Re: Re: [RFC] Add pack()/unpack() support for signed integers with specific endianness

Hi Am 2025-11-03 15:51, schrieb Gina P. Banyard:

While the < > syntax to "force" the endianess of a sequence specifier is nice. But if this requires rewriting the whole parser as this RFC implies, then you are asking someone to commit to a larger amount of work than they signed up, which is considered bad RFC etiquette. [1]

I disagree with that claim in the RFC and to put my money where my mouth is, I have spent the 15 minutes of writing the necessary patch for the pack() function. It is attached to this email and also available as this gist: https://gist.github.com/TimWolla/d8bca56a6507226e684827d2a7b44829. Given the time spent, I've only given it light testing, but it passes all existing pack() tests and returns the correct output for:

    <?php

    var_dump(bin2hex(pack('s<2s>2', 258, -2, 258, -2)));
    var_dump(bin2hex(pack('a>', 258)));

Using perl -e "print pack('s<2s>2', 258, -2, 258, -2)" |xxd as a comparison. I have not created the patch for unpack(), but I believe this is already sufficient demonstration that “rewriting the whole parser” is not necessary at all. Best regards Tim Düsterhus

Attachment: [text/x-diff] 0001-pack-Support-endian-specifier.patch