Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

  
 
  

home | help
VMOD_BLOB(3)		    Library Functions Manual		    VMOD_BLOB(3)

NAME
     vmod_blob - Utilities for the VCL blob type, encoding and decoding

SYNOPSIS
	import blob [as name] [from "path"]

	BLOB decode(ENUM decoding, INT length, STRING encoded)

	STRING encode(ENUM encoding, ENUM case, BLOB blob)

	STRING transcode(ENUM decoding, ENUM encoding, ENUM case, INT length, STRING encoded)

	BOOL same(BLOB, BLOB)

	BOOL equal(BLOB, BLOB)

	INT length(BLOB)

	BLOB sub(BLOB, BYTES length, BYTES offset)

	new xblob = blob.blob(ENUM decoding, STRING encoded)

	    BLOB xblob.get()

	    STRING xblob.encode(ENUM encoding, ENUM case)

DESCRIPTION
     This  VMOD  provides  utility functions and an object for the VCL data type
     BLOB, which may contain arbitrary data of any length.

     Examples:

	sub vcl_init {
	    # Create blob objects from encodings such as base64 or hex.
	    new myblob	 = blob.blob(BASE64, "Zm9vYmFy");
	    new yourblob = blob.blob(encoded="666F6F", decoding=HEX);
	}

	sub vcl_deliver {
	    # The .get() method retrieves the BLOB from an object.
	    set resp.http.MyBlob-As-Hex
		= blob.encode(blob=myblob.get(), encoding=HEX);

	    # The .encode() method efficiently retrieves an encoding.
	    set resp.http.YourBlob-As-Base64 = yourblob.encode(BASE64);

	    # decode() and encode() functions convert blobs to text and
	    # vice versa at runtime.
	    set resp.http.Base64-Encoded
		= blob.encode(BASE64,
			      blob=blob.decode(HEX,
					       encoded=req.http.Hex-Encoded));
	}

	sub vcl_recv {
	    # transcode() converts from one encoding to another.
	    # case=UPPER specifies upper-case hex digits A-F.
	    set req.http.Hex-Encoded
		= blob.transcode(decoding=BASE64, encoding=HEX,
				 case=UPPER, encoded="YmF6");

	    # transcode() from URL to IDENTITY effects a URL decode.
	    set req.url = blob.transcode(encoded=req.url, decoding=URL);

	    # transcode() from IDENTITY to URL effects a URL encode.
	    set req.http.url_urlcoded
		= blob.transcode(encoded=req.url, encoding=URL);
	}

   ENCODING SCHEMES
     Binary-to-text encoding schemes are specified by ENUMs in the  VMOD's  con-
     structor,	methods  and  functions.  Decodings convert a (possibly concate-
     nated) string into a blob, while encodings convert a blob into a string.

     ENUM values for an encoding scheme can be one of:

     * IDENTITY

     * BASE64

     * BASE64URL

     * BASE64URLNOPAD

     * BASE64CF

     * HEX

     * URL

     Empty strings are decoded into a "null blob" (of length 0), and  conversely
     a null blob is encoded as the empty string.

     For encodings with HEX or URL, you may also specify a case ENUM with one of
     the  values  LOWER, UPPER or DEFAULT to produce a string with lower- or up-
     percase hex digits (in [a-f] or [A-F]). The default value for case  is  DE-
     FAULT, which for HEX and URL means the same as LOWER.

     The  case	ENUM is not relevant for decodings; HEX or URL strings to be de-
     coded as BLOBs may have hex digits in either case, or in mixed case.

     The case ENUM MUST be set to DEFAULT for the other encodings  (BASE64*  and
     IDENTITY).   You  cannot, for example, produce an uppercase string by using
     the IDENTITY scheme with case=UPPER. To change the case of  a  string,  use
     the std.toupper() or std.tolower() functions from vmod_std(3).

   IDENTITY
     The  simplest  encoding  converts	between  the BLOB and STRING data types,
     leaving the contents byte-identical.

