Question: How to use streaming?

A Forum post raises a question of the practical usage of streaming in the ASN.1 code generated by asn1c:

Hello, I want to use the protocol to send a lot of data, but the device isn't able to hold the whole amount of received data in RAM. It has to work only with parts of the structure at a time.
For example,
BigMessage ::= SEQUENCE {
    time-stamp UTCTime,
    messages SEQUENCE OF SmallMessage
}
If I get only the first half of the Big Message, I want to work with all received messages and then I have to to free my buffer due to limited resources. When I get the second part, I want to work on it and I want to know, if the message was valid...
On the encoder site, I also have to send "half" messages.
How can I do this?

The ASN.1 streaming is easily the most exciting thing the asn1c has to offer. It's not something that's needed too often, but when it does, it's invaluable. Let's split the problem into two parts: how to decode in constant space and how to encode in constant space.

Question: Extensibility and dropping fields

Today's email was asking me about an interesting case of ASN.1 extensibility. Usually, extensibility means adding new members to existing structures. In this case, the user was asking whether ASN.1 supports removing structure members.

Hello, Mr. Walkin.
I am using the ASN.1 compiler and for an application I am developing. I am using this to store the datastructure in a file, for persistence. I am trying to find out whether forward compatibility is support. By this I mean the following.
In the version 1 I have the following structure:
Struct a {
	Int x;
	Int y;
	Int z;
}
I store the data x = 111; y = 222 and z = 333;
Now I upgrade the software to the version 2 where in the new struct is:
Struct a {
	Int x;
	// int y is removed
	Int z;
}
Now when I read the existing file (generated with the older version of ASN.1 specification) with the newer version of the software, I get the following data back: x = 111, and z = 222.
Can you please tell me whether it is possible to get x = 111 and z = 333. If yes, then what ASN syntax should I follow? I am using der_encode and ber_decode.

Lev Walkin → ASN.1 Exposed: support

Question: How to use streaming?

Question: Extensibility and dropping fields