How to read a Python marshal-written file in C#?
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1
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I'm working on converting a markov-chain chatbot from Python to C# for some friends, but am having a bit of difficulty with a language feature of Python that I have not encountered before. The bot is built off of pyborg, https://github.com/bdrewery/PyBorg.
Part of the initialization of this bot is reading from a words.dat and lines.dat file to populate dictionaries, like so:
content = self.read_file("words.dat")
self.words = marshal.loads(content)
del content
content = self.read_file("lines.dat")
self.lines = marshal.loads(content)
del content
Both of these files are full of the results of a call to "marshal.dumps" with large dictionary objects passed in as the arguments like so:
f = open("words.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.words)
f.write(s)
f.close()
f = open("lines.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.lines)
f.write(s)
f.close()
From what I've been able to gather, the Python "marshal" module is responsible for a type of serialization, in which objects are converted into a byte representation "specific to Python." https://docs.python.org/2/library/marshal.html
I expect these files to be full of key/value sets, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to convert from this "marshal" byte set to something I can parse as string, List, or Dictionary objects in C#. Is there a way to do so without executing external Python scripts from my application?
c# python serialization marshalling
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I'm working on converting a markov-chain chatbot from Python to C# for some friends, but am having a bit of difficulty with a language feature of Python that I have not encountered before. The bot is built off of pyborg, https://github.com/bdrewery/PyBorg.
Part of the initialization of this bot is reading from a words.dat and lines.dat file to populate dictionaries, like so:
content = self.read_file("words.dat")
self.words = marshal.loads(content)
del content
content = self.read_file("lines.dat")
self.lines = marshal.loads(content)
del content
Both of these files are full of the results of a call to "marshal.dumps" with large dictionary objects passed in as the arguments like so:
f = open("words.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.words)
f.write(s)
f.close()
f = open("lines.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.lines)
f.write(s)
f.close()
From what I've been able to gather, the Python "marshal" module is responsible for a type of serialization, in which objects are converted into a byte representation "specific to Python." https://docs.python.org/2/library/marshal.html
I expect these files to be full of key/value sets, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to convert from this "marshal" byte set to something I can parse as string, List, or Dictionary objects in C#. Is there a way to do so without executing external Python scripts from my application?
c# python serialization marshalling
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
1
The marshal module is not designed to be parsed by external tools as stated in the docs. Choosing it for persistence was IMHO a bad design choice of the authors. You might be able to convert the files to something more useful using a Python script but outside of the Python world it will be next to impossible to retrieve the data. Even with the wrong Python version you will have troubles.
– Klaus D.
Nov 12 at 5:45
What I'd do is write my own load and dump routines in c# for a fairly standard / understandable format, e.g. csv or fixed width. Then write a simple script in python to load and marshal the source / input files (as per the code above) and then save them in your .csv format. Then you can ditch the marshal'd files completely.
– GregHNZ
Nov 12 at 5:56
Yeah, I definitely agree that continuing to rely on the marshal module is a recipe for disaster. I'll try to extract and serialize the files as something more C#-friendly with Python, that seems a much more approachable path than getting C# to correctly parse the current .dats. Thanks guys.
– JohnR
Nov 12 at 16:20
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I'm working on converting a markov-chain chatbot from Python to C# for some friends, but am having a bit of difficulty with a language feature of Python that I have not encountered before. The bot is built off of pyborg, https://github.com/bdrewery/PyBorg.
Part of the initialization of this bot is reading from a words.dat and lines.dat file to populate dictionaries, like so:
content = self.read_file("words.dat")
self.words = marshal.loads(content)
del content
content = self.read_file("lines.dat")
self.lines = marshal.loads(content)
del content
Both of these files are full of the results of a call to "marshal.dumps" with large dictionary objects passed in as the arguments like so:
f = open("words.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.words)
f.write(s)
f.close()
f = open("lines.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.lines)
f.write(s)
f.close()
From what I've been able to gather, the Python "marshal" module is responsible for a type of serialization, in which objects are converted into a byte representation "specific to Python." https://docs.python.org/2/library/marshal.html
I expect these files to be full of key/value sets, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to convert from this "marshal" byte set to something I can parse as string, List, or Dictionary objects in C#. Is there a way to do so without executing external Python scripts from my application?
c# python serialization marshalling
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
I'm working on converting a markov-chain chatbot from Python to C# for some friends, but am having a bit of difficulty with a language feature of Python that I have not encountered before. The bot is built off of pyborg, https://github.com/bdrewery/PyBorg.
Part of the initialization of this bot is reading from a words.dat and lines.dat file to populate dictionaries, like so:
content = self.read_file("words.dat")
self.words = marshal.loads(content)
del content
content = self.read_file("lines.dat")
self.lines = marshal.loads(content)
del content
Both of these files are full of the results of a call to "marshal.dumps" with large dictionary objects passed in as the arguments like so:
f = open("words.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.words)
f.write(s)
f.close()
f = open("lines.dat", "wb")
s = marshal.dumps(self.lines)
f.write(s)
f.close()
From what I've been able to gather, the Python "marshal" module is responsible for a type of serialization, in which objects are converted into a byte representation "specific to Python." https://docs.python.org/2/library/marshal.html
I expect these files to be full of key/value sets, but I haven't been able to find any information on how to convert from this "marshal" byte set to something I can parse as string, List, or Dictionary objects in C#. Is there a way to do so without executing external Python scripts from my application?
c# python serialization marshalling
c# python serialization marshalling
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
asked Nov 12 at 5:10
JohnR
61
61
1
The marshal module is not designed to be parsed by external tools as stated in the docs. Choosing it for persistence was IMHO a bad design choice of the authors. You might be able to convert the files to something more useful using a Python script but outside of the Python world it will be next to impossible to retrieve the data. Even with the wrong Python version you will have troubles.
– Klaus D.
Nov 12 at 5:45
What I'd do is write my own load and dump routines in c# for a fairly standard / understandable format, e.g. csv or fixed width. Then write a simple script in python to load and marshal the source / input files (as per the code above) and then save them in your .csv format. Then you can ditch the marshal'd files completely.
– GregHNZ
Nov 12 at 5:56
Yeah, I definitely agree that continuing to rely on the marshal module is a recipe for disaster. I'll try to extract and serialize the files as something more C#-friendly with Python, that seems a much more approachable path than getting C# to correctly parse the current .dats. Thanks guys.
– JohnR
Nov 12 at 16:20
add a comment |
1
The marshal module is not designed to be parsed by external tools as stated in the docs. Choosing it for persistence was IMHO a bad design choice of the authors. You might be able to convert the files to something more useful using a Python script but outside of the Python world it will be next to impossible to retrieve the data. Even with the wrong Python version you will have troubles.
– Klaus D.
Nov 12 at 5:45
What I'd do is write my own load and dump routines in c# for a fairly standard / understandable format, e.g. csv or fixed width. Then write a simple script in python to load and marshal the source / input files (as per the code above) and then save them in your .csv format. Then you can ditch the marshal'd files completely.
– GregHNZ
Nov 12 at 5:56
Yeah, I definitely agree that continuing to rely on the marshal module is a recipe for disaster. I'll try to extract and serialize the files as something more C#-friendly with Python, that seems a much more approachable path than getting C# to correctly parse the current .dats. Thanks guys.
– JohnR
Nov 12 at 16:20
1
1
The marshal module is not designed to be parsed by external tools as stated in the docs. Choosing it for persistence was IMHO a bad design choice of the authors. You might be able to convert the files to something more useful using a Python script but outside of the Python world it will be next to impossible to retrieve the data. Even with the wrong Python version you will have troubles.
– Klaus D.
Nov 12 at 5:45
The marshal module is not designed to be parsed by external tools as stated in the docs. Choosing it for persistence was IMHO a bad design choice of the authors. You might be able to convert the files to something more useful using a Python script but outside of the Python world it will be next to impossible to retrieve the data. Even with the wrong Python version you will have troubles.
– Klaus D.
Nov 12 at 5:45
What I'd do is write my own load and dump routines in c# for a fairly standard / understandable format, e.g. csv or fixed width. Then write a simple script in python to load and marshal the source / input files (as per the code above) and then save them in your .csv format. Then you can ditch the marshal'd files completely.
– GregHNZ
Nov 12 at 5:56
What I'd do is write my own load and dump routines in c# for a fairly standard / understandable format, e.g. csv or fixed width. Then write a simple script in python to load and marshal the source / input files (as per the code above) and then save them in your .csv format. Then you can ditch the marshal'd files completely.
– GregHNZ
Nov 12 at 5:56
Yeah, I definitely agree that continuing to rely on the marshal module is a recipe for disaster. I'll try to extract and serialize the files as something more C#-friendly with Python, that seems a much more approachable path than getting C# to correctly parse the current .dats. Thanks guys.
– JohnR
Nov 12 at 16:20
Yeah, I definitely agree that continuing to rely on the marshal module is a recipe for disaster. I'll try to extract and serialize the files as something more C#-friendly with Python, that seems a much more approachable path than getting C# to correctly parse the current .dats. Thanks guys.
– JohnR
Nov 12 at 16:20
add a comment |
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The marshal module is not designed to be parsed by external tools as stated in the docs. Choosing it for persistence was IMHO a bad design choice of the authors. You might be able to convert the files to something more useful using a Python script but outside of the Python world it will be next to impossible to retrieve the data. Even with the wrong Python version you will have troubles.
– Klaus D.
Nov 12 at 5:45
What I'd do is write my own load and dump routines in c# for a fairly standard / understandable format, e.g. csv or fixed width. Then write a simple script in python to load and marshal the source / input files (as per the code above) and then save them in your .csv format. Then you can ditch the marshal'd files completely.
– GregHNZ
Nov 12 at 5:56
Yeah, I definitely agree that continuing to rely on the marshal module is a recipe for disaster. I'll try to extract and serialize the files as something more C#-friendly with Python, that seems a much more approachable path than getting C# to correctly parse the current .dats. Thanks guys.
– JohnR
Nov 12 at 16:20