I am new to boost serialization but this seems very strange to me.
I have a very simple class with two members
int number // always = 123
char buffer[?] // buffer with ? size
so sometimes I set the size to buffer[31] then I serialize the class
22 serialization::archive 8 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 123 0 0 31 0 0 0 65 65
we can see the 123 and the 31 so no issue here both are in decimal format.
now I change buffer to buffer[1024] so I expected to see
22 serialization::archive 8 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 123 0 0 1024 0 0 0 65 65 ---
this is the actual outcome
22 serialization::archive 8 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 123 0 0 0 4 0 0 65 65 65
boost has switched to hex for the buffer size only?
notice the other value is still decimal.
So what happens if I switch number from 123 to 1024 ?
I would imagine 040 ?
22 serialization::archive 8 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1024 0 0 0 4 0 0 65 65
If this is by design, why does the 31 not get converted to 1F ? its not consistent.
This causes problems in our load function for the split_free, we were doing this
unsigned int size;
ar >> size;
but as you might guess, when this is 040, it truncs to zero :(
what is the recommended solution to this?
I was using boost 1.45.0 but I tested this on boost 1_56.0 and it is the same.
EDIT: sample of the serialization function
template<class Archive>
void save(Archive& ar, const MYCLASS& buffer, unsigned int /*version*/) {
ar << boost::serialization::make_array(reinterpret_cast<const unsigned char*>(buffer.begin()), buffer.length());
}
MYCLASS is just a wrapper on a char* with the first element an unsigned int to keep the length approximating a UNICODE_STRING
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa380518(v=vs.85).aspx
The code is the same if the length is 1024 or 31 so I would not have expected this to be a problem.
I don't think Boost "switched to hex". I honestly don't have any experience with this, but it looks like boost is serializing as an array of bytes, which can only hold numbers from 0 through 255. 1024 would be a byte with a value 4 followed by a byte with the value 0.