
``marshal`` --- Internal Python object serialization
****************************************************

This module contains functions that can read and write Python values
in a binary format.  The format is specific to Python, but independent
of machine architecture issues (e.g., you can write a Python value to
a file on a PC, transport the file to a Sun, and read it back there).
Details of the format are undocumented on purpose; it may change
between Python versions (although it rarely does). [1]

This is not a general "persistence" module.  For general persistence
and transfer of Python objects through RPC calls, see the modules
``pickle`` and ``shelve``.  The ``marshal`` module exists mainly to
support reading and writing the "pseudo-compiled" code for Python
modules of ``.pyc`` files. Therefore, the Python maintainers reserve
the right to modify the marshal format in backward incompatible ways
should the need arise.  If you're serializing and de-serializing
Python objects, use the ``pickle`` module instead -- the performance
is comparable, version independence is guaranteed, and pickle supports
a substantially wider range of objects than marshal.

Warning: The ``marshal`` module is not intended to be secure against
  erroneous or maliciously constructed data.  Never unmarshal data
  received from an untrusted or unauthenticated source.

Not all Python object types are supported; in general, only objects
whose value is independent from a particular invocation of Python can
be written and read by this module.  The following types are
supported: ``None``, integers, floating point numbers, strings, bytes,
bytearrays, tuples, lists, sets, dictionaries, and code objects, where
it should be understood that tuples, lists and dictionaries are only
supported as long as the values contained therein are themselves
supported; and recursive lists and dictionaries should not be written
(they will cause infinite loops).

There are functions that read/write files as well as functions
operating on strings.

The module defines these functions:

marshal.dump(value, file[, version])

   Write the value on the open file.  The value must be a supported
   type.  The file must be an open file object such as ``sys.stdout``
   or returned by ``open()`` or ``os.popen()``.  It must be opened in
   binary mode (``'wb'`` or ``'w+b'``).

   If the value has (or contains an object that has) an unsupported
   type, a ``ValueError`` exception is raised --- but garbage data
   will also be written to the file.  The object will not be properly
   read back by ``load()``.

   The *version* argument indicates the data format that ``dump``
   should use (see below).

marshal.load(file)

   Read one value from the open file and return it.  If no valid value
   is read (e.g. because the data has a different Python version's
   incompatible marshal format), raise ``EOFError``, ``ValueError`` or
   ``TypeError``.  The file must be an open file object opened in
   binary mode (``'rb'`` or ``'r+b'``).

   Note: If an object containing an unsupported type was marshalled with
     ``dump()``, ``load()`` will substitute ``None`` for the
     unmarshallable type.

marshal.dumps(value[, version])

   Return the string that would be written to a file by ``dump(value,
   file)``.  The value must be a supported type.  Raise a
   ``ValueError`` exception if value has (or contains an object that
   has) an unsupported type.

   The *version* argument indicates the data format that ``dumps``
   should use (see below).

marshal.loads(string)

   Convert the string to a value.  If no valid value is found, raise
   ``EOFError``, ``ValueError`` or ``TypeError``.  Extra characters in
   the string are ignored.

In addition, the following constants are defined:

marshal.version

   Indicates the format that the module uses. Version 0 is the
   historical format, version 1 shares interned strings and version 2
   uses a binary format for floating point numbers. The current
   version is 2.

-[ Footnotes ]-

[1] The name of this module stems from a bit of terminology used by
    the designers of Modula-3 (amongst others), who use the term
    "marshalling" for shipping of data around in a self-contained
    form. Strictly speaking, "to marshal" means to convert some data
    from internal to external form (in an RPC buffer for instance) and
    "unmarshalling" for the reverse process.