     Note that a BLOB may contain a null byte at any position before its end; if
     such a BLOB is decoded with IDENTITY, the resulting STRING will have a null
     byte at that position. Since VCL strings, like C strings,	are  represented
     with  a  terminating  null byte, the string will be truncated, appearing to
     contain less data than the original blob. For example:

	# Decode from the hex encoding for "foo\0bar".
	# The header will be seen as "foo".
	set resp.http.Trunced-Foo1
	    = blob.encode(IDENTITY, blob=blob.decode(HEX,
						     encoded="666f6f00626172"));

     IDENTITY is the default encoding and decoding. So the  above  can	also  be
     written as:

	# Decode from the hex encoding for "foo\0bar".
	# The header will be seen as "foo".
	set resp.http.Trunced-Foo2
	  = blob.encode(blob=blob.decode(HEX, encoded="666f6f00626172"));

     The case ENUM MUST be set to DEFAULT for IDENTITY encodings.

   BASE64*
     The  base64  encoding schemes use 4 characters to encode 3 bytes. There are
     no newlines or maximal line lengths -- whitespace is not permitted.

     The BASE64 encoding uses the alphanumeric characters, + and /; and  encoded
     strings  are  padded  with the = character so that their length is always a
     multiple of four.

     The BASE64URL encoding also uses the alphanumeric characters, but -  and  _
     instead  of + and /, so that an encoded string can be used safely in a URL.
     This scheme also uses the padding character =.

     The BASE64URLNOPAD encoding uses the same alphabet as BASE6URL, but  leaves
     out  the  padding.  Thus  the length of an encoding with this scheme is not
     necessarily a multiple of four.

     The BASE64CF` is similar to ``BASE64URL,  with  the  following  changes  to
     BASE64:  +  replaced with -, / replaced with ~ and _ as the padding charac-
     ter. It is used by a certain CDN provider who also inspired the name.

     The case ENUM MUST be set to DEFAULT for all of the BASE64* encodings.

   HEX
     The HEX encoding scheme converts hex strings into blobs and vice versa. For
     encodings, you may use the case ENUM to specify  upper-  or  lowercase  hex
     digits  A	through  f  (default DEFAULT, which means the same as LOWER).  A
     prefix such as 0x is not used for an encoding and is illegal for  a  decod-
     ing.

     If a hex string to be decoded has an odd number of digits, it is decoded as
     if  a 0 is prepended to it; that is, the first digit is interpreted as rep-
     resenting the least significant nibble of the first byte. For example:

	# The concatenated string is "abcdef0", and is decoded as "0abcdef0".
	set resp.http.First = "abc";
	set resp.http.Second = "def0";
	set resp.http.Hex-Decoded
	    = blob.encode(HEX, blob=blob.decode(HEX,
			       encoded=resp.http.First + resp.http.Second));

   URL
     The URL decoding replaces any %<2-hex-digits> substrings  with  the  binary
     value of the hexadecimal number after the % sign.

     The  URL  encoding  implements  "percent encoding" as per RFC3986. The case
     ENUM determines the case of the hex digits, but does not affect  alphabetic
     characters that are not percent-encoded.

   BLOB decode(ENUM decoding, INT length, STRING encoded)
	BLOB decode(
	   ENUM {IDENTITY, BASE64, BASE64URL, BASE64URLNOPAD, BASE64CF, HEX, URL} decoding=IDENTITY,
	   INT length=0,
	   STRING encoded
	)

     Returns  the  BLOB  derived from the string encoded according to the scheme
     specified by decoding.

     If length > 0, only decode the  first  length  characters	of  the  encoded
     string.  If  length <= 0 or greater than the length of the string, then de-
     code the entire string. The default value of length is 0.

     decoding defaults to IDENTITY.

     Example:

	blob.decode(BASE64, encoded="Zm9vYmFyYmF6");

	# same with named parameters
	blob.decode(encoded="Zm9vYmFyYmF6", decoding=BASE64);

	# convert string to blob
	blob.decode(encoded="foo");

   STRING encode(ENUM encoding, ENUM case, BLOB blob)
	STRING encode(
	   ENUM {IDENTITY, BASE64, BASE64URL, BASE64URLNOPAD, BASE64CF, HEX, URL} encoding=IDENTITY,
	   ENUM {LOWER, UPPER, DEFAULT} case=DEFAULT,
	   BLOB blob
	)

     Returns a string representation of the BLOB blob as specified by  encoding.
     case  determines  the case of hex digits for the HEX and URL encodings, and
     is ignored for the other encodings.

     encoding defaults to IDENTITY, and case defaults to  DEFAULT.   DEFAULT  is
     interpreted  as  LOWER  for  the HEX and URL encodings, and is the required
     value for the other encodings.

