YAML IMPLEMENTATIONS IN PERL

This module, YAML.pm, is really just the interface module for YAML modules written in Perl. The basic interface for YAML consists of two functions: Dump and Load. The real work is done by the modules YAML::Dumper and YAML::Loader.

Different YAML module distributions can be created by subclassing YAML.pm and YAML::Loader and YAML::Dumper. For example, YAML-Simple consists of YAML::Simple YAML::Dumper::Simple and YAML::Loader::Simple.

Why would there be more than one implementation of YAML? Well, despite YAML’s offering of being a simple data format, YAML is actually very deep and complex. Implementing the entirety of the YAML specification is a daunting task.

For this reason I am currently working on 3 different YAML implementations.

YAML

The main YAML distribution will keeping evolving to support the entire YAML specification in pure Perl. This may not be the fastest or most stable module though. Currently, YAML.pm has lots of known bugs. It is mostly a great tool for dumping Perl data structures to a readable form.

YAML::Tiny

The point of YAML::Tiny is to strip YAML down to the 90% that people use most and offer that in a small, fast, stable, pure Perl form. YAML::Tiny will simply die when it is asked to do something it can't.

YAML::Syck

libsyck is the C based YAML processing library used by the Ruby programming language (and also Python, PHP and Pugs). YAML::Syck is the Perl binding to libsyck. It should be very fast, but may have problems of its own. It will also require C compilation.

NOTE: Audrey Tang has actually completed this module and it works great and is 10 times faster than YAML.pm.

In the future, there will likely be even more YAML modules. Remember, people other than Ingy are allowed to write YAML modules!
FUNCTIONAL USAGE

YAML is completely OO under the hood. Still it exports a few useful top level functions so that it is dead simple to use. These functions just do the OO stuff for you. If you want direct access to the OO API see the documentation for YAML::Dumper and YAML::Loader.
Exported Functions

The following functions are exported by YAML.pm by default. The reason they are exported is so that YAML works much like Data::Dumper. If you don’t want functions to be imported, just use YAML with an empty import list:

use YAML ();

Dump(list-of-Perl-data-structures)

Turn Perl data into YAML. This function works very much like Data::Dumper::Dumper(). It takes a list of Perl data structures and dumps them into a serialized form. It returns a string containing the YAML stream. The structures can be references or plain scalars.

Load(string-containing-a-YAML-stream)

Turn YAML into Perl data. This is the opposite of Dump. Just like Storable's thaw() function or the eval() function in relation to Data::Dumper. It parses a string containing a valid YAML stream into a list of Perl data structures.

Exportable Functions

These functions are not exported by default but you can request them in an import list like this:

use YAML qw’freeze thaw Bless’;

freeze() and thaw()

Aliases to Dump() and Load() for Storable fans. This will also allow YAML.pm to be plugged directly into modules like POE.pm, that use the freeze/thaw API for internal serialization.

DumpFile(filepath, list)

Writes the YAML stream to a file instead of just returning a string.

LoadFile(filepath)

Reads the YAML stream from a file instead of a string.

Bless(perl-node, [yaml-node | class-name])

Associate a normal Perl node, with a yaml node. A yaml node is an object tied to the YAML::Node class. The second argument is either a yaml node that you've already created or a class (package) name that supports a yaml_dump() function. A yaml_dump() function should take a perl node and return a yaml node. If no second argument is provided, Bless will create a yaml node. This node is not returned, but can be retrieved with the Blessed() function.

Here's an example of how to use Bless. Say you have a hash containing three keys, but you only want to dump two of them. Furthermore the keys must be dumped in a certain order. Here's how you do that:

use YAML qw(Dump Bless);
$hash = {apple => 'good', banana => 'bad', cauliflower => 'ugly'};
print Dump $hash;
Bless($hash)->keys(['banana', 'apple']);
print Dump $hash;

produces:

---
apple: good
banana: bad
cauliflower: ugly
---
banana: bad
apple: good

Bless returns the tied part of a yaml-node, so that you can call the YAML::Node methods. This is the same thing that YAML::Node::ynode() returns. So another way to do the above example is:

use YAML qw(Dump Bless);
use YAML::Node;
$hash = {apple => 'good', banana => 'bad', cauliflower => 'ugly'};
print Dump $hash;
Bless($hash);
$ynode = ynode(Blessed($hash));
$ynode->keys(['banana', 'apple']);
print Dump $hash;

Note that Blessing a Perl data structure does not change it anyway. The extra information is stored separately and looked up by the Blessed node's memory address.

Blessed(perl-node)

Returns the yaml node that a particular perl node is associated with (see above). Returns undef if the node is not (YAML) Blessed.

GLOBAL OPTIONS

YAML options are set using a group of global variables in the YAML namespace. This is similar to how Data::Dumper works.

For example, to change the indentation width, do something like:

local $YAML::Indent = 3;

The current options are:

DumperClass

You can override which module/class YAML uses for Dumping data.

LoadBlessed (since 1.25)

Default is undef (false)

The default was changed in version 1.30.

When set to true, YAML nodes with special tags will be automatocally blessed into objects:

- !perl/hash:Foo::Bar
    foo: 42

When loading untrusted YAML, you should disable this option by setting it to 0. This will also disable setting typeglobs when loading them.

You can create any kind of object with YAML. The creation itself is not the critical part. If the class has a DESTROY method, it will be called once the object is deleted. An example with File::Temp removing files can be found at https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=862373

LoaderClass

You can override which module/class YAML uses for Loading data.

Indent

This is the number of space characters to use for each indentation level when doing a Dump(). The default is 2.

By the way, YAML can use any number of characters for indentation at any level. So if you are editing YAML by hand feel free to do it anyway that looks pleasing to you; just be consistent for a given level.

SortKeys

Default is 1. (true)

Tells YAML.pm whether or not to sort hash keys when storing a document.

YAML::Node objects can have their own sort order, which is usually what you want. To override the YAML::Node order and sort the keys anyway, set SortKeys to 2.

Stringify

Default is 0. (false)

Objects with string overloading should honor the overloading and dump the stringification of themselves, rather than the actual object's guts.

Numify

Default is 0. (false)

Values that look like numbers (integers, floats) will be numified when loaded.

UseHeader

Default is 1. (true)

This tells YAML.pm whether to use a separator string for a Dump operation. This only applies to the first document in a stream. Subsequent documents must have a YAML header by definition.

UseVersion

Default is 0. (false)

Tells YAML.pm whether to include the YAML version on the separator/header.

--- %YAML:1.0

AnchorPrefix

Default is ''.

Anchor names are normally numeric. YAML.pm simply starts with '1' and increases by one for each new anchor. This option allows you to specify a string to be prepended to each anchor number.

UseCode

Setting the UseCode option is a shortcut to set both the DumpCode and LoadCode options at once. Setting UseCode to '1' tells YAML.pm to dump Perl code references as Perl (using B::Deparse) and to load them back into memory using eval(). The reason this has to be an option is that using eval() to parse untrusted code is, well, untrustworthy.

DumpCode

Determines if and how YAML.pm should serialize Perl code references. By default YAML.pm will dump code references as dummy placeholders (much like Data::Dumper). If DumpCode is set to '1' or 'deparse', code references will be dumped as actual Perl code.

LoadCode

LoadCode is the opposite of DumpCode. It tells YAML if and how to deserialize code references. When set to '1' or 'deparse' it will use eval(). Since this is potentially risky, only use this option if you know where your YAML has been.

LoadCode must be enabled also to use the feature of evaluating typeglobs (because with the typeglob feature you would be able to set the variable $YAML::LoadCode from a YAML file).

Preserve

When set to true, this option tells the Loader to load hashes into YAML::Node objects. These are tied hashes. This has the effect of remembering the key order, thus it will be preserved when the hash is dumped again. See YAML::Node for more information.

UseBlock

YAML.pm uses heuristics to guess which scalar style is best for a given node. Sometimes you'll want all multiline scalars to use the 'block' style. If so, set this option to 1.

NOTE: YAML's block style is akin to Perl's here-document.

UseFold (Not supported anymore since v0.60)

If you want to force YAML to use the 'folded' style for all multiline scalars, then set $UseFold to 1.

NOTE: YAML's folded style is akin to the way HTML folds text, except smarter.

UseAliases

YAML has an alias mechanism such that any given structure in memory gets serialized once. Any other references to that structure are serialized only as alias markers. This is how YAML can serialize duplicate and recursive structures.

Sometimes, when you KNOW that your data is nonrecursive in nature, you may want to serialize such that every node is expressed in full. (ie as a copy of the original). Setting $YAML::UseAliases to 0 will allow you to do this. This also may result in faster processing because the lookup overhead is by bypassed.

THIS OPTION CAN BE DANGEROUS. If your data is recursive, this option will cause Dump() to run in an endless loop, chewing up your computers memory. You have been warned.

CompressSeries

Default is 1.

Compresses the formatting of arrays of hashes:

-
  foo: bar
-
  bar: foo

becomes:

- foo: bar
- bar: foo

Since this output is usually more desirable, this option is turned on by default.

QuoteNumericStrings

Default is 0. (false)

Adds detection mechanisms to encode strings that resemble numbers with mandatory quoting.

This ensures leading that things like leading/trailing zeros and other formatting are preserved.