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1![logo](http://google.github.io/flatbuffers/fpl_logo_small.png) FlatBuffers
2===========
3
4![Build status](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/actions/workflows/build.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)
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6[![Fuzzing Status](https://oss-fuzz-build-logs.storage.googleapis.com/badges/flatbuffers.svg)](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/oss-fuzz/issues/list?sort=-opened&can=1&q=proj:flatbuffers)
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10
11
12**FlatBuffers** is a cross platform serialization library architected for
13maximum memory efficiency. It allows you to directly access serialized data without parsing/unpacking it first, while still having great forwards/backwards compatibility.
14
15## Quick Start
16
171. Build the compiler for flatbuffers (`flatc`)
18
19    Use `cmake` to create the build files for your platform and then perform the compilation (Linux example).
20
21    ```
22    cmake -G "Unix Makefiles"
23    make -j
24    ```
25
262. Define your flatbuffer schema (`.fbs`)
27
28    Write the [schema](https://flatbuffers.dev/flatbuffers_guide_writing_schema.html) to define the data you want to serialize. See [monster.fbs](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/monster.fbs) for an example.
29
303. Generate code for your language(s)
31
32    Use the `flatc` compiler to take your schema and generate language-specific code:
33
34    ```
35    ./flatc --cpp --rust monster.fbs
36    ```
37
38    Which generates `monster_generated.h` and `monster_generated.rs` files.
39
404. Serialize data
41
42    Use the generated code, as well as the `FlatBufferBuilder` to construct your serialized buffer. ([`C++` example](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/sample_binary.cpp#L24-L56))
43
445. Transmit/store/save Buffer
45
46    Use your serialized buffer however you want. Send it to someone, save it for later, etc...
47
486. Read the data
49
50    Use the generated accessors to read the data from the serialized buffer.
51
52    It doesn't need to be the same language/schema version, FlatBuffers ensures the data is readable across languages and schema versions. See the [`Rust` example](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/sample_binary.rs#L92-L106) reading the data written by `C++`.
53
54## Documentation
55
56**Go to our [landing page][] to browse our documentation.**
57
58## Supported operating systems
59- Windows
60- macOS
61- Linux
62- Android
63- And any others with a recent C++ compiler (C++ 11 and newer)
64
65## Supported programming languages
66
67Code generation and runtime libraries for many popular languages.
68
691. C
701. C++ - [snapcraft.io](https://snapcraft.io/flatbuffers)
711. C# - [nuget.org](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Google.FlatBuffers)
721. Dart - [pub.dev](https://pub.dev/packages/flat_buffers)
731. Go - [go.dev](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/google/flatbuffers)
741. Java - [Maven](https://search.maven.org/artifact/com.google.flatbuffers/flatbuffers-java)
751. JavaScript - [NPM](https://www.npmjs.com/package/flatbuffers)
761. Kotlin
771. Lobster
781. Lua
791. PHP
801. Python - [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/flatbuffers/)
811. Rust - [crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/flatbuffers)
821. Swift - [swiftpackageindex](https://swiftpackageindex.com/google/flatbuffers)
831. TypeScript - [NPM](https://www.npmjs.com/package/flatbuffers)
841. Nim
85
86## Versioning
87
88FlatBuffers does not follow traditional SemVer versioning (see [rationale](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/wiki/Versioning)) but rather uses a format of the date of the release.
89
90## Contribution
91
92* [FlatBuffers Issues Tracker][] to submit an issue.
93* [stackoverflow.com][] with [`flatbuffers` tag][] for any questions regarding FlatBuffers.
94
95*To contribute to this project,* see [CONTRIBUTING][].
96
97## Community
98
99* [Discord Server](https:///discord.gg/6qgKs3R)
100
101## Security
102
103Please see our [Security Policy](SECURITY.md) for reporting vulnerabilities.
104
105## Licensing
106*Flatbuffers* is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See [LICENSE][] for the full license text.
107
108<br>
109
110   [CONTRIBUTING]: http://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
111   [`flatbuffers` tag]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/flatbuffers
112   [FlatBuffers Google Group]: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/flatbuffers
113   [FlatBuffers Issues Tracker]: http://github.com/google/flatbuffers/issues
114   [stackoverflow.com]: http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=flatbuffers
115   [landing page]: https://google.github.io/flatbuffers
116   [LICENSE]: https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/LICENSE
117