Error: Invalid data: Missing delimiter ":" [0x3a]

[akayami]

Hi,

In the following code:

const crypto = require('crypto');
const bencode = require('bencode');

console.log(bencode.decode(bencode.encode({a: 'false'})));
console.log(bencode.decode(bencode.encode({a: false})))

I'm getting:

Error: Invalid data: Missing delimiter ":" [0x3a]
    at Function.decode.find (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/node_modules/bencode/lib/decode.js:50:9)
    at Function.decode.bytes (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/node_modules/bencode/lib/decode.js:103:23)
    at Function.decode.next (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/node_modules/bencode/lib/decode.js:33:30)
    at Function.decode.dictionary (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/node_modules/bencode/lib/decode.js:65:43)
    at Function.decode.next (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/node_modules/bencode/lib/decode.js:30:30)
    at Object.decode (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/node_modules/bencode/lib/decode.js:19:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/tomasz/dev/git/payment-processor/test/sample.js:5:21)
    at Module._compile (module.js:413:34)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:422:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:357:32)

Any object containing a boolean as a value on any key causes decode to fail.

[themasch]

Okay, the problem in this case is that there is (at least to my knowledge) no way to store a boolean in bencode. But we surely need to handle this better.

What would be the best way to handle it?
a) throw an exception because booleans aren't supported
b) cast the boolean to string and encode it
c) cast the boolean to a int and encode it (1 | 0)
d) invent a new bencode-tag to store booleans (meh!)

I'd vote for (c) because at least "0 == false" works. If we are doing strings, "'false' == false" will fail.

[jhermsmeier]

I'd go with option (c) as well - seems the least intrusive while still being compatible with the spec. Option (a) would seem more correct to me, but less convenient.

[themasch]

Someone (@kaelar) already implemented that in the @bittorrent fork of this project (bittorrent@f3f75a3).

[jhermsmeier]

Oh, wasn't aware of that. @kaelar, fancy sending a PR our way?

[jhermsmeier]

It's now fixed & published as 0.8.0 (see #38)