Version 2.2.0

[Summary]

StormByte Base is the C++26 foundation of the StormByte suite.

Every other module links this library.
This repository is not Buffer, Config, Crypto, Database, Logger, Multimedia, Network or System — those live in their own repos and depend on Base.

Public headers under StormByte/ cover exceptions, Expected, little-endian Serializable, strings, paths, UUID v4, bitmasks, clonable types, ThreadLock, Size, and StormByte::Type concepts.
StormByte::Safe is the owned surface that crosses a DLL without the caller's CRT: collections, wait, and Safe::Thread.

If you landed here from a release link and have not read the tree:

• What this module is, how to build it, and short examples: README.md
• Since 2.0.0 license changed: original source in this repository is dual-licensed, LGPL v3 or later or a commercial license from the copyright holder. The grant does not cover other StormByte modules or thirdparty/. LICENSE

The API is source compatible, but the Safe::Binary layout changed (it now has a vtable): modules built against 2.1.0 must be rebuilt.

Fixed

• StringTests and WStringTests use runtime format validation for dynamic width and precision with Clang and libstdc++ 15 in C++26 mode (GCC PR127220). Other toolchains retain compile-time validation; the formatters and their runtime behavior are unchanged.

Added

• Safe::SecureBinary (StormByte/safe/secure_binary.hxx) derives from Safe::Binary and has the same API. Every byte it drops is zeroed before it goes: erased, popped and truncated bytes, the previous contents on assign and on copy or move assignment, the old block when the storage grows, shrinks or is reserved, and the whole block in the destructor. The zeroing uses a primitive the optimizer may not drop: SecureZeroMemory on Windows, explicit_bzero (glibc 2.25+, musl, FreeBSD, OpenBSD), explicit_memset (NetBSD) or memset_s (macOS). CMake detects which one exists when configuring. If none does, a volatile loop with a compiler barrier is used. Equality runs in constant time whenever one side is a SecureBinary, including Binary == SecureBinary and calls through a const Binary&. Sizes are compared first and are not treated as secret. operator<=> is not constant time. An rvalue std::vector<std::byte> is zeroed before it is cleared.
  • Each block is locked in memory (mlock, or VirtualLock on Windows) so it is not written to swap. This is best effort: past RLIMIT_MEMLOCK or the Windows minimum working set the block stays unlocked and nothing fails. Locks are counted per page, so blocks that share a page do not unlock each other.
  • Not provided: explicit operator std::vector<std::byte>, HexDump() and HexDump(Size) are deleted, and Serializable<Safe::SecureBinary> fails a static_assert. Each would copy the secret into memory that is never wiped. span() and the implicit std::span conversion remain.
  • Not covered: a move, swap or append(&&) between a SecureBinary and a plain Binary hands the block over as is, so a secret moved into a Binary is no longer wiped or locked. A HexDump through a const Binary& still works.
  • Type::IsSafe and Type::IsSafeValue recognize Safe::SecureBinary.
• platform.h identifies the C library (GLIBC, MUSL, UCLIBC, BIONIC, NEWLIB, UCRT, MSVCRT, BSD_LIBC) and, in C++, the standard library (LIBSTDCXX, LIBCXX, MSVC_STL). musl has no identifying macro, so MUSL means a Linux libc that is none of the others. platform.h now includes <limits.h>, and <version> in C++.

Changed

• ABI break: Safe::Binary is no longer final. It has a virtual destructor and four protected hooks, all doing nothing by default. Discard(std::span<std::byte>) receives every byte range the sequence is about to drop or release. Acquire and Release receive every allocated block that enters or leaves the object through reallocation, move or swap. ConstantTimeCompare() selects constant-time equality. The protected Wipe and Storage helpers are available to derived classes.
• Safe::Binary manages its capacity itself instead of letting Safe::Vector reallocate, so every reallocation reaches Discard. Growth is still geometric. assign, insert and append no longer build a temporary Vector; a range that aliases the sequence is remapped in place. insert from a single-pass input iterator inserts byte by byte.
• Safe::Binary(R&&) takes the block of any rvalue derived from Binary, not only of Binary itself.