[ruby-core:111898] [Ruby master Feature#19245] Strict mode for Array#pack that doesn't silently truncate numbers that are too large for the given directive

19 Jan 2023

      Issue #19245 has been updated by matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto).

I don't think it would be default, but adding `strict:` (or any other keyword argument) is OK for me.

Matz.

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Feature #19245: Strict mode for Array#pack that doesn't silently truncate numbers that are too large for the given directive
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19245#change-101316

* Author: byroot (Jean Boussier)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
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```ruby
...
...
[256].pack("C").unpack1("C")
=> 0
[257].pack("C").unpack1("C")
=> 1

This is specified:

```ruby
  it "encodes the least significant 32 bits of a negative number" do
    [ [[-0x0000_0021], "\xdf\xff\xff\xff"],
      [[-0x0000_4321], "\xdf\xbc\xff\xff"],
      [[-0x0065_4321], "\xdf\xbc\x9a\xff"],
      [[-0x7865_4321], "\xdf\xbc\x9a\x87"]
    ].should be_computed_by(:pack, pack_format())
  end

But not documented in `Array#pack`.

I think that in many case this may lead to silent bugs.

### Possible solutions

We could have a strict version of `pack`, either `pack(template, strict: true)` or `pack!(template)`.

Or alternatively if we think this is never a desired behavior, we could change `pack` to first warn on truncation and later raise.

-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/