     Example:

	set resp.http.encode1
	    = blob.encode(HEX,
			  blob=blob.decode(BASE64, encoded="Zm9vYmFyYmF6"));

	# same with named parameters
	set resp.http.encode2
	    = blob.encode(blob=blob.decode(encoded="Zm9vYmFyYmF6",
						   decoding=BASE64),
			      encoding=HEX);

	# convert blob to string
	set resp.http.encode3
	    = blob.encode(blob=blob.decode(encoded="foo"));

   STRING transcode(ENUM decoding, ENUM encoding, ENUM case, INT length,  STRING
     encoded)
	STRING transcode(
	   ENUM {IDENTITY, BASE64, BASE64URL, BASE64URLNOPAD, BASE64CF, HEX, URL} decoding=IDENTITY,
	   ENUM {IDENTITY, BASE64, BASE64URL, BASE64URLNOPAD, BASE64CF, HEX, URL} encoding=IDENTITY,
	   ENUM {LOWER, UPPER, DEFAULT} case=DEFAULT,
	   INT length=0,
	   STRING encoded
	)

     Translates  from  one encoding to another, by first decoding the string en-
     coded according to the scheme decoding, and then returning the encoding  of
     the  resulting  blob  according to the scheme encoding. case determines the
     case of hex digits for the HEX and URL encodings, and is ignored for  other
     encodings.

     As  with blob.decode(): If length > 0, only decode the first length charac-
     ters of the encoded string, otherwise decode the entire string. The default
     value of length is 0.

     decoding and encoding default to IDENTITY, and case  defaults  to	DEFAULT.
     DEFAULT  is  interpreted as LOWER for the HEX and URL encodings, and is the
     required value for the other encodings.

     Example:

	set resp.http.Hex2Base64-1
	     = blob.transcode(HEX, BASE64, encoded="666f6f");

	 # same with named parameters
	 set resp.http.Hex2Base64-2
	    = blob.transcode(encoded="666f6f",
				  encoding=BASE64, decoding=HEX);

	 # URL decode -- recall that IDENTITY is the default encoding.
	 set resp.http.urldecoded
	    = blob.transcode(encoded="foo%20bar", decoding=URL);

	 # URL encode
	 set resp.http.urlencoded
	     = blob.transcode(encoded="foo bar", encoding=URL);

   BOOL same(BLOB, BLOB)
     Returns true if and only if the two BLOB arguments  are  the  same  object,
     i.e. they specify exactly the same region of memory, or both are empty.

     If  the  BLOBs  are  both empty (length is 0 and/or the internal pointer is
     NULL), then blob.same() returns true. If any non-empty BLOB is compared  to
     an empty BLOB, then blob.same() returns false.

   BOOL equal(BLOB, BLOB)
     Returns  true  if	and  only  if the two BLOB arguments have equal contents
     (possibly in different memory regions).

     As with blob.same(): If the BLOBs are both empty, then blob.equal() returns
     true. If any non-empty BLOB is compared to an empty BLOB, then blob.equal()
     returns false.

   INT length(BLOB)
     Returns the length of the BLOB.

   BLOB sub(BLOB, BYTES length, BYTES offset=0)
     Returns a new BLOB formed from length bytes of the BLOB  argument	starting
     at  offset  bytes from the start of its memory region. The default value of
     offset is 0B.

     blob.sub() fails and returns NULL if the BLOB argument is empty, or if off-
     set + length requires more bytes than are available in the BLOB.

   new xblob = blob.blob(ENUM decoding, STRING encoded)
	new xblob = blob.blob(
	   ENUM {IDENTITY, BASE64, BASE64URL, BASE64URLNOPAD, BASE64CF, HEX, URL} decoding=IDENTITY,
	   STRING encoded
	)

     Creates an object that contains the BLOB derived from  the  string  encoded
     according to the scheme decoding.

     Example:

	new theblob1 = blob.blob(BASE64, encoded="YmxvYg==");

	# same with named arguments
	new theblob2 = blob.blob(encoded="YmxvYg==", decoding=BASE64);

	# string as a blob
	new stringblob = blob.blob(encoded="bazz");

   BLOB xblob.get()
     Returns the BLOB created by the constructor.

