, what ogórek produces is unpickled as bytes by Python3 or zodbpickle, and as str by Python2.

(^) contrary to Python implementation, where malicious pickle can cause the decoder to run arbitrary code, including e.g. os.system("rm -rf /").

(%) ogórek currently does not support out-of-band data.