ryanbreaker / brcc

Binary Resources for C++ Compiler

Binary Resources for C++ Compiler (BRCC)

Version 1.3.2.

The Binary Resources for C++ Compiler is a simple cross platform compiler that converts binary files to C++ header and source files for inclusion in other projects.

I found other solutions to this problem deficient. xxd doesn't allow you to set the name of the variables to anything other than the files name. objdump, ld, both have the same issues in general.

BRCC is a cross platform, more predictable solution. It allows you to compile as many binaries into a single output .cpp file as you want, and creates a corresponding .hpp file. You can manually set the header guard and it doesn't gum up your code with autogeneration comments.

Usage: brcc output_basename HEADER_GUARD [-h|-o] [(-c|-i|-s|-v) symbol_prefix binary_file]...

Example:

brcc ./build/gen/binary_resources GAME_BINARY_RESOURCES_HH -s bin_vertex_shader ./src/vertex_shader.glsl \
bin_fragment_shader ./src/fragment_shader.glsl

Creates files './build/gen/binary_resources.hpp' and './build/gen/binary_resources.cpp', which have std::strings that import the data.

Execution options:

• -h Generate only a header file (does not append .hpp).
• -o Generate only a source file (does not append .cpp).

Symbol Options:

• -s Stores the binary data in a std::string.
• -c Stores the binary data in a C style array.
• -i Stores the binary data in a std::initializer_list<std::uint8_t>.
• -v Stores the binary data in a std::vector<std::uint8_t>.

Note that the order of options is mandatory, you cannot put -h or -o in any location except after the header guard.

The output test-brcc.cpp file after I ran brcc ./test-brcc GUARD_HH bin_test ~/test_binary1.bin arbitrary_symbol /etc/issue:

#ifndef GUARD_HH
#define GUARD_HH
#include <cstdint>

extern std::uint8_t const arbitrary_symbol[30];
extern std::uint8_t const bin_test[13];

#endif
std::uint8_t const arbitrary_symbol[30] = {
  0x4c, 0x69, 0x6e, 0x75, 0x78, 0x20, 0x4d, 0x69, 0x6e, 0x74, 0x20, 0x31, 0x38, 0x2e, 0x33, 0x20,
  0x53, 0x79, 0x6c, 0x76, 0x69, 0x61, 0x20, 0x5c, 0x6e, 0x20, 0x5c, 0x6c, 0x0a, 0x0a
};
std::uint8_t const bin_test[13] = {
  0x48, 0x65, 0x6c, 0x6c, 0x6f, 0x20, 0x77, 0x6f, 0x72, 0x6c, 0x64, 0x21, 0x0a
};