Rootbeer

Data Formats ​

Read and write JSON, TOML, YAML, and plist files from your configuration. Each format provides encode, decode, read, and write functions.

lua
local rb = require("rootbeer")

rb.json.write("~/.config/myapp/settings.json", { theme = "dark" })

read loads an existing file when your config runs. write saves the file when you apply it. Use encode and decode to convert between Lua values and text without reading or writing a file.

Available formats ​

FormatReadWriteNotes
json✓✓Pretty-printed with 2-space indent.
toml✓✓Datetimes decode as strings.
yaml✓✓Tags decode transparently to scalars.
plist✓✓XML output; decode accepts XML or binary.

Encoding rules ​

These apply to every format. Format-specific behaviour is documented on each format's page.

  • Tables with consecutive integer keys starting at 1 become arrays / sequences. All other tables become objects / maps / dictionaries.
  • nil values are omitted from the output.
  • NaN and Infinity are rejected by formats that cannot represent them (JSON, plist).
  • Lua functions, threads, and userdata error on encode — they have no serialized form.

Choosing format by extension ​

Three writes, one config table:

lua
local data = { theme = "dark", recent = { "a.txt" } }

rb.yaml.write("~/.config/app/config.yaml", data)
rb.json.write("~/.config/app/config.json", data)
rb.toml.write("~/.config/app/config.toml", data)