node-marshal

Parse Ruby's Marshal strings into JavaScript objects/JSON.

This module could not have been built without this awesome blog post series.

Installation

npm install marshal

Use

Basic use

var Marshal = require('marshal');
var m = new Marshal('0408220a68656c6c6f', 'hex');
// OR var m = new Marshal(someBufferInstance);
console.log(m.parsed); // 'hello'

Decode a Rails cookie

This library was purpose-built for sharing a Rails cookie with an Express session.

See clayzermk1/rails-cookie-parser for an example.

Features / Limitations

Able to convert a Marshal string into a JavaScript object (not all types are supported, if you see one you would like supported please create an issue). i.e. Marshal.load()

Unable to convert a JavaScript object into a Marshal string. i.e. Marshal.dump()

Supported Types

nil (converted to null)
booleans
integers
floats (thank you @tgriesser!)
bignums (converted to strings. bignums are broken in the pre-release version v0.2.1, if you need bignum support please do not use v0.2.1.)
raw strings
symbols
symbol links
object links
IVARs (encoded strings only, regular expressions are not supported)
arrays
objects
hashes

Unsupported Types

classes
modules
regular expressions
others (see the RubySpec Marshal spec)

Notes

From what I can tell, positive integers in Ruby Marshal are unsigned and negative integers are signed. Thus, positive integers have twice the range as negative integers.

clayzermk1 / node-marshal