What is Kaitai Struct?
Kaitai Struct is an open-source declarative language used to describe various binary data structures, lay out their serialization/deserialization algorithms, and generate source code in different programming languages. It aims to make parsing complex file formats easier by formally specifying the format, rather than writing hand-tuned parsing code.
Some key features and benefits of Kaitai Struct include:
- Language for describing file formats, including structs, user types, arrays, enums, streams, and conditional parsing logic
- Code generator that outputs code for reading/writing in languages like C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, and Ruby
- Modular and extensible format specifications
- Support for zip, gz, bzip2, and encryption formats out of the box
- Validation checks while parsing data
- Visualization for debugging using web-based Kaitai Struct Visualizer
- Large collection of format specifications for common file types like fonts, media, documents, and network formats
- Active open source project with over 500 format specs
Kaitai Struct helps developers simplify working with binary file formats across platforms and languages. By formally describing the format, the complexity of parsing is handled, letting developers focus on using the data. The code generation lowers maintenance costs and avoids parsing bugs.
HxD, WinHex, 010 Editor, ImHex, iHex, FileAlyzer, Hexinator, Synalyze It!, Hex Fiend, Preon, Catch22 HexEdit, FlexHex are some alternatives to Kaitai Struct.