I have written a C++ library that saves my data (a collection of custom structs etc) into a binary file. I currently use (i.e. create and consume) the files locally, on my Windows (XP) machine. For simplicity, lets think of the library in two parts: a writer (Creates the files) and a reader or consumer (simply reads data from the files).
Recently though, I would like to also consume (i.e. read) the data files I have created on my XP machine, on my Linux machine. I must point out at this stage that both machines are PCs (so have the same endianess etc).
I can build a reader (and compile for Linux [Ubuntu 9.10 to be precise]), since I am the library creator. My question, before I embark down this road (of building the reader etc) is:
Assuming I have succesfully built the reader for Linux,
Can I simply copy accross, files that were created on the windows (XP) machine to the Linux (Ubuntu 9.10) machine and use the Linux reader to successfully read the copied over file?
For the files to be binary compatible:
It's certainly possible for all of these conditions to be fulfilled, or for you to not happen to be hitting any cases for which they are not. At the very least, though, I'd add some sanity checks and/or sentinel members to detect problems.