     Example:

	set resp.http.The-Blob1 =
	    blob.encode(blob=theblob1.get());

	set resp.http.The-Blob2 =
	    blob.encode(blob=theblob2.get());

	set resp.http.The-Stringblob =
	    blob.encode(blob=stringblob.get());

   STRING xblob.encode(ENUM encoding, ENUM case)
	STRING xblob.encode(
	      ENUM {IDENTITY, BASE64, BASE64URL, BASE64URLNOPAD, BASE64CF, HEX, URL} encoding=IDENTITY,
	      ENUM {LOWER, UPPER, DEFAULT} case=DEFAULT
	)

     Returns  an  encoding  of BLOB created by the constructor, according to the
     scheme encoding. case determines the case of hex digits for the HEX and URL
     encodings, and MUST be set to DEFAULT for the other encodings.

     Example:

	# blob as text
	set resp.http.The-Blob = theblob1.encode();

	# blob as base64
	set resp.http.The-Blob-b64 = theblob1.encode(BASE64);

     For any blob.blob() object, encoding and case, encodings via the  xblob.en-
     code() method and the blob.encode() function are equal:

	# Always true:
	blob.encode(ENC, CASE, blob.get()) == blob.encode(ENC, CASE)

     But  the  xblob.encode() object method is more efficient -- the encoding is
     computed once and cached (with allocation in heap memory), and  the  cached
     encoding  is retrieved on every subsequent call. The blob.encode() function
     computes the encoding on every call, allocating space  for  the  string  in
     Vinyl Cache workspaces.

     So  if the data in a BLOB are fixed at VCL initialization time, so that its
     encodings will always be the same, it is better to create a blob.blob() ob-
     ject. The VMOD's functions should be used for data that are not known until
     runtime.

ERRORS
     The encoders, decoders and blob.sub() may fail  if  there	is  insufficient
     space  to	create the new blob or string. Decoders may also fail if the en-
     coded string is an illegal format for the decoding  scheme.  Encoders  will
     fail  for the IDENTITY and BASE64* encoding schemes if the case ENUM is not
     set to DEFAULT.

     If any of the VMOD's methods, functions or constructor fail, then VCL fail-
     ure is invoked, just as if return(fail) had been called in the VCL  source.
     This means that:

     * If  the	blob.blob() object constructor fails, or if any methods or func-
       tions fail during vcl_init{}, then the VCL program will fail to load, and
       the VCC compiler will emit an error message.

     * If a method or  function  fails	in  any  other	VCL  subroutine  besides
       vcl_synth{}, then control is directed to vcl_synth{}. The response status
       is  set	to 503 with the reason string "VCL failed", and an error message
       will be written to the vsl(7) using the tag VCL_Error.

     * If the failure occurs during vcl_synth{}, then  vcl_synth{}  is	aborted.
       The response line "503 VCL failed" is returned, and the VCL_Error message
       is written to the log.

LIMITATIONS
     The  VMOD	allocates  memory in various ways for new blobs and strings. The
     blob.blob() object and its methods allocate memory from the heap, and hence
     they are only limited by available virtual memory.

     The blob.encode(), blob.decode() and  blob.transcode()  functions	allocate
     Vinyl  Cache  workspace, as does blob.sub() for the newly created BLOB.  If
     these functions are failing, as indicated by "out of space" messages in the
     Vinyl Cache log (with the VCL_Error tag), then you will  need  to	increase
     the vinyld parameters workspace_client and/or workspace_backend.

     The  blob.transcode() function also allocates space on the stack for a tem-
     porary BLOB. If this function causes stack overflow, you may  need  to  in-
     crease the vinyld parameter thread_pool_stack.

SEE ALSO
     * vinyld(1)

     * vcl(7)

     * vsl(7)

     * vmod_std(3)

COPYRIGHT
	This document is licensed under the same conditions as Vinyl Cache itself.
	See LICENSE for details.

	SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause

	Authors: Nils Goroll <nils.goroll@uplex.de>
		 Geoffrey Simmons <geoffrey.simmons@uplex.de>

								    VMOD_BLOB(3)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=vmod_blob&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

home | help