22.3 Tables File Format

This section defines the file format of serialized flex tables.

The tables format allows for one or more sets of tables to be specified, where each set corresponds to a given scanner. Scanners are indexed by name, as described below. The file format is as follows:

                 TABLE SET 1
                +-------------------------------+
        Header  | uint32          th_magic;     |
                | uint32          th_hsize;     |
                | uint32          th_ssize;     |
                | uint16          th_flags;     |
                | char            th_version[]; |
                | char            th_name[];    |
                | uint8           th_pad64[];   |
                +-------------------------------+
        Table 1 | uint16          td_id;        |
                | uint16          td_flags;     |
                | uint32          td_hilen;     |
                | uint32          td_lolen;     |
                | void            td_data[];    |
                | uint8           td_pad64[];   |
                +-------------------------------+
        Table 2 |                               |
           .    .                               .
           .    .                               .
           .    .                               .
           .    .                               .
        Table n |                               |
                +-------------------------------+
                 TABLE SET 2
                      .
                      .
                      .
                 TABLE SET N

The above diagram shows that a complete set of tables consists of a header followed by multiple individual tables. Furthermore, multiple complete sets may be present in the same file, each set with its own header and tables. The sets are contiguous in the file. The only way to know if another set follows is to check the next four bytes for the magic number (or check for EOF). The header and tables sections are padded to 64-bit boundaries. Below we describe each field in detail. This format does not specify how the scanner will expand the given data, i.e., data may be serialized as int8, but expanded to an int32 array at runtime. This is to reduce the size of the serialized data where possible. Remember, all integer values are in network byte order.

Fields of a table header:

th_magic

Magic number, always 0xF13C57B1.

th_hsize

Size of this entire header, in bytes, including all fields plus any padding.

th_ssize

Size of this entire set, in bytes, including the header, all tables, plus any padding.

th_flags

Bit flags for this table set. Currently unused.

th_version[]

Flex version in NULL-terminated string format. e.g., ‘2.5.13a’. This is the version of flex that was used to create the serialized tables.

th_name[]

Contains the name of this table set. The default is ‘yytables’, and is prefixed accordingly, e.g., ‘footables’. Must be NULL-terminated.

th_pad64[]

Zero or more NULL bytes, padding the entire header to the next 64-bit boundary as calculated from the beginning of the header.

Fields of a table:

td_id

Specifies the table identifier. Possible values are:

YYTD_ID_ACCEPT (0x01)

yy_accept

YYTD_ID_BASE (0x02)

yy_base

YYTD_ID_CHK (0x03)

yy_chk

YYTD_ID_DEF (0x04)

yy_def

YYTD_ID_EC (0x05)

yy_ec

YYTD_ID_META (0x06)

yy_meta

YYTD_ID_NUL_TRANS (0x07)

yy_NUL_trans

YYTD_ID_NXT (0x08)

yy_nxt. This array may be two dimensional. See the td_hilen field below.

YYTD_ID_RULE_CAN_MATCH_EOL (0x09)

yy_rule_can_match_eol

YYTD_ID_START_STATE_LIST (0x0A)

yy_start_state_list. This array is handled specially because it is an array of pointers to structs. See the td_flags field below.

YYTD_ID_TRANSITION (0x0B)

yy_transition. This array is handled specially because it is an array of structs. See the td_lolen field below.

YYTD_ID_ACCLIST (0x0C)

yy_acclist

td_flags

Bit flags describing how to interpret the data in td_data. The data arrays are one-dimensional by default, but may be two dimensional as specified in the td_hilen field.

YYTD_DATA8 (0x01)

The data is serialized as an array of type int8.

YYTD_DATA16 (0x02)

The data is serialized as an array of type int16.

YYTD_DATA32 (0x04)

The data is serialized as an array of type int32.

YYTD_PTRANS (0x08)

The data is a list of indexes of entries in the expanded yy_transition array. Each index should be expanded to a pointer to the corresponding entry in the yy_transition array. We count on the fact that the yy_transition array has already been seen.

YYTD_STRUCT (0x10)

The data is a list of yy_trans_info structs, each of which consists of two integers. There is no padding between struct elements or between structs. The type of each member is determined by the YYTD_DATA* bits.

td_hilen

If td_hilen is non-zero, then the data is a two-dimensional array. Otherwise, the data is a one-dimensional array. td_hilen contains the number of elements in the higher dimensional array, and td_lolen contains the number of elements in the lowest dimension.

Conceptually, td_data is either sometype td_data[td_lolen], or sometype td_data[td_hilen][td_lolen], where sometype is specified by the td_flags field. It is possible for both td_lolen and td_hilen to be zero, in which case td_data is a zero length array, and no data is loaded, i.e., this table is simply skipped. Flex does not currently generate tables of zero length.

td_lolen

Specifies the number of elements in the lowest dimension array. If this is a one-dimensional array, then it is simply the number of elements in this array. The element size is determined by the td_flags field.

td_data[]

The table data. This array may be a one- or two-dimensional array, of type int8, int16, int32, struct yy_trans_info, or struct yy_trans_info*, depending upon the values in the td_flags, td_hilen, and td_lolen fields.

td_pad64[]

Zero or more NULL bytes, padding the entire table to the next 64-bit boundary as calculated from the beginning of this table.