CBOR Test Vectors

Test vectors for CBOR. See RFC 8949 for a starting point.

Intent

Ensure full coverage of a typical CBOR implementation, including failing in all of the correct places. Different libraries may make different choices, or have configurable options to act in different modes.

Format

Multiple JSON files in the tests directory. Each file is EDN of the form:

{
  "title": "mt0-good",
  "description": "Plain CBOR integers storable as major type 0 (mt0), from RFC 8949 appendix A",
  "fail": false, # Fail all tests in file?
  "tests": [
    {
      "description": "mt0 zero",
      "encoded": h'00',
      "decoded": 0,
      "roundtrip": true, # optional, true is the default
      "fail": false, # optional, false is the default
    },
  ],
}

Processing

• Parse the whole .edn file as CBOR-EDN, generating a CBOR byte string.
• Alternately, read the .cbor file which should always match the .edn file, but not require an EDN parser.
• Decode the byte string to your internal representation of CBOR.
• For each test in tests:
  • "encoded" will now be a CBOR byte string.
  • "decoded" will now be your internal representation of an item.
  • Unless roundtrip is false, encode "decoded", and ensure you get "encoded". If roundtrip is not specified, it defaults to true.
  • Decode "encoded", and ensure you get "decoded".
  • If "fail" is true, ensure that the above steps throw an error (there may be only one of "encoded" or "decoded" if "fail" is true). "roundtrip" is ignored if "fail" is true.

Checking the tests with nodejs and cbor2

• Install nodejs
• Install pnpm
• Install dependencies with pnpm install
• Run checks with npm test
• If you modify any .js file, run lint checks with npm run lint
• If you modify any .edn file, regenerate the .cbor files with VECTOR_MODE=gen npm test, then run npm test to ensure that all of the .cbor files match their .edn equivalents.