.. Copyright (c) 2019 The STE||AR-Group SPDX-License-Identifier: BSL-1.0 Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) .. _modules_serialization: ============= serialization ============= This module provides serialization primitives and support for all built-in types as well as all C++ Standard Library collection and utility types. This list is extended by |hpx| vocabulary types with proper support for global reference counting. |hpx|'s mode of serialization is derived from `Boost's serialization model `_ and, as such, is mostly interface compatible with its Boost counterpart. The purest form of serializing data is to copy the content of the payload bit by bit; however, this method is impractical for generic C++ types, which might be composed of more than just regular built-in types. Instead, |hpx|'s approach to serialization is derived from the Boost Serialization library, and is geared towards allowing the programmer of a given class explicit control and syntax of what to serialize. It is based on operator overloading of two special archive types that hold a buffer or stream to store the serialized data and is responsible for dispatching the serialization mechanism to the intrusive or non-intrusive version. The serialization process is recursive. Each member that needs to be serialized must be specified explicitly. The advantage of this approach is that the serialization code is written in C++ and leverages all necessary programming techniques. The generic, user-facing interface allows for effective application of the serialization process without obstructing the algorithms that need special code for packing and unpacking. It also allows for optimizations in the implementation of the archives. See the :ref:`API reference ` of the module for more details.