vdf: A Lexer and Parser for Valves Data Format (known as vdf)

A Lexer and Parser for Valves Data Format (known as vdf) written in Go.

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Installation
• Usage
• API-Documentation
• Development
  • Unit testing
  • Fuzzing tests
• Press
• VDF parser in other languages
• Inspiration
• License

Installation

It is go gettable

$ go get github.com/andygrunwald/vdf

Usage

Given a file named gamestate_integration_consolesample.cfg with content:

"Console Sample v.1"
{
	"uri" 		"http://127.0.0.1:3000"
	"timeout" 	"5.0"
	"buffer"  	"0.1"
	"throttle" 	"0.5"
	"heartbeat"	"60.0"
	[...]
}

Can be parsed with this Go code:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/andygrunwald/vdf"
)

func main() {
	f, err := os.Open("gamestate_integration_consolesample.cfg")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	p := vdf.NewParser(f)
	m, err := p.Parse()
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	fmt.Println(m)
}

And it will output:

map[
	Console Sample v.1:map[
		uri:http://127.0.0.1:3000
		timeout:5.0
		buffer:0.1
		throttle:0.5
		heartbeat:60.0
		[...]
	]
]

API-Documentation

The official Go package documentation can be found at https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/andygrunwald/vdf.

Development

Unit testing

To run the local unit tests, execute

$ make test

To run the local unit tests and view the unit test code coverage in your local web browser, execute

$ make test-coverage-html

Fuzzing tests

This library implements Go fuzzing. The generated fuzzing corpus is stored in andygrunwald/vdf-fuzzing-corpus, to avoid blowing up the size of this repository.

To run fuzzing locally, execute

$ make init-fuzzing   # Clone the corpus into testdata/fuzz
$ make clean-fuzzing  # Clean the local fuzzing cache
$ make test-fuzzing   # Execute the fuzzing

Press

• Podcast: Engineering Kiosk Episode "#42 Lexer, Parser und Open Source in Counterstrike" (25th of October 2022, German Software Engineering Podcast)

VDF parser in other languages

• PHP and JavaScript: rossengeorgiev/vdf-parser
• PHP: devinwl/keyvalues-php
• PHP: lukezbihlyj/vdf-parser
• PHP: EXayer/vdf-converter
• C#: sanmadjack/VDF
• C#: shravan2x/Gameloop.Vdf
• C#: Indieteur/Steam-Apps-Management-API
• C#: GerhardvanZyl/Steam-VDF-Converter
• C++: TinyTinni/ValveFileVDF
• Java: DHager/hl2parse
• JavaScript node-steam/vdf
• JavaScript: Corecii/steam-binary-vdf-ts
• JavaScript: RoyalBingBong/vdfplus
• JavaScript: key-values/key-values-ts
• Python: ValvePython/vdf
• Python: gorgitko/valve-keyvalues-python
• Python: noriah/PyVDF
• Go: marshauf/keyvalues
• Go: Jleagle/steam-go
• Go: Wakeful-Cloud/vdf
• Rust: LovecraftianHorror/vdf-rs
• Rust: Corecii/steam_vdf
• Other (VS-Code Extension): cooolbros/vscode-vdf
• And some more: Github search for vdf valve

Inspiration

The code is inspired by @benbjohnson's article Handwritten Parsers & Lexers in Go and his example sql-parser. Thank you Ben!

License

This project is released under the terms of the MIT